Dreams
Poverty Row: A Dream About the Future...
by brad
(June 1994)
Often times when I dream I am just an observer, but last night I had this dream were I viewed everything from first person...
I was walking through the streets of downtown Tacoma. The streets were empty except for a few people, and a couple of vendors. As I wandered down this wide street I noticed that many of the large stores on both sides of the street were closed -- out of business. The only stores that were open were the small boutiques, and even they appeared to be struggling.
I entered one of these boutiques; an antique store. There were few shoppers inside and those few didn' t appear in a big hurry to buy anything. I saw a couple items that I really liked, one was a large patio umbrella. The sales person, noticing my interest, came up to me and inquired about it.
"Would you like to buy this?" He asked.
"I don't know." I replied, "How much do you want for it?"
"Just a dollar and some change," he said, "How can you pass up a bargain like this?"
I thought for a moment. For some reason a dollar and change didn't sound right to me.
"Are you sure it's that cheap?" I asked.
"Just a moment. I' ll ask the other sales girl."
He turned to a young woman walking by and inquired about the price of the umbrella. " 1.2 million." She replied in a matter of fact voice.
The man turned to me and smiled. "I told you." he said, "Quite affordable."
I laughed and walked away.
I exited the shop through the back door and emerged on a different street. It was then that I noticed that there was no vehicle traffic. All the people that were out were on foot; walking -- even on I-5. For some reason I began looking for a way to get to I-5. I wanted to go home.
During my search, I happened upon a McDonald's. Business was booming. I entered through a side door and headed toward the counter. As I passed the dining patrons, I noticed that they were all dressed raggedly and eating from cafeteria trays filled with mashed potatoes and gravy. They all shifted their eyes up from their trays when I walked by and stared at me -- carefully guarding their trays like a dog guards its bowl of dog food so that the other dogs can' t eat it. As soon as I passed by they resumed eating.
When I got to the counter I stopped to look at the menu -- there was quite a line-up. I noticed they had much the same menu as any other time I had visited except for one thing, an item at the bottom of the menu called 'Mass Meal' and it sold for $1. I took another look around the dining room and noticed that everyone that was eating had the same tray of food in front of them instead of the usual McDonald's fare. I figured that this tray of food must be the 'Mass Meal.' I decided to pass on lunch and left McDonald's to resume my search for I-5.
As I exited the building I noticed a sign post that pointed the way to I-5 southbound. I thought to myself, "Finally, I can go home." I started out in the direction this sign was pointing and awoke.
What do you dream about? Tell me...