(1/1/08) garbage pack

(Entered in paper journal at 2:20 PM on the 1-train in Manhattan.)

Dream #1

I walked down a city street at night. Lights like incandescent lights shone on the street. The area looked a little rundown. Two men, each with a child, stood on a sidewalk. They stood by a garbage truck, which also looked  rundown, like paint was chipping off of it. One man was black, with long hair in dreads. The other was white, looking perhaps upper-middle-class.

I walked through the garbage cans. The black man's child (white or Asian?) looked at me as if he wanted to ask me questions. The man pulled him away and yelled at the child not to talk to scummy people like me. I hadn't intended to stop to talk to the boy. I continued walking.

I walked past the second man and child. I was wearing a big backpack or carrying a big, rolling suitcase. The child (white, blonde, with blue eyes and glasses) asked me why I had such a big backpack.

I saw the kid was wearing a red (?) backpack that was almost as tall as he. I said, "Well, why do you wear your backpack?"

The boy said, "To go to school with."

I said, "Well, I carry my backpack for a similar reason."