howeird | Weird Dream Channel (Reply)

Something I said in a conversation prompted me to write an LJ entry about my "typewriter days" in journalism. After a momentary flash where it occurs to me that I never used a typewriter after college (all my pro newspapers had VDTs (video display terminals)) I am holding a couple of typewritten pages which somehow also have color photos on them, and I'm at some sort of outdoor gathering. I am standing, holding these pages, well off to the left of a large crowd (200 or so) seated in folding chairs on the lawn. The crowd is facing to my left, I am facing the crowd, and somehow I know it is time to read them my "typewriter days" memories, but everyone is talking among themselves and there is nothing happening on the stage (which is out of my sight, but the crowd is looking right at it). I launch into it using my best theater voice, the crowd quiets down very quickly and turn their faces toward me and start listening attentively. Almost as soon as I start, the words on the page shrink, change into nonsense characters, and after a sentence or two of trying to ad lib I realize I have no idea what I wrote or was trying to say, and mumble a few words about how I guess the piece wasn't ready to be read out loud, and that's where the dream ended.