Greetings From Moorpark : Man Dispenses Friendly Waves to Passersby From His Spot on Downtown Corner

It used to be that just about everybody who drove through Moorpark got a tip of the hat or a wave from Chris Sepulveda.

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About eight years ago the former infantry soldier and retired postal worker appointed himself the unofficial greeter of downtown Moorpark. Standing on the corner of Spring Road and 2nd Street during the morning and afternoon rush hours, he’d give a friendly nod to the passersby--sometimes as many as 500 in a single hour.

Those were the go-go years before California 118 was diverted away from downtown and an interchange was built on the east side of town. Traffic isn’t what it used to be, and neither is Sepulveda, who’s now 67 years old.

“No, you don’t see too many cars come by anymore,” he said, tapping the artificial leg he got about a year ago after he lost his own to diabetes. “I guess I’m out here more for myself now.”

Some people wonder about Sepulveda, who has lived in Moorpark since 1935. He knows they wonder what his gimmick is, or if he’s crazy. But there is no gimmick. He just likes waving to people, and he likes it when they wave back.

About eight years ago, just after his wife died, he got bored and fed up with sitting on the couch at home and watching TV. He’d much rather sit on the chair he has locked to a fence post on the street corner and watch the world drive by.

“People tell me that I make their day, and I tell them that when they wave back, they make my day,” he said.

For some people, his little act of kindness is something to look forward to.

“He’s wonderful,” Anne Briggs said from behind the wheel of her Volvo station wagon, stopped at the corner. Her three young children all nodded in agreement, while they waved to Sepulveda. “He’s there almost every morning and every night. We really miss him when he’s not around.”

In 1992, worsening diabetes sent him to a veterans hospital. Doctors had to amputate his right leg below the knee. He said he’d finally lost the foot he almost lost to frostbite in World War II while fighting with Gen. George S. Patton’s division in Belgium.

“I just lost my toes then. This time they got my whole foot and some of the leg too,” he said.

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It was almost a year and a half before he was able to walk to the street corner again and dispense his daily greetings. His new spot is much closer. He sits at the corner of Roberts Avenue and Spring Road, which is half a block from the house he shares with one of his middle-aged daughters.

Two lifelong friends bought him a folding chair to sit on. It’s permanently padlocked to a post next to a stop sign at the corner.

When he went into the hospital, people missed him, Briggs said. She never knew Sepulveda’s name, but waved to him anyway. She said many townsfolk worried during his long absence that Sepulveda might never come back. They worried that maybe he had died or suffered a stroke.

“Well, I didn’t want to come out here with my wheelchair, it didn’t look so good, you know,” he said. “My gosh, they seemed to really miss me when I was gone though.”

About six months ago, he toddled to his corner on a temporary prosthetic leg.

“It’s not too good, see,” he said showing how the leg is a little too short and makes him unsteady on his feet. “The doctor said he was almost finished making another. I told him not to rush it, and just make sure it’s good enough for me to dance on. I like dancing.”

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People still worry about him. They come by and give him sodas or ice cream when the temperature climbs close to 100. Once he fell asleep, and a worried driver stopped to make sure he was OK.

“She wouldn’t leave until she knew for sure that I was all right,” he said. “She wanted to call an ambulance, but I was just a little sleepy.”

He says now he’s back, doing what he does best. He has it down to a science--a gentle wave with a cupped hand, a slightly tilted head and open-mouth smile. He even throws in a wink now and again.

“I know him,” he says waving to an elderly man riding in the passenger seat of a blue Continental. “Poor man. He’s crippled. He doesn’t get out much. I told his wife when I get my new leg, I’d take him out and push him around in his wheelchair. I know how that is, sitting around the house. It can drive you crazy.”