Another very short story

Back In The Old Fogie Days
by Big Frank Dickinson

Back in the old fogie days, everything was in black and white. The only color was in dreams; and people looked forward to going to sleep at night to look at that extraordinary palette of color offerings that they met nowhere else in their lives. Of course, they were not able to really talk about these colors (that word did not exist back then) all languages – even Inuit – had only two “quasi-colors” to talk about: black and white; and, of course, their combination: gray. Their dream conversations went something like this:

- I had this great dream last night. I was on a ship and the water was a kind of shimmering gray.
- Shimmering gray?
- Yeah, it was not really gray – it looked completely different from gray but it wasn’t black or white either. It was a happy gray and at the same time it was a sad gray.
- Oh, OK, I think I know what you ‘re talking about. I once had a dream where I cut myself and that shimmering gray came out of my hand. Is that the gray you’re talking about?
- Well, I’m not really sure. I’ve never cut myself in a dream. But that doesn’t seem like it would be a happy gray, does it?

Of course, kids can somewhat understand this because they have seen black and white photographs in art books, or their in the photos in their parents’ attic. And it also turns out that most kids nowadays actually dream only in black and white. So with some accuracy it can be said that the old fogie days are being duplicated in the dreams of the youth. Their dream conversations go something like this:

- Like, I was dreaming last night that I was on this . . .like ship, and the water – get this – was gray!
- No way, man – gray?
- Yeah, and I was like, “Where am I, in my dad’s memories, or what?”
- Cool – in the old man’s memories!
- Yeah, it was like I had taken a trip back; you know, like time travel!
- How cool is that? Dreams as time travel. . . . Hey, wait a minute. I think I dream in black and white too. Last night I was flying in the sky and it was . . GRAY! So was I – like – going back in time too?
- Totally – Dude – totally!