Stopping Traffic/On the Town/House Party

Saturday was a rare three-dream night, maybe because I got in bed to read instead of sitting in front of the computer for hours.

Dream 1: Stopping Traffic

I was driving a long tractor trailer when I noticed that the driver in the car behind me was upset about something I'd done, and was trying to flag me down. I guess I cut him off, or maybe I had been the cause of a fender-bender or something. I stopped the huge rig in the middle of the street, and got out to talk with him. He parked his car behind the truck, and approached me, too. When I found that he was upset, I told him that I had a lawn mower in the back. I thought that by offering it to him, I could appease him and get on my way. He took one look at it and said, "Are you sure that it works?"

Dream 2: On the Town

My wife and I were vacationing in New York, and I had left our hotel to pick up some movie tickets for later that evening. It was nighttime, and the city was lit up like a Christmas tree. I loved it. It was fantastic and exciting, but a little scary, too. As I waited in line, a car filled with young people drove by and the kids shouted something at me. I didn't know if they were just having fun or if they meant me harm, so I hid behind some other people in the line until they passed. Just then, my old boss, Maurice, walked up. We were both surprised; neither of us knew the other was in Manhattan. We greeted each other warmly. (He was wearing a light brown sportcoat over a dark green sweater.) It turned out that he and his wife were also going to the movies later, and he was there to pick up their tickets. I asked what they were going to see. He said, "The documentary about Brian Wilson (of The Beach Boys)." I said, "Oh, it's great! We saw it at noon. It's all about his music, and doesn't focus on drugs and stuff like that."

Dream 3: House Party

My brother Andrew and I were back at our folks' old house in Arlington, and a bunch of friends were coming over. Actually, most of these people were unfamiliar to me, except for a few whom I'd known practically all my life. The rest were work friends of Drew's, and he seemed to be the "master of ceremonies." I didn't really mind. I walked in and sat down in the "family room." Our friend "Brud" was lying on the floor, reading an old newspaper that I had saved for some reason. It featured a prominent article about a "Banana Splits" theme park in Maryland. I thought he might be upset that I hadn't told him about it before. I said, "We would have called you if we were really going to go there, but it never got past the planning stage." His sister Becky was also in the room, and she was incredulous at the thought of such a wonderful place. She said, "The Banana Splits?!"

Drew was back in the kitchen, taking calls on the wall phone, telling people to come on over, and giving directions. Most of his work people were congregating downstairs, below the family room, in "the basement playroom." One of the guests had brought some breadsticks. I tried one, but it was mushy instead of crunchy, so I took what was left of it and jabbed it into the top of the wastebasket.

*****

Dream 1

The guy in the car behind the truck was Ray B., an old friend from high school, but I'm not sure that that's who he was playing in the dream. There was no indication that we knew each other. Ray and I had a falling out, and I haven't spoken to him in 20 years. He still shows up in my dreams from time to time. We met in Driver's Ed class back in '79, and I was intrigued. He was a black kid who loved soul music, new wave, Springsteen, and thin red leather ties -- and I loved those things, too. Somewhere I have a photo album containing a picture of the two of us mimicking the "Born to Run" album cover.

We did have a lawn mower that crapped out last year. I took it to the repair shop twice, but it was still really tempermental, and I could frequently be heard screaming obscenities at it in the backyard. Finally, I'd had enough, and the question arose: Just how does one get rid of a non-working lawn mower?" The answer? Leave it in the alley outside your back gate. Sure enough, two days later, it was gone. We bought a great lawn mower from someone at my wife's office who was moving out of the state. It's red, just like the previous one. So, now I'm wondering if I was giving Ray the good mower or sticking him with the bad one.

Huge tractor trailers are frequently pulled up outside of the building where I work. Sometimes I have to make a wide circle around one of them to get to the entrance.

Dream 2

My wife and I went with a friend to see the latest "Harry Potter" movie last night, and I did pick up tickets in advance. We spent some time in New York on our honeymoon, and I've been there two or three other times. The feelings in the dream are genuine; the city is exciting and filled with really cool things to see and do, but I suppose that it's also a little intimidating and daunting. Still, I can't wait to go back.

My recent dreams about the beach, Paris, and now New York betray that I'm dying to get out of Nashville and visit another place. Job upheavals during the past two years have really screwed with our vacation plans.

I enjoyed working for Maurice; he was my boss from about 1998 through 2001. He and his wife are still here in Nashville. Yesterday I was thinking that I should call him.

And I like the music of The Beach Boys, particularly the songs written by Brian Wilson. A biographical film about him or about the band was shown on TV a few years back, but I never got around to seeing it.

Dream 3

Our parents were pretty cool about letting us have large numbers of friends over from time to time, particularly on our birthdays. This dream represents other "group" parties that happened every so often during our high school years. We used to have a Ping-Pong table downstairs, and folks would sit under it and listen to records. At one point we even had some kind of an oscillating light down there, in a wooden box. You could change the mood by inserting different colored plastic sheets in front of it. It was pretty groovy.

I probably dreamed about Brud because I was explaining his nickname to someone the other day. His real name is Jim, but when he was born, his sister, Becky, mispronounced "brother"; instead, it came out "brudder," so he's been "Brud" ever since. He lives in Ohio now. Andrew and I met him in elementary school about 40 years ago. Becky is a little older than we are, and back in the '70s she had long, straight brown hair, so, of course, she was the focus of several schoolboy crushes -- not that we ever told her about it.

The Banana Splits was a TV show from the late '60s that served as a lead-in for various cartoons and live-action serials, such as "The Arabian Knights," "Gulliver's Travels" and "Danger Island." It was all very strange, and, if I remember correctly, the B.S. gang amounted to grown-ups in animal suits running around and acting stupid. The characters were Fleagle (a beagle), Bingo (a gorilla), Drooper (a lion) and Snork (an elephant). I looked them up on Wikipedia and the article stated that they were based loosely on the Beatles and the Monkees, and that the show only ran for 31 episodes from 1968 through 1970. It must have been syndicated later than that. The show was sponsored by Kellog's. We frequently ate Kellog's cerals at our house, and I think that we had a Banana Splits 45 at one point, which might have come off of the back of a cereal box. They did that back in those days. We had a few of those by The Monkees, too.

It's fascinating to me to see what long-buried stuff will show up in my dreams, for no apparent reason. This is a good case in point. As far as I know, there never was a Banana Splits theme park, in Maryland, or anywhere else.

I like breadsticks, but prefer long pretzels. Drew and I always bring them to our yearly poker tournament. Gotta have the pretzel "cee-gars."

****New Info.**** Well, I'll be danged. I got on youtube and searched on "Banana Splits," and watched the opening to the show for the first time in well over 30 years. The characters are shown running around in an amusement park; riding in cars, falling down on the slides, splashing on the log floom ride, etc. So that's where the amusement park idea came from. Lord knows what other long-forgotten stuff lies dormant in my brain.