The Pool / It's Just a Haircut

Monday night, 7/14/08

Dream 1: The Pool

My employer had embarked on a new money-making venture, assuming co-ownership of an amusement park and encouraging trade groups to spend time and money there. They had placed one of their managers, Shannon F., in charge. My wife and I went to check it out one day. I saw a large swimming pool, deep on the side to our far left, shallow to our right. We stood on the edge, next to a sliding board that deposited revelers directly into the water. A row of booths stood across from us on the other side of the pool, where vendors sold trinkets, T-shirts and food, and many more rides were back behind us. Some of my coworkers and some old friends of mine were milling about. I saw Shannon walk past me and say to someone, "We've had about 50 groups in already." My wife and I proceeded toward the shallow part of the pool, and got in at the far right edge, enough to get our feet wet. We, and a few other adults, were wearing plastic shoes -- the type that they sometimes sell at your fancy-shmancy upscale groceries. Anyway, as we walked over, I noticed that a familiar song was being piped through the sound system. It was a tune by ABBA, but it was a contemporary cover by a young country singer. When we got into the shallow water, our friend (and real estate agent) Kelly K. was standing to our right. She was wearing a light brown T-shirt with the "shadow" of an oval sticker on the top right. It appeared that she might have worn a name tag there long ago. I glanced around and noticed Jennifer A., a coworker who had actually just left my employer. I began to think to myself, "I wonder how many of these people I'll never see again?" when my wife broke the silence. She turned to me and said, "You can go look for any Hot Wheels you don't have, but there's NO WAY..." (meaning that if I happened to find late 60s or early 70s originals, if they were selling for outrageous prices, that expenditure would not be covered in, or sanctioned from, our family budget).

Dream 2: It's Just a Haircut

Johnny Cash was dead, but his wife, June, still owned their property, and had developed much of it into a theme park. There was a large central lake for swimming and boat rides, as well as a picnic area and all sorts of trains, large and small. I noticed that she had sold some land off to our left, behind the lake, where a tract of townhouses had been erected recently.

I was visiting the park with my brother Andrew, my friend Steve S., and Steve's son, Nicky. Nick was about 10 years old, and he was a free spirit. He had a pretty wild head of brown hair, and he had actually started sprouting the wisps of a beard. he needed a haircut. It would be my job to chase him down and hold him, while my brother did the deed. I saw Drew checking his scissors in the sunlight, no doubt making sure that they were sharp and ready.

Soon the chase was on, but before long I could tell that Nick didn't think it was fun, or funny. He was very upset; not angry, but distraught, and he wanted to talk about it. His dad wasn't around, but I sat down facing him, and listened to his story. Andrew sat at my right. At one point someone behind us started playing some familiar Beach Boys recordings, and Drew was distracted. He turned around and said, "Yeah -- that's good!" I motioned for him to pay attention, but soon we were interrupted again, when we had to move to make way for a caravan of miniature cars that was passing through. One of them was being driven by a cat.

Nicky explained that he didn't want a haircut because he already had a tough enough time fitting in with the kids at school. Some of his friends drank alcohol, and it made him uncomfortable, so he was already estranged because of that. A haircut would only make matters worse.

*****

Dream 2: It's Just a Haircut

I last saw Nick when he was probably about 6. I'm not sure how old he is now. I like him a lot, but know next to nothing about him these days. I have corresponded with his dad, Steve, a little in the past week, so that's undoubtedly why Steve and Nick showed up here. Johnny & June Cash used to own a large house on a lake in Hendersonville, TN, but never developed it into a park. In fact, June died shortly before Johnny did; about 5 years ago now.

By the way, I'm the one who needs the haircut.