California Raisin waves to Hickory St. Passersby

A California Raisin standing on a stump in front of the Charles and Marsha Fox home in the 700 block of North Hickory Street in Du Quoin may be the hippest house number on the planet.

Artist Richard Lively was putting the finishing paint touches on the concrete yard ornament Tuesday.

"We picked it up at a yard sale in Valier several years ago," said Marsha, 75. Husband Charles is 76.

Marsha is also a cancer survivor.

Marsha has a great outlook on life, although she admits life goes by faster every year.

"If we didn't use it (for a house number) I told Charlie I was going to use it for his tombstone," Marsha smiles. The two have been yard sale and flea market treasure hunters for years.

As Rich Lively was putting the house number on the base Tuesday, passersby would honk with their approval.

The claymation California Raisins were the 1980s brainchild of the California Raisin Advisory Board when one of the writers, Seth Werner (at the time with the advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding SF, and now with big) came up with an idea for the new raisin commercial, saying, "We have tried everything but dancing raisins singing 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine.'" The commercial became wildly popular, paving the way for several future commercials-one of which featured Ray Charles and another with a raisin caricature of Michael Jackson.