View from a Window

May 19, 2014

San Francisco, CA

"Can it be that man can disappear

From life and live another time?

And does the mystery deepen 'cause you think

That you yourself lived in that other time?..."

                 ...........  Marty Robbins

                  "El Paso City"

I don't remember when it was that I had that dream. Why would I? For a wonder I even remembered it at all, it was such a non-event. 

I usually have  dreams every night, and rarely recall them. Oddly enough, I dream - not of family or friends, usually, but of people, places, and events totally unfamiliar to me in my present life, but quite well-known to me in my dreams. 

One night many years ago, I dreamt that I was in an upstairs apartment of a two-story building, with a small park in front of it. There was a street just beyond the park. 

I looked out of my apartment window at a well-dressed man with a hat on, walking by on the sidewalk, which was between the park and the street. 

I went down the stairs, and said hi to some people who were sitting on the left stoop at the entrance to the apartment house. There was an old-time radio playing music of the 1940's. 

That is all I recall; nothing else. 

I had the dream, remembered that part as I awoke in the morning, and then promptly forgot about it almost completely.  

One day, several years later, I had to call on a ship that was docked upriver below Baton Rouge. I had never been to this area before, and it was completely unfamiliar to me. I crossed the Sunshine Bridge and headed up River Road. 

Then I came to the small town of Donaldsonville, LA., a historic old settlement on the West Bank of the Missisippi River, below Baton Rouge, with a population (back then) of some 6,000 people.

It was a quaint little place, with many lovely old buildings. I was driving on the main street and stopped for a signal light. 

All of a sudden, a strange feeling came over me. For some reason I immediately looked directly to my left. My eyes focused instantly upon the very window I had looked out of in my dream!!

My hair stood on end, I became overcome with an indescribable feeling. I broke into a sweat as I stared at that window. 

It was intense, and my heart pounded. Then I was interrupted by a car horn of the up-to-now patient driver waiting behind me, as the traffic light had already turned green. 

I made a U-turn as quickly as I could, and drove straight up to the apartment house that even from the street looked somehow vaguely familiar. 

I got out of my car and walked the very sidewalk as the well-dressed gentleman of my dream, keeping that upper window constantly in view as I passed through the park.

I walked up the stairs of the entrance, and saw the stoop where, in my dream, people were listening to the radio. 

I climbed the steps to the top and stood at the entrance, and turned around. There before me unfolded in almost exact detail, the vision I had long ago - only there was no man and no radio. 

There was no doubt in my mind that I had been here before, but only either in that dream, or in another life and time.

I spent about an hour walking around the park and near the apartment building, trying to make sense of what I just experienced, but apparently this was all I was going to see or feel. Any connection I had with whatever place or time ended with this little bit of déjà vu.   

Perhaps one day I will get an explanation - and perhaps I am not meant to know. Not all that we see and hear and feel are meant for our senses. Some things may just be better left unexplained...