Marquees and signs across the country have been filled with inspiring messages. Sentiments of “we will be back!” line commercial streets; teddy bears and rainbows fill the windows of homes. The Piedmont Theatre in Oakland lies in the middle of what is usually a bustling street of retail, services, and restaurants. Most businesses are locked up these days, with signs ranging from professionally printed statements to a closure notice scribbled on the back of an envelope.
The movie theater chose to go a different route, stripping its marquee of all text. Somehow this strikes me as much more dire. I’m a small-business owner, and it mirrors my own mindset right now: a complete lack of emotional energy to even put on a brave face. For some personal context, my grandmother’s former retirement home is directly across the street from this marquee. I’ve thought about her often during these times—how she’d be living in a place of fear, how none of her family would be able to stop by. Maybe she dodged a bullet. As did my other grandmother, who passed away 15 years ago while living at the Kirkland, Washington nursing home where the U.S.’s first deaths occurred.
I guess I’m saying that there is a lot behind anyone’s interpretation of a sign (or lack of sign), and I’m trying to keep that in mind these days.
Words + PhotoClara Rice