DREAM JOURNAL ENTRY 6/26/09

I'll work backwards with this one.

I found my self walking down a dirt road somewhere in the Carolinas, I was vacationing, and I knew I would be leaving this small backwoods town shortly. I felt obligated to find some good roadside BBQ, and lo and behold, a small smoker stand was not a block down from where I started off. I don't know where I was, but I was headed "downtown". I was also dressed, oddly enough, in the white sheets of a Ku Klux Klan member, complete with face-covering hood.

Somehow, I thought this was very funny, and not unusual. as though I was walking around dressed for trick-or-treating.

A heavy-set elderly black man drove by in an old pickup truck and looked at me with suspicion, and I suddenly realized I should at least remove my hood. I felt as though my attire was now improper, since I was heading downtown and looking for BBQ.

The BBQ stand was operated by a black man and a white man, both around their fifties, dressed in attire from the 1950s- complete with suspenders and wide-brimmed hats. The meat cooking smelled amazing, it was beef. I ordered a slab of ribs and paid the black man for the plastic plate heaped with food. One of them directed to a folding table which held various BBQ sauces and utensils. I suddenly realized that much of what lay before me, including the tables, smoker, and cash register, were covered in dark red BBQ sauce which had dried to the touch. I then noticed a man sitting in a lawn chair a few feet away from the scene, also covered in dried BBQ sauce. He wore the same type of hat as the other two men, and his hands were both resting on the chair arm rests. He resembled a strange mummy, unmoving. His mouth and nose were sealed shut, and I assumed him dead.

This didn't seem to bother me, and I began to devour my BBQ beef in earnest, complimenting the men on the flavor and tenderness of their cooking.

Then my alarm clock woke me, and I rose, craving BBQ beef.

Coincidentally, my favorite local luncheon was featuring BBQ pork as the daily special today. It was delicious, and I don't recall ever eating a sandwich so quickly.