The Black Feet Dream

I had a dream where I was on vacation with a large group of people in a wilderness sort of place, ostensibly for a wedding or a reunion of some sort but I never did completely figure out why I was there. The people I was with were mostly strangers but we were there for purposes, one of which was to have fun, and so we made fast friends. It must have been in the 1960s because the motel we were staying in cost only $17 a night. I had a roommate and we split the costs. The dream was unusual in that it spanned several days within the one dream.

Someone organized activities most of which I participated in. One activity was a softball game which I don't remember well. We also had an ultimate frisbee® game which I enjoyed very much because I'm very good at it. Another was the group meals and lending a hand in their preparation. Much to do was made of my being vegetarian (mostly vegan) and it was often a topic of conversation.

Another activity involved a van ride along a lovely creek. At some point, the van got stuck on a rock and we couldn't get it loose. We decided to rest in a shack on an island in the middle of the creek. While we were sitting in the shack admiring its features and construction, someone drove the van on top of the shack and the shack tipped over into the creek and began to fill with water. We got out easily because the creek was so shallow.

One day I decided to go for a walk and ended up walking all day around the creek and there was a lake and I walked around that and went for a swim. When I returned that evening, I noticed my feet were black from sunburn. "Oh no," I thought. Some of the the black washed off under a hose and my feet were beginning to blister. They didn't hurt very much.

At the group meeting that night, one of the leaders asked that I give a presentation to the group and show my blistering feet. I was to warn everyone that they shouldn't walk around all day without putting sunscreen on their feet. When everyone came close around me to inspect my feet, I woke up and noticed that my actual feet were very warm and almost sweaty under the covers.

Sidenote: This dream made me think of my favorite pencils when I was growing up: The Blackfeet Indian Pencil. When I was in second or third grade, my teacher had us selling them to raise funds for the Indians. I liked the pencils so much, I did my state report on Montana, and also wrote a book report about the history of the Blackfeet Indians. As some commenters noted here also, the pencils were great for left-handers. I would imagine there are still a few of these pencils at my parents' house.