Blue_Opossum

Morning of April 10, 2015. Friday.



This was a very long meandering dream without much plot continuity, though somewhat fun all in all. Though it is not lucid, I am still aware of making most of it via some sort of background focus, which is probably why it goes a bit “haywire” as dreams tend to do when my own thoughts shift, sometimes with transient expectancy of the dream itself. Since childhood, a certain kind of dream I have several times a year relates to an older time period being altered by anachronistic features (typically caused by my thoughts shifting or becoming more aware while making a dream), though this one changes in somewhat of a humorous unexpected way regarding my in-dream role and character.

It starts out with some sort of experiment in an unknown indoor location. A portal is opened after several other insignificant events and conversations occur. I have a desire to go through this portal, which is like a glimmering two-dimensional doorway or wavering plane that is just a bit taller than I am. Someone in unusual plaid pants goes through before me, but after a short time, he is seen to be going into a television that is barely big enough for his waist to clear (probably influenced by a similar movie scene relating to being “stuck”, in “Skinny and Fatty” from 1958 and “Housebound” from 2014), though he manages to go through into the implied alternate world or time. After this, my dream shifts to a western setting, similar to the set of “Gunsmoke”, and it is seemingly the 1800s, possibly the 1880s, because I believe it is mentioned at least once.

There does not seem to be any drama other than a horse having a problem with his front right foot. He goes and rests in the corner of a barn and there is something about being fed a special food to accelerate healing though this scenario becomes odd as he eventually seems to have human-like toes, which will make it difficult to put on a horseshoe.

I fly around in several different positions (including sideways) about ten feet from the ground for some time, including in and out of a hayloft from the outside. At one point, I seem to be in an old saloon (with batwing doors) and I notice my wife, though we apparently have not met yet. I embrace her and think about getting married at some future point (even though I already am in reality). She seems to have, as becoming Miss Universe, been getting ready to be in a remake of “Valley of the Dolls, though as some attempt at a "video noir” television broadcast (which also seems related to the minimal western sets) though I know little about video production as such. I am mostly in a very cheerful mood, though.

As I walk into a different area, I notice my father sitting on a couch with several other people around in a semi-dark room. He is playing an accordion and I feel a strong sense of nostalgia. He seems to recognize me though is younger and has not had me as a son yet. We talk for a fair amount of time, but his voice sounds completely different as well as altered by some sort of electronic device. His entire eyes also glow a bright reflective silver at one point, shining in the otherwise semi-dark room. (For some reason, I do not find this unusual or off-putting even though it is a bit eerie.) I tell him that I am his son, or rather “will be” his son in the future. There are at least seven or eight longer exchanges, but I do not recall all of it.

I notice a man who may be a doctor who is sitting at an antique desk. I ask him what year it is to confirm the old west scenes from earlier in my dream. He says, very slowly (almost as if a part of me is deciding what to make him say) 19… (and at this point I am surprised, as it is not 18…) …78. It is 1978, supposedly. He continues by saying that it is July 24, 1978. (I am not sure of the significance of this in context to my dream, though this was shortly after I moved back to Wisconsin.) I think about the people I had met earlier and wonder why this “old western town” exists during this time period (and for some reason I do not reflect upon it as possibly being a movie set), so I go outside to explore again. It seems to be around afternoon and everything is bright, clear, and realistically detailed.

In probably the most vivid scene, I end up going down a long dusty road (through an otherwise featureless field of grass about a foot high) that is covered with old broken pieces of concrete as the surface (something I have never seen in real life). Some of the pieces are as big as my fist. I notice a few modern buildings in the far distance. I eventually decide to walk back after walking perhaps the distance of four city blocks. I see a car moving in the distance on a different (proper) road. I clearly think to myself how this road would not be suitable for cars (due to how very bumpy it would be as well as having sharp bits of concrete causing problems for the tires) even though it is likely used (or maybe will be used) as such at times. From here, I return to the isolated town with the intent to explore some more.

Memory is a mysterious thing. Relative to the date mentioned in my dream (July 24th, 1978) the 1978 Miss Universe pageant was broadcast live on the in-dream referenced date. “Valley of the Dolls” was also aired. There was also an article in the newspaper we got for that date titled “Those ‘Perry Mason’ Reruns Keep Video Noir Genre Alive”. Additionally, I have a dream journal entry titled “Valley of the Dull” (from April 9, 1978 - my wedding anniversary, though long before I was married on April 9, 1994) where I had written about falling asleep while watching it, the audio and half-awake partly discerned visuals at times integrating with my dream. Memory is a very unusual, though vast precise “storehouse” at times.

Morning of July 2, 1978. Sunday.



There were a few different versions of this dream (including a couple “resets” during the same sleeping period) which was likely influenced by the television series “Gunsmoke”. I make my way to an old, smaller (unknown) ghost town on my own. There is a skeleton hanging from an old noose that had never been taken down. I had understood the town to be “cursed”, yet it also has some sort of secret.

It turns out that the town is some sort of portal to the past. As I am walking along, I see an upright oval portal (higher up) in another area that is looking into the past. It is a man (about thirty) who still seems to be alive (but dying) and hanging from the noose. The “vision” soon fades. The town had been “cursed” because of his wrongful death - by the tavern entrance being turned into an active portal and the people being “pawns” of time itself.

Later on, when I walk through the batwing doors of an old tavern (wooden floor), I am transported into the past, into the time when the town was at its peak in population and prosperity. Someone is playing the song “There is a Tavern in the Town” on a newer (and properly tuned) piano.

I talk to a few people, including the man who had been hanged. Apparently, he had been hanged for murder. However, he seems very friendly and claims he did not do it. Eventually, a knife is thrown into someone’s neck from behind, just as they are leaving the tavern, and the friendly man I know is blamed. I go in and out of the batwing doors and back to the same time portal entry point. The song “There is a Tavern in the Town” keeps repeating (a thin man in a dark purplish vest and a white shirt and with a mustache and smoking a smaller cigar - is playing it), as I do this a few times, so the scenes repeat. Finally, I am able to see who actually throws the knife (an older, chubbier man of about forty with a black beard and dressed in ragged clothes). Eventually, as the cycle repeats, I am able to warn the other person. The villain gets away, though, but promises to do harm at some point in the future.

Soon, I am in my own time; there is an unserviced player piano (originally thought to be a ghost involved by some visitors) playing “There is a Tavern in the Town”, but it is very out of tune (or in an unfamiliar minor key) and playing very slowly (similar to a particular Johnny Bond recording I used to own in real life - not sure, but it may be from the “On the Wagon” narrative - have not heard it in many years). It seems that the town was eventually made into a tourist attraction for a short time, prior to it finally being abandoned.

I see a very eerie in-dream vision of an empty noose swinging in the wind (it was the same noose that had originally been used to hang the innocent man but is now empty). I had saved the young man from the hanging. He comes out from the portal and thanks me, but then tells me that time may eventually reset itself and he may have to face the idea of “being hanged again” and he then returns to his own time. Still, the skeleton and noose are gone when I make my way home. The “resetting” may not occur in my lifetime.