Where’s Your Mark?
Have you made a mark yet? Why make a mark? Does your mark mean anything, to anybody, anymore?
Where does your mark persist?
In one such place, a blue window pane remains. Something easily missed by the passerby. But look closely… it offers a story.
The tale of a sunny, new day’s arrival. When every pane of glass was colored as if by creativity itself: orange, red, green, yellow, and blue.
Peering through the windows, the internet rag-tags now had their own office! Granted, a converted warehouse. But all the sizzling dot-coms and web agencies were down there: Rare Medium, Exceed, Broadcast.com, and more.
The area was called Deep Ellum. Home of the trendy and techie. A place for the young and vibrant… for the high-velocity… for the dreamers and driven entrepreneurs. A place where you could transform in a flash from working in the day, to partying at night.
A figure makes her way down the cracked sidewalk next to the windows, with rustling tutu. A vision as bright as the multi-colored windows she passes by: hot pink leggings, a side pony with purple streak, green slouch socks, blue eye shadow, and a familiar yellow lump hitched to her side with yellow wires tangled in hoop earrings: The Walkman.
Into the warehouse she swishes, and coworkers’ eyes widen to see just how far she went “all out”. She arranged this day, after all. 80’s day: a nostalgic throwback, and a bit of fun at the web agency.
The cavernous space filled with smiles and laughs all around. There’s Bone, resident DJ pumping out Duran Duran, with Presto. There’s Sass, a spirited designer decked out in 80’s garb. She always stayed “on the good foot”, perched next to the long-haired programmer who smelled sweetly of Herbal Essences. Next to the phones stood sweet friend Dame, who threw her a wedding shower just weeks earlier at the subleased office. There’s Boss, posed with his familiar smoothie, and distracted by the phones. And lastly, there’s Hacker (reformed and hired to build the web, before his ilk became known as “security professionals”).
Such was the fun of youngsters, driving the early internet all day and most of the night, in that warehouse in the arty district in town.
So, where’s your blue window? Your mark? And what does it stand for? Maybe it’s just reminiscent of a simple day of fun with coworkers… and nothing more. But if we weren’t there, creating, and you there, consuming… would the internet exist exactly as it does today?
As always, I hope you enjoyed this and it brightened your day.
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