Train Time Warp/Circles/Shopping/Collection

Saturday night

Dream 1: Train Time Warp

I was traveling with my brother Jimmie and an older woman with black hair. She was short; we're talking Toulouse-Lautrec stature. We were walking through a dark train station which seemed to double as some sort of a historical museum. At one point Jimmie broke off to the left and walked into a tunnel. Nonplussed, I said, "I'll see you in South America," meaning that I'd rendezvous with him there. A few minutes later I'd walked out ahead of the small woman, and I heard her scream my name. I turned around to see her grabbed by guards; a wall was closing them off. She called out, "I've been arrested by the United States in 1914!" and then she was gone.

Dream 2: Circles

My wife and I were walking around in a large scientific lab with another guy, who I presume was her boss -- I had never met him. I was tasked with discovering the difference between a circle and a sphere. I thought, "Maybe one is 2-D and one is 3-D; or maybe one of them isn't exactly round, but might have some corners if you look closely."

Dream 3: Shopping

My old high school friend, Jeff V., and I were excited about going to a large record store in an old, early 20th-century building. We'd never been there before. The stock was huge, but still somewhat disappointing. I didn't find any of the imports or new wave records that really set a cool record store apart from the ordinary, run-of-the-mill variety. We had meandered through the store to the exit on the other side when we came across some organs and pianos. I said, "So, this is where all the instruments are." I asked Jeff if he found what he wanted; he said no. The place wasn't all it was cracked up to be, so we left, looking for something to eat.

Dream 4: Collection

Shannon F., one of the managers at my current job, was visiting me at my parents' house. We were sitting on the floor of the basement playroom. I said, "Do you like 80s music?" She said that she did, so I said, "Well, have a look at this." I took a key from my pocket and unlocked a wooden cabinet along the wall. I opened the door to reveal many neat horizontal stacks of 45 r.p.m. singles, most with interesting paper or cardboard covers, stored immaculately in clear sleeves. She said, "Do you have the software to play these?" I said, "I have a record player."

We took a few stacks out of the cabinet, laid them on the floor, and began looking through them. Many of the 45s were from the 80s. There were a few singles by The Go-Go's, solo singles from Belinda Carlisle, and a nifty British picture disc single by The Cars, from 1979. Then Shannon picked up a 45 that stopped her in her tracks. She squinched her face and said, "John Travolta?!"

*****

Dream 1: Train Time Warp

The spooky train station in this dream is eerily similar to the one in a dream I titled "Panic" (8/19/07). In fact, this may be a recurring dream. Interestingly enough, I was walking ahead of someone else in that dream, too, who also disappeared. Strange.

I think the older woman in this dream may have been actress Linda Hunt in her role as Billy Kwan in "The Year of Living Dangerously," from 1982. Her comments about being arrested "in 1914" are pretty bizarre, even for one of my dreams. I don't know what that's about, but I may have been thinking about recent reports I've seen on public television about the U.S.'s policy of "extraordinary rendition." The American guards were definitely thugs in this dream.

Dream 3: Shopping

The local F.Y.E. store here in Nashville, formerly Tower Records, is located in a large 1920s building with a nice gray facade. I think it was originally a utility building, maybe an electric company. Jeff V. was a very close friend in high school. We visited many record shops in our day. Denise is his sister (see the dream "D.," 7/6/07).

Dream 4: Collection

We had one of those large all-hands meetings at work the other day, and someone was loosening up the group by asking musical trivia questions. I won a giant candy bar for being the only one who knew Paul McCartney's first name (James). Later, I was standing near Shannon when someone said, "I wished they'd asked more questions about the 1980s."

I did keep my beloved collection of picture sleeve singles in a wooden cabinet, but it had no doors, and wasn't locked. It's strange that the singles were stacked horizontally in the dream; I would never have done that; the records would have warped. My singles were stacked neatly in vertical rows, gently leaning against each other. I did own the Go-Go's and Cars singles in the dream, but while I bought one or two Belinda Carlisle 45s, the ones in the dream were made up. And no, I never bought a single by John Travota.

I got rid of my 45s when I finally made the jump from vinyl to CD. Some days I wish I still had them, but I wasn't playing them anymore, and it became sort of a storage problem, just like my photo albums (and everything else). I did love collecting them, though, and love them still.