Home Sweet Home  -  A Series of Dreams compiled 10/11/10

I had this series of about 8 or 9 dreams over a period of 8-10 months sometime around 2007. I remembered each detail from the previous dream each time I arrived in a new dream scene which is why it remains so vivid in my waking mind. Each scene is the beginning of the next dream sequence and all occurrences take place in the dream state.

Scene 1
I arrive in my dream standing in front of what is, and has been for an undetermined number of years, our garage. The garage is under the house on the right side as you face the front of the house. It has a single double wide door. I never go in the house or in the garage.

My first view is of the shrubs on the sides of the driveway. They are not crowded together. In perhaps what might be a 15-20 foot span there are around 4 or 5 small shrubs on either side. I see the yard behind the house. It slopes down gently to a tree line beyond which I later discover a stream. The grass is very green and lush sprinkled with sunlight slightly obscured by the higher terrain, a hill or small mountain, on the other side of the road in front of the house. There are a few trees of varieties I cannot determine scattered about the manicured lawn. I may recall a Japanese maple and some sort of droopy branched weeping type tree. A feature which stands out in my mind is a large circle of very tall grass about 8–10 feet in diameter. It is on the left hand side of our property bordering the closest neighbor's yard. I approach and enter the circle of grass and find a hollow in the center where the grass is very lush, and I think that this would be a great place to sleep.

While I never see the neighbors, I know we are friendly, I know that they are slightly older than us, and I'm pretty sure they have at least one child who is off in college or has just recently graduated. The child does not live with them. I walk diagonally across their yard to the rear border line of the properties and find the stream. As I walk, I am delighted by their landscaping and the large variety of flowers arranged beautifully in colorful beds bordered with stone.

The stream is in a deep ravine of about 14-16 feet deep. At the bottom, the stream itself is not that big. It is about 10-12 feet wide and only knee deep in most spots. Although the season had been dry, the water runs rapidly over small river rocks which glint in the sun filtered through very tall hardwoods high above.  I can tell that even in very wet conditions this section of the stream does not get much deeper.

I am back up at the house walking up a berm from the driveway to the front of the house. I go out to the road. The house is set back from the road by about 25-30 feet. The road is unpaved, hard packed clay which is mildly red colored like terracotta. I think it is odd to not recall that the road never gets muddy. There is a house across the street set back more than 100 feet into the woods. It is up on a hill that continues to rise behind the house. The house can barely be seen, not because leaves block the view but rather that there are so many trees that the small, new growth trunks of the young trees obscure the vision. I do not recall what the neighbors house looks like from the front. I know that the road starts about 1.5-2 miles from the direction of the neighbor but I have not yet discovered what other road it ties into. Somehow I am aware that there are two other houses on the opposite side of the road along this stretch, and I know that there are no others beyond the neighbor's on our side. I only know of one other house on our side of the road heading in the opposite direction. This house can be seen from our property only by moving your head from side to side and catching glimpses of it through the tree dense trunks. I also know that the condition of the road degrades beyond that house, turning into loose ungraded gravel and eventually has some erosion which causes ruts and rivulets.


Scene 2
I am in the driveway in front of the garage again, calling to Detta who is inside. I am asking her if she wants to go down to the stream to see if we can find a swimming hole. I think it is odd that we would not know if there was a deep enough spot further down the stream as we have lived here for a number of years. Detta wanted to cut through the neighbors yard to look at the flower beds.

We are at the stream at the point where I discovered it in my first dream. We are walking along the top of the ravine and decide to descend down to the water. We are in the water, hopping on rocks where the water is a little deeper and would wet our thighs and the bottoms of our shorts. After about 15 minutes, and I'm not sure of the distance we traveled, we came to the largest in a series of small waterfalls at the bottom of which was a pool about 10 feet in diameter and maybe 6 feet deep. The waterfall was only about 5 feet high. I think we were behind the next house down the road where the road was no longer maintained. I commented on how odd I thought it was that the waters depth changed so much in such a short distance. This roused my curiosity as to what other changes we may discover if we continued to follow the stream along its full course. We planned to do that at a later date. We swam and jumped off some rocks, splashed, and enjoyed the warmth of summer.

Scene 3
I arrive in the yard near the circle of tall grass, go inside and lie down for a bit. Its so comfortable. I was on my way next door at the request of the neighbors who were out of town for a week or two . We were getting their mail etc. Some friends of ours were coming for a visit and the neighbor had said that they were welcome to stay in their house. We had the room for them to stay with us but we all thought it would be nice for them to get some alone time together. I never saw our guests faces but seem to remember that they arrived in a Subaru wagon.

I tried the key that the neighbors left but the door would not open. I knew there was an easy way to break into their house but I did not feel comfortable doing so. When our guests came I felt sorry to have to inform them that they could not sleep at the neighbors. I suggested that they might like to sleep in the circle of tall grass and they loved the idea. We thought of setting up a mosquito net but  I cannot recall if we did that as there was some mention that the net would distract from night time star gazing.  The next day the four of us went swimming in the stream.

Scene 4
Detta and I are somewhere along the stream beyond the swimming hole. We had set out early with some sandwiches. We had been walking a couple of hours and it was around noon. The geography has changed dramatically. I don't recall where we had left the forest but now the stream has brought us to a flat plain, reminiscent of the Mississippi Delta. The banks of the stream were low, about  mid thigh and the water was no more than knee deep at its deepest point. The bottom of the stream was clay and mud but it was firm enough that our feet did not ooze into it. As far as we could see on both sides, there were clumps and clumps of light green, browning grass. There was no swamp or marsh. There were some buildings in the distant horizon in front of us. It was later in the afternoon and Detta wanted to turn around and head back home. My curiosity was peaked by some form of construction about halfway to the horizon where the buildings were. She went back home while I continued towards the structure.

The day length seemed to linger longer than I expected as it had been late July or August when our guests had visited but now it seemed like May or June. The creek bed was getting a little mucky so I climbed the bank and stepped through some of the grass clumps beyond which were old railroad tracks. I followed the tracks to the structure I had seen and it was a switching station. The tracks had not been used for a long time. One set followed the stream west towards the horizon where the buildings were and the other headed south further into the delta which I could see as becoming more and more of a swamp.

I was back home describing my discovery to Detta. We discussed visiting the city on the horizon. I had determined that it would be a full days walk to get there. I had no visuals of the setting where we had this conversation but I know it was at home.

Scene 5
Detta was busy tending the gardens Ours as well as the neighbors. I was determined to reach the end of the stream and the city on the horizon. I set out on my own with a quickened pace so as to reach the city before nightfall. While I had it in my mind to enjoy the journey, I had already absorbed most of what there was to see along the way.

Next, I was past the railroad switching station and the sun was still high. A dog had joined me for part of the journey. It seemed like our dog but I was a little confused about whether or not is was. We were pals for a while just the same. I tossed some stick into the water and of course the dog was thrilled to play. After a while he was no longer with me.

The plain ended abruptly at the edge of the city. I had been walking alone all day and now I was entering civilization. I was bombarded with all of the typical sounds. Up to this point the silence was only broken now and again by a cricket, the occasional bird, or the slight breeze rusting through the  miles of grass. The city grew dense very quickly. While I did not know what lay beyond the opposite side of the city's boundary, I sensed that it was the ocean.

The city was an amalgamation of many I had visited. Perhaps each avenue reflected a different city. Overall, I summed it up to remind of of Paterson, NJ where I was born. I reached a major avenue and caught a bus headed south. I rode the bus till the end of the line which was only about 20 minutes. When the bus stopped, I was let off on the outskirts of what seemed like a lonely shore town. Flat stuccoed pastel buildings arranged in a grid of streets, many closed or closing for the season, even though this place did not seem like one that ever experiences winter. I walked against the general flow of minimal pedestrians and soon arrived at a beach which curved around a bay as far as the eye could see. There were one or two high rise hotels at the hook of the curve. Very far off on a peninsula which extended beyond the hotels, I could see palm trees. I lingered a while, saddened by the debris strewn about the now empty beach then caught the bus back north into the city proper. I did not have enough money to get back to the stop where I had originally boarded so I got off sooner and walked the rest of the way. I talked to a couple of people on the street but cannot recall what we talked about. I walked past blocks of large, well maintained 19th century houses.

I was back home sharing the excitement with Detta that we actually lived within a one days walk to the beach!

Scene 6
I am talking to my oldest sister on the phone describing the city I had found and the hotels along the peninsula. She told me that our youngest sister had stayed there with her family and was thinking of getting the whole family together there for a reunion. I explained that we could not afford to get a room there and we might be uncomfortable in such a place as we are more accustomed to pensaos and guest houses. She said mom and dad were coming and that we could share her and her husbands room. There was nothing more to that conversation.

Detta and I were walking past the hotels. After inquiring around for a quiet place to swim, we rented a car or motorbike and set out looking for the areas we were pointed to. The general area we arrived at was a series of coves that reminded me of a combination of places like; south of San Francisco, the mid coast of Maine around Camden, and Costa Brava in Spain. The streets were circular lined with modest pastel colored homes finished in stucco. Spokes ran off the circular streets leading to small isolated portions tucked in to the curves of the cove. We had a wonderful day! I seem to recall being briefly on a sail boat which was surprising as this is not an activity we typically seekr.

Scene 7
Delighted in what I had previously discovered pretty much right in our own back yard, I was determined to venture down the road in the opposite direction which we had always referred to as 'towards town'. Detta and I set off down the road. The geography was very much north eastern. Detta chose a spot to venture off the road and into the woods. There was no trail at first but we soon came to one and continued walking it. It reminded me of hiking in Harriman state park. The leaves were falling and crunched under our feet. We wondered if it was hunting season. As we crested a hill, the vista exposed dry treeless mountaintops like the ones out west. Again the day was growing short so we turned to head back home.

When we hit the road, we wondered why we could not recall its end and the other road with which it intersected. Strange, as this was always the route we took to and from our nearby town – which I have no recollection of ever going to, being in, or seeing. We walked the road further until we were out west again. The road was dry hard clay. We reached the intersection which was marked by a crooked wooden sign naming the roads. I do not remember the names of either road. Just before the intersection there was a Y heading off of our road. It wound around a big dry mountain and we could see that it was a popular destination as it was well traveled. I planned on exploring that area in the future.

Scene 8
We are back down the Harriman trail at the point where cresting the mountain reveals the western mountain vista. Heading in that direction, we walk through tall desert grass and circumnambulate large boulders typical of Nevada, New Mexico, or Arizona. I recognize the place oddly as being in the area of central Maine where many of our friends live. I pick a direction and we cross a high altitude plateau then descend into a small New England town. There is a two story cottage behind a large corner house in the middle of town that is for rent. We rent the house and apparently stay there a while but I cannot recall details of the house itself or how long we stay/live there.

We are walking in the direction where our friends live. We had not visited nor spoken eith them in years. At the edge of town everything is 'out west' again. We walk for a while until we recognize our friend Rich's cabin. The cabin is the same but the location is completely different. He is home and greets us. We visit and he tells us that another friend Bob lives across the mountain which is a terrific but a bit of a difficult hike. We decide to venture forth and are soon in what seems like the Rockies. Boulders jutting up, big fields covered with small wildflowers. Large clumps of grass 10 feet tall. We walk all day and finally descend the mountain to a road which in a very short distance leads us to Bob's place. We see a weather worn collapsed structure and recognize it to be Bob's old house. We wonder what had happened. Soon he appears from behind a berm, greets us with smiles, and leads us to his newer cabin. He explains that he was just off to visit other friends of ours, Dave and Janet, but does not offer to take us along. He says that we could stay there and he'll be back shortly. Or, we could just walk one mile down the road back to Rich's house, whom had sent us the circuitous route over the mountain.

We set out strolling down the road and are back in New England. Bob drives by and says that Dave and Janet were not home. We tell him we are on our way to Rich's and he says he'll catch up with us there a little later. We get to Rich's and notice that his car is not there. We go up to the cabin and Dave and Janet are inside. Dave knows the house we rented in town and knows the owners. He had been thinking of renting the house. We tell him he could take it because we were going back home. He says he can't until the end of the month so we stay there until then.


Scene 9
I am at the Y near where our road intersects with the road to town. I walk up the road and am somehow on a bicycle part of the way. Its a long way around a big mountain. I get to the base on the other side of the mountain and there is a large hard red clay parking lot with a little more than a dozen cars parked there. A line of people are coming from a trail which leads off to the side of the mountain. I can see the mouth of a cave where a group of people are standing. I ask them what everyone is doing here and am told that this is an archaeological dig complete with hieroglyphs and traces of a previously unknown civilization.  The day is ending and the guides are leading all of the people out of the caves. I could go in if I wanted but without a flashlight it would be pointless. I decide to return another day.

I am home, very excited, telling Detta, who is also excited, and we plan to explore it in the days ahead.

--------------------------------------------------------------

END: I have not returned since. I have tried to locate the area but cannot. In reflection, I see that the  continuity starts to scatter somewhere between scenes 7 & 8.

Snow Mower

In 1968/'69 when I was about twelve years old, I got some index cards, drew a little snowman on them and wrote 'To shovel your snow just let me know call 797-1850'. I canvassed houses within a three - four block radius of my house. I left my calling card in the mailboxes and storm doors of houses which I knew were occupied by older people living alone. I also targeted young couples and singles who were out working all day, had money, and did not have time to shovel. I passed by the families who had children because I knew that they could not afford to pay someone to shovel or their kids were old enough to be put to the task themselves. My phone started ringing the first day the snow hit.

All of the houses were pretty much the same. The only difference was that some had double driveways instead of single driveways and the walkways from either the driveway or the sidewalk were different according the individual homeowners design. The width of the lots were all the same except for the cash cow corner lot. I charged $2.50 to shovel the sidewalk and a path to the house ($5.00 for the corner lot), $5.00 for a single driveway, and $7.50 for a double. I averaged about $10 a house. It took me about 2 hours depending on how deep the snow was and how well I coordinated shoveling the driveway with the plow going by. Sometimes I would do everyone's sidewalk and walkway and return after the plow went by to do the driveway. The driveways were always a bear because of the plow. Some old folks didn't use their driveway so I did not have to shovel.

I set out early on my first day stopping at the houses where I had left my card. I wasn't really thinking of it then but I landed 2-3% of the houses I had canvassed which is pretty good for selling door to door. The first day was always the busiest. I had four or five houses on my first day. I shoveled from sun up to sun down with a break for food. I went home for lunch and returned messages from more customers. Some wanted me the following day and some booked me for the next snow storm. Some people gave me tips on top of our agreed wage to ensure that I would return. I came home soaked and exhausted with around forty some dollars. It used to take me weeks to see that kind of money from my paper route. The first season was a big success! By pitching my services for lawn mowing, yard cleaning, and raking, I had lined up a few accounts for the spring and fall.  

I liked lawn mowing better than shoveling. The weather was way better and there was no time constraints on getting it done. I would arrange a mutually agreeable time with my customers and that was that. It only took a little more than an hour to mow the lawn. Some people only wanted their front yard mowed. I would schedule additional work like weeding or edging between my regular appointments.
I charged $10 for the front and back or $5 for the front alone. It brought a higher fee than shoveling but there was overhead operating the mower.  

I had just finished up mowing my own lawn and started pushing the mower down the block when my neighbor Jeff came over and asked where I was going. I told him I was off to Mrs. so and so's house to cut her lawn. He asked how much she was paying and if he could help. I didn't really need the help but he was my best friend so I said sure. He got his mower and we began a great partnership. We ripped through that lawn in a half an hour. The customer wanted to have her sidewalk edged and weeded. Jeff had an edger and we agreed to the terms. I began weeding while Jeff went and got his edger. We left her with a well manicured yard and went home planning our business strategy. Since I had already established contact with the potential customers, I went door to door pitching our expanded services around the neighborhood. We later streamlined the sales operation. One of us would remain finishing up the current job while the other followed up on leads or cold called to other houses trying to line up the next job.

Since we were putiing alot of hours on our parents equipment, we learned how to perform our own repairs. We used to have the guy at the shop do the oil changes, tune ups, and blade sharpening every year. Now we required more frequent maintenance so we thought it only fair to do it ourselves. Not only that but if/when our equipment broke down on the job we had to be able to get up and running as quickly as possible. Everything we learned repairing those small engines paved the way for our future mini bike and car repair ventures.

Jeff's house was the corner lot next to my house. He had a lot of sidewalk to shovel so his dad decided to get a snow blower. What a boon for the coming winter business! We pretty much cornered the market on shovelling. Since there were two of us we could knock the job out in half the time which meant that we could even beat the price of anyone else. Jeff would clear the driveway and I would shovel the sidewalk and walkway. Whomever finished first would go down the block to houses that had not yet been shoveled. We ran circles around the few other kids from the neighborhood who were trying their hand at entrpreneurship. Actually, turns out there weren't that many kids around as ambitious as us. Good thing because if there was we probably would have concocted any scheme or scandal necessary to dissuade them from competing. Ain't that America!

We did this for a couple of years with much success. Jeff and I had more money than any of the other kids around. I'm not sure why we stopped doing it. Maybe most of the old folks who were our best customers moved away. At one point Jeff had suggested that we take our profits and buy a Willy's with a plow. He and I were very much alike. Knowing both of us, I would guess that we got bored and wanted to move on.

Jeff had gotten a job as a gas jockey and mechanics helper at a local gas station. My dad had gotten me a summer job a couple of years in a row working for Genovese Drugs. This was not an end to our partnership. We continued earning extra money by buying, fixing, and selling mini bikes and cars. Those couple of years proved that working for yourself was far more rewarding than working for someone else. The only advantage to working for someone else, depending of course on whom that someone is, is that you know where the next check is coming from even if it is way smaller than you expected.
 

The Paperboy

Bobby was our Paper Boy in the 1960s. He wasn't made out of paper, he delivered the Daily Record newspaper every day. Bobby was not from our neighborhood. I don't remember where he lived. I'm sure it was not that far away. I think he had a very large route or maybe even a couple of routes. The basket on his bike was always very full as was the canvas bag that he slung around his shoulder.

I'm not certain but I seem to recall that Bobby had some kind of disability. We didn't call it that back then. We said he was retarded. It was not politically incorrect or demeaning, or derogatory to refer to him or others who were disabled as retarded. Most everyone liked him. He was a good Paper Boy and performed up to his task. Besides, well into the '70s, I remember having to 'retard' the timing on car engine ignition systems so that they would perform better as they got older or after market performance parts were installed. Not to leave it out but sometimes we would have to 'advance' the timing to achieve optimum results. No one ever complained when it was noticed that they were promoted to the 'advanced' class or were given a boost in their career. Advanced or Retarded meant the same to me. Adjust the distributor cap so that the car would perform at its optimum. Its not that complicated. Its just a word.

Sometimes I followed Bobby around on his route. I don't remember how old I was but I remember learning the delivery ropes from Bobby. The one thing I would never be as good as he was at was keeping the customer satisfied. Bobby was really good at this. He, like everyone else, would make mistakes sometimes but he was a master at comminicating with the customers in a favorable way. It would be hard to tell if the customers let things slide because he was 'retarded' or if he actually shined them on enough to make them happy. After a few years I asked Bobby if I could take over his route when he was ready to move on. He kept telling me 'not yet, but I'll let you know when I'm ready'.

I have no idea how much time went by. Bobby was getting older faster than me. Maybe it was just our age. You know, you grow alot from say 13 to 17 while you don't really grow at a noticeable rate between 8 and 12. One day he said he was ready and introduced me to the guy whom I guess was like the distributor or something. I only remember him as my first 'Boss'. I didn't like him very much. Not because he was my boss but more because he was like some sports team coach wannabe or something. Basically, the guy was a douche. He took this stuff too seriously. Maybe he had to because the majority of kids were fuck ups and couldn't follow directions. I wasn't one of them. I had no problem following directions if they were good directions. He was a douche and his direction seemed ludacrous. Sometimes I thought he told us to do stupid things just to annoy us or make us fuck things up. Then he could yell at us for not following his directions. You encounter people like that throughout life. One of the first things I learned with people that are petty or stupid was to pretend that you followed their direction then go about things however you saw fit. If the end product was good or the customer was satisfied then the idiot would never know you did things your own way. The smart way. Not the way of some ignorant asshole.

Anyway, I wasn't sure if Bobby stopped being a Paper Boy or took on another route or what. I don't remember seeing him around my distributors garage. What would happen went like this; a new kid was given a route that got so big it had to be split into two routes. This was the measure of a good Paper Boy. The more you grew your route the better you were. The only problem there was that if you started with twenty people on your route and grew it to forty, they would split your route and give half to a new kid. That meant you would lose half your customers and thereby half the money you made. Seeing as there are only so many people in a given neighborhood there would eventually be no one left to try and sell to. This is when you would have to leave your neighborhood and sell somewhere else. Of course this would be in some other Paper Boy's neighborhood which was bad for them as they would not be able to grow their route. The company couldn't care less, no territory or route was protected. I think Bobby had two very big routes with over forty customers on each. He either gave up the route in my neighborhood or moved on to something else all together. I can only hope he didn't get drafted to Vietnam.

So, I took over Bobby's route in my neighborhood. I had around thirty customers. By the time I was done I built it to somewhere between forty and forty five. Soon I would be threatened into splitting my route leaving me with only twenty customers. I also didn't want to grow it more because then I would be moving outside of my own neighborhood and that presented all kinds of hassles. First, I was happy with the money I was making. Second, the time invested to grow the route in another area would cut into my schooling as well as play time time and I would not return a profit until I had at least fifteen new customers. Third, I could not just move into any adjacent territory, I would have to sell in the area where the company told me to go. These areas were typically in palces where the existing Paper Boy lacked ambition or the customer base had already been exhausted. All this would result in too much running around. After all, life is for living. There is barely a moment to spare.

I have no idea how long I delivered the Daily Record. I remember that my bike got so unbalanced by the weight of the papers that I fell over a couple of times. The papers spilled everywhere and I scrambled to pick them up before they got blown away or dirty. I had two shoulder bags full of papers because I did not want to have to go all the way back to the distribution garage to fill up. My route was in my own neighborhood and the garage was four neighborhoods away. There was one day of the week where there would be sales inserts which made the papers that much heavier and bulkier. Thats what tipped my bike those couple of times. The company wanted us to show up at the distribution garage a little earlier and stuff the papers with the inserts there where we could be watched by the boss. They did this because some people complained that they were not getting the inserts. After a while we were allowed to take the inserts with us and put them inside the papers as we delivered them. Everything was ok as long as everyone got their inserts and no one complained. I hated dealing with the inserts. They weighed a ton. By the end of my route I had to make two trips on insert day. So, I asked all of my customers if they wanted the inserts and I only put the inserts into the papers of the people who wanted them. I tossed the rest down the drainpipe. Every week during collection I would remind the people that they could get the inserts if they wanted them.

I was good at it. My customers liked me. I was pulling in twelve to fifteen bucks a week depending on how heavy the tips were. Thats where the money was. Keeping the customers happy. The company didn't have a clue when it came to how I managed my route. They only heard complaints from the customers when things went wrong. I never got complaints and if I did my customers spoke directly to me. They were my neighbors and I treated them right and made sure they were happy. The worst customers were the ones who did not want to pay their bill. Thankfully this was a rare occasion. They would complain to the company about some bullshit saying thats why they didn't pay. The company would blame me and I would have to make things right. I had all kinds of ways to deal with these people. I usually delivered their papers in a manner that fell on the very edge of the delivery parameters. For instance, if the paper would have to be within fifteen feet of the front door, I would get it fourteen feet ten inches. They would have to walk to get it. If they had a dog I would make it look like the dog chewed it. I would use all of the proper channels to report their unpaid bill. I would get a new customer to replace the deadbeat. I did all I could to make sure that the assholes would not get over on me. Assholes are typically short sighted idiots and they are easy to fool.

I quickly learned that life was too short to deal with assholes other than on my own terms so I gave up my paper route to the next ambitious kid who came along. I was about twelve or thirteen when my next door neighbor and I started our own business shoveling snow, raking leaves, and mowing lawns. Keep it in the neighborhood. Close to home.