I had a reoccurring dream for many years starting when I was around five or six years old and continuing on until the last time when I was around seventeen. The dream was centered on a big bomber airplane flown by my Dad and Santa Claus. The plane would fly over cities and release a bomb that exploded into some type of foam substance which would fill the streets and inside buildings suffocating those in it's path. I'm pretty sure they only dropped it on bad people. As I think about it now the foam was similar to the foam in a can that you apply to cracks and crevices in the walls of your house to help insulate against the elements.

My dad was a crew chief on a B-36 and a B-52 in the mid fifties. He flew SAC (Strategic Air Command... yeah just like the movie.) They carried A-Bombs and H-Bombs to the Russian Border in the area of Alaska... hey it was the cold war.

I'm afraid of what a dream interpreter would make of that.....

My maternal grandmother traveled a lot by bus and mom, dad and me and Phillip went to the Oklahoma City Bus Station to pick her up on late evening. This would have been in the early to mid 60's. I remember going to the men's room and saw that it cost a dime to get into the toilet. I went back out to get a dime and we had to go to the ticket guy to get change because all we had was a quarter. I went back in to the bathroom and I stuck the dime in my pocket for the gift shop and slid under the door.

I have the most vivid memory of being in the diner or cafeteria or what ever it was and sitting at a black topped table with shiny chrome around the edge. I looked across the room and in walked a very tall man wearing a top hat and tattered suit. In one hand he was holding a large sign that said "The End Is Near" in large hand printed letters. He was using his other hand to push a wheel chair that held a quadruple amputee woman dressed in a pink ball gown that was dirty and had torn lace.

They sat across from us after they got their tray of food which was a cup of coffee and a slice of pie. I could tell by their clothing and the fact that they were both drinking from the same coffee cup that they didn't have much money. We were not rich or well off in the slightest and for me to notice that they were poor meant that they must really be poor. When I stole a look in their direction as children will I watched as the woman in the gown bent forward and began eating what appeared to be cherry pie directly out of the plate, like in a hands behind the back pie eating contest. She suddenly looked up and directly at me with red goo dripping from her nose, lips and chin and smiled. Not really an evil smile just a "I know your watching but it's ok, kind of smile." As young as I was I realized something right then. They knew exactly what people thought of them and it was ok. It didn't change how they felt about themselves and each other. They were at peace with what and who they were in that moment of time.

I thought about going over and giving her my recently acquired dime in case she needed to go the ladies room because I didn't think there was any way she could slide under. At the last minute I decided on a pack of Wrigley's Spearmint gum from the gift shop. Grandma liked Wrigley's Spearmint.

I swear the story above is without question true. I wrote it and then I searched the web for a period proper gum ad with which to embellish this story. I stole this image but I just could not pass it up.

I hope that lady had a dime.