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I suppose it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that since I had a popcorn snack in the evening, that perhaps the dream was my body's cry of dehydration. Anyway, I was seeking water, but the thing is that the water was all around me. Not only could I see it, I could smell it and in a way that only makes sense in a dream, I could ALMOST taste it..and yet I couldn't.

It reminds me of a phenomenon that used to happen a lot as a kid, and sometimes now, but REAL often then. We'd go somewhere, like Brookfield Zoo, which a good example because it would always be on the hottest day of the year. We only went to that Zoo because Lincoln Park Zoo was in the city, and dad wouldn't go into the city unless we hog-tied him and threw him on the train. That's another story. ANYway...We'd park at the entrance near the big "Roosevelt Fountain." I'd no sooner see it than my throat would close and be tongue would completely dry out and I'd start the whine. "I'm thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrsssssssty!" And I REALLY was! It was an ache, a thirst that came from my ankles. I'd look at the fountain and long for a taste. And I would be denied. First of all, the fountain water was obviously not clean (DAMN having a mother who was a nurse!). Secondly, the taste of "Chicago water" to a suburbanite's palate is...like pure chlorine bleach, so the free water fountains were out. Third, the idea of paying $1.00 (or more) for a soda made my father break out in his own dehydrating sweat. I'm talking about 1960's prices! Today's prices would put him right over the edge. So he would hustle me past the fountain, and the pouting and whimpering lasted only as long as it took to find a gorilla or giraffe.

That is, until it was time to leave and we'd exit the same way we entered:

And he said what any good red-blooded American father would say: "You can have a drink when we get home."

~whimper~ "Are we almost home yet?????"

Thank GOD someone had the good sense to make carrying your own water supply a fashionable thing. It makes looking at fountains so much easier for me. Of course, I always carry some dollar bills because now I am the grown up and I can buy my OWN drink, DAMMIT! And I can even get myself a bottle of really cold, CLEAN (hi mom) and crisp water!

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