Off The Mackinac Beaten Path
Level of Lucidity: N/A Level of Cohesiveness:
Lucid Intent? No
This dream has been viewed 4115 times.
Fragmentary as I took no notes.
I was apparently on Mackinac Island or had just come from there, probably in Ma's company. A minor fire had damaged part of the Grand Hotel; it was all over the local news. We were talking about it and wondering how bad it was. At some point I had a layout plan of the Grand Hotel from above; as I've never been in the hotel I can't say how accurate it was, but there was a long wing to the left, one to the right, and a middle section which extended forward a bit and must have included the lobby; there was a gift shop, and kitchen, and various other rooms in the front-middle section. The fire had struck primarily this part. The layout plan I had showed the extent of the damage and had a narrative telling which parts of the hotel had been shut down and for how long so I guess it was a brochure put out by the hotel itself. It was like I could even see tape or ropes blocking off the parts that were off limits; they seemed to be "browned out" on the map, to show the extent of the damage. It wasn't monumental but it was worse than I'd thought; I guess they had also taken the caution of shutting down parts that had been only minimally damaged just in case, so that made it look like the damage was worse than it really was. I had a feeling of disappointment so I guess I'd wanted to see part of the hotel that was in this area, which is odd, since in real life I don't care about the Grand Hotel and it's expensive anyway. But it was a feeling of, "Darn, that part is closed now." :( I got the feeling that most of these sections would open up again after the damage had been repaired but there was no estimate on how long this would take; and on at least one or two sections, there was a notice saying they'd been shut down "indefinitely," and might not be reopening. I think among these latter was the gift shop or some kind of store. This surprised me, that there were parts they probably weren't going to bother reopening, and I think I worried about the employees--where would they work now? It just seemed strange to close parts of it and never open them again.
I might have approached the Grand Hotel itself in part and looked at it from afar, wondering how bad it all was. I think most of it was smoke damage and stuff rather than real destruction but I guess they were taking it pretty seriously. I wondered, if I should go up to the entry, if anyone would try to stop me and tell me that area was off limits. (They really do stop you when you approach the Grand Hotel porch, but that's only for passersby--if you want to cross in front of it you have to pay a fee. In my dream this didn't seem to apply, I was just thinking of someone keeping people out of the damaged areas.)
In part I had a sort of guide to Mackinac Island and it purported to be a sort of "off the beaten path"-type thing, a guide to Mackinac's lesser-known customs and such. An insider's guide, if you will. There really are such things but I don't own any. This particular guide referred to an old islander custom of hurling pots or dishes out into the water so they would shatter. I found this quite surprising and curious, as it seemed like littering, but I guess the shattered pottery/ceramics didn't really pollute much, and it was some sort of odd local custom they'd had for years. I thought that was quite quaint and wanted to participate in it myself even though I wasn't an islander so thought maybe they would frown upon me doing it as if I were one of them.
Cut to a scene of me standing apparently on a shore, right near the water, and there were rocks jutting out of it--medium-sized ones here and there, like rubble sort of. I think I was nearer the southwest part of the island not far out of town but this area seemed relatively quiet and nobody seemed to be around even though it wasn't way out in the middle of nowhere; perhaps it was along the west shore, near the cottages, and since it was evening people were busy elsewhere. Shadows were growing long so I believe it was evening. I had a ceramic or porcelain bowl or plate with me and I was attempting to toss it out at the rocks so it would shatter. (I don't remember a beach/shore but I wasn't standing in the water itself so I assume it was there.) I wasn't having the best of luck. I tossed it at the biggest rock ahead of me, perhaps about fifteen to twenty feet out, and missed it; the bowl/plate sank in the water. "Darn," I muttered, and went out to fetch it, then, back on shore, tried again. Again I missed, or else when the plate hit the rock, it didn't shatter, and just fell in the water. I went out to retrieve it and waded back (I don't remember getting wet) to try again.
An elderly man approached from my left. I believe it was Orville Redenbacher, but this wasn't abnormal in my dream. He watched me for a time and then started talking to me about various things as I kept tossing my bowl/plate unsuccessfully. Perhaps he was discussing this old custom I was attempting to participate in. After some time he took my bowl/plate and tossed it out at the rocks himself. It struck the boulder and shattered and the pieces fell into the water. He kept talking casually the entire time; he seemed quite wise and knowing though I didn't speak back to him at all.
"Darn," I murmured in disappointment, heading out to pick up the shards of my bowl/plate. "I wanted to break it myself." I wasn't angry with him for breaking my bowl/plate; I was just very disappointed that I hadn't been able to do it for myself. I might have had another bowl/plate with me and was going to try again but I'm not sure. I think Orville Redenbacher went on his way; perhaps his shattering of my bowl/plate had been an attempt to show me how it was done. I was a bit frustrated that I couldn't seem to get it to work. :(
Cut to another scene and now Ma and I were in some sort of little store or gift shop with warm lighting and a friendly perhaps fortysomething woman (shoulder-length, slightly puffy brown hair?) at the counter; it was very small and cluttered in there but had a nice atmosphere. I assume this was still on the island. Ma and I were at this counter, perhaps browsing something, and I was telling Ma about this old Mackinac Island custom of hurling pottery and dishes out into the water to break them. I still found it quite an odd yet interesting custom, and mentioned the book I'd read it in. The woman was listening in as I told Ma this and she got a kind of sympathetic yet amused look on her face.
"Oh, that book," she said. "Those authors think they know a lot about us here but a lot of those stories are purely imaginary. There's no custom like that here; they just made that up."
She wasn't rude about this, just sympathetic that I'd been "taken in" and trying to inform me otherwise. I shut up then, feeling very stupid and embarrassed. While she was an islander and more in a position to be "in the know" about such things, I wondered how the authors of that book could have published something fraudulent without somebody bringing it up before now, so I thought, somewhat resentfully, that this woman might not really know what she was talking about. Maybe she was too young to know much of the custom. I seemed to really want this custom to be real, just because I found it so quaint and interesting, and I was embarrassed to be talking like I'd been knowledgeable about the island's lesser-known side if in fact that knowledge had been mistaken.
It never occurred to me to bring up that I had just been out there tossing dishes with Orville Redenbacher, making it seem like this custom WAS real. *shrug*
