The car idles as my stepson and I wait in line at the Walgreen’s drive-through. A fancy SUV waits in line ahead of us.
“Look, it’s the Wal*Mart dude!” he says.
“Who?” I ask.
“You know, the Wal*Mart dude. That yellow smiley face guy. On that car’s antenna.”
I look up and see a faded yellow antenna ball smiling down at me, a 70s cultural icon, rendered in three dimensions and impaled on the antenna of a $70,000 gas guzzler. In my stepson’s generation, the smiley face has been co-opted by the world’s largest retailer.
Have a nice day, indeed.