I think I've already told you, probably several times over given my proclivity to repeat myself, that I now possess a certain seniority on life. That means, just in case you somehow missed the concept, that I'm getting old. It also means that a lot of things we now take for granted were Brand Spanking New when I was a kid. Transistor radios? Come and gone; definitely Yesterday's Papers nowadays, but I got my very first one in 1959. Frisbees? Hula Hoops? Yep! Saw 'em both come on the market! FAX? Oh the FAX! Remember your first FAX machine? Voodoo incarnate! Magic markers? You bet--them too! I think I saw and subsequently mis-used my first one in 5th or 6th grade, many years ago.
Now, we could talk about hula hoops, or frisbees, or transistor radios, but the title I put up there says we're talking about magic markers today, so that's what we're going to do.
Remember when you got your first magic marker? Remember how neat it was to write on a piece of paper, or on a cardboard box, or on the side of your dad's new car (don't ask), and how that black line just wouldn't come off? The things really were magic! You could write on pretty much any kind of surface, and the writing would stay put. Wiping it off wasn't an option. How cool was that? I mean, you could indelibly mark your gym clothes, put your name on your bike, or identify your swimming flippers so nobody would steal them at the swimming pool. You could put your name on your lunch bag. Gosh, you could mark just about everything!
Everything. Think about that for a minute, and maybe, just maybe, think about your own life, and those parts of it where you might not have been as socially responsible as you could have been.
My initial Adventure With Markers occurred about ten minutes after I got my first one, when I put black stripes around the soles of my Keds, but that was Small Potatoes compared to some of the things my friends did (I, of course, would never, ever have done anything irresponsible!). For example, did you ever know someone who took a magic marker and put a peace sign someplace they probably shouldn't have, like maybe on an official vehicle of some sort? Did you ever know anyone who wrote something clever, something witty, something for the ages, something profound (like maybe "Hendrix is God") on their home room door just before first period? Did you ever witness someone write something thoroughly derogatory on a piece of paper and affix it to someone else's back in the process of giving him/her a friendly pat? (Did you ever wonder why anybody would tolerate being given a Friendly Pat On The Back, especially when the Patter had a big old pie eating grin on their face while they were doing it?) I bet you did. I'll bet, and I'm not even going to let you refute it, that you, yes you, did some variation of every one of those things with a magic marker and I'll bet, although it's one of those Sure Thing Bets that I couldn't possibly lose, that you did worse than that and you aren't going to tell anybody about it. I'm right, aren't I?
Then there were siblings. Little brothers and baby sisters could be a pain in the neck under the very best of circumstances, but they could also be an Opportunity for Creativity. After all, even though your Brand New Baby Brother was born without any hair, he didn't have to stay that way, did he? A mustache could be just the fashion accessory for a two-year-old. And we couldn't forget Little Sister, now could we? How about a fake black eye courtesy of Mr. Magic Marker, or maybe a classic "Kilroy Was Here" across the forehead? And how about when you got a little older and your best friend in college made the mistake of going to sleep (or passing out, depending on your circle of friends) in your presence? The opportunities for creativity in that particular circumstance could be unlimited, just unlimited!
Of course, every single thing I've just mentioned would get the perpetrator (you!) into untold trouble, grief, and misery if (or more likely when---it's tough to deny that's your name on the side of Dad's new Buick) you got caught. Spankings (I grew up in an era when parents could spank a miscreant without being reported to the United Nations for so doing), groundings, fiduciary penalties; all were possible results of innate creativity. Yikes!
Nowadays there's an easier way, and you won't (well, maybe you won't---you know your penchant for getting yourself into the occasional spot of difficulty!) get in trouble for doing it! Jenny sells fabric markers, and they're meant for writing on clothes. (Well, ok; they're meant for doing artistic things on fabric, but clothes are fabric, right?) Remember how much trouble you got in for decorating your brand new tee shirt with that magic marker when you were a kid? Nowadays it's ok to do it, if you do it the right way, the Right Way being fabric markers. They come in all sorts of colors that you (and me, and all of the Bad Actor friends of our misspent youth) could only dream about Way Back Then (and Jacquard, who make the Tee Juice markers, even sponser weekly and quarterly prizes where you can win money, yep; I said MONEY, for doing the stuff we used to get in trouble in those faraway times). The effects you can get with them are remarkable indeed. The Misdemeanors of Youth have morphed into, dare we say it; Fine Art! Art!!! YES!!!
Fabric markers. You can design and draw on textiles. You can turn your plain white tee shirt into a veritable work of art. You can make the most mundane piece of fabric into something everybody can enjoy. And, I suspect, you can still draw on people. Nothing changes!
hasta bye bye,
phil
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