Another Dream

Another "interesting" dream, for your entertainment, if you find those kind of things enertaining.....

I was trying to figure out how to get somewhere, walking down a street after losing my car somehow, and I see first one, then two, long missiles going down the street. They are dark army green, very low to the ground, and following the curve of the road and going about the speed of a car, but seemingly directed as if by remote control. The two join together, and then take off like a rocket into the sky. At some other time, in a park, the missiles appear again, and lots of young people are crowding around them, kind of running along side them, and I take pictures of the missiles as they go by. At my parents' house, I examine the pictures and discover they are really really good, and I have close-up images on them which shows English writing on them and blue stripes, and really close the outermost paint layer actually seems to be like papier mache with lots of Chinese writing both in Chinese characters and Roman script, and some American corporate logos like Walgreens. I post these pictures on Facebook and my blog and tell people to share them because I worry they might disappear. Later, I'm at a school talking to a student. He is showing me something he is eating which looks like part of a green pomegranate but I think it is a kind of hallucinogen. We both notice this guy who is bald on the top of his head but has long reddish-blond hair and a fat face, and he throws something that looks like a giant grapefruit toward me. I hold my breath but inhale anyway, and I know it is a gas or a poison and I am struggling to breathe like I'm having an asthma attack while the student is trying to drag me away to safety. Then I wake up.:)

Dreams

Every now and then I post about dreams - reading about dreams is always pretty crazy.

I had this dream last night that I was with a large group of people and we were camping in something like tents that were all connected right at the base of a very steep cliff. I woke up and looked out a "window" and saw that the wind was blowing like crazy and caused two natural stone structures, kind of like statues, to collapse on the cliff above me as I watched. No fear or alarm, though. Then, I left my "room" and was talking to this old cowboy who looked a lot like Sam Elliott and he was showing me how he had solved some legend that this secret place on a map was actually Dallas. I went back to my room and looked up at the cliff and now there was a long power cable dangling down it and sparking wildly as it swung back and forth. It ignited some dead leaves in scrub oak and then almost instantly that fire spread everywhere, down the cliff and into and beyond the camp. Sam Elliott in his cowboy hat was on flames and even as the call of Fire! went out, I realized it was already too late, and then woke up.

Then later I dreamed I was a long-haired teenaged boy mad at his dad because I was the only boy/man in the extended family who had not been allowed to race cars.

Alien Abduction Dream? :P

I've just been living lately - nothing really exciting happening nor too many profound thoughts. April is always the craziest month at school - sports, field trips, awards, scholarships, assemblies, standardized testing, meetings, trainings, scheduling, hiring, firing, etc. So every day something different is going on and there are lots of schedule changes. It requires adaptability and can be fun and stressful both.

We got a little snow yesterday and the day before it was north of us but we had really high winds. I actually enjoyed it but it keeps you in a bit much. We didn't have enough to do this, bummer!:




I signed on as an Independent Sales Representative for Avon, which means if you wish to buy Avon, I can help you - see the sidebar for a link or just e-mail me or leave a comment. I would appreciate your business. ;)

There's also CSEA stuff going on (teacher's association) - the committee I chair, the scholarship committee, meets this week. It is fun, because you get to give away money. But you always wish you had more money to give away. And CSEA elections are going on right now, too - I ended up running for a position due to requests of some friends, but I do have mixed feelings about it. I want to do a good job but don't want to be bogged down in politics or put in a position beyond my knowledge or interest (such as if a President resigns and I had to step in, which would involve leaving the classroom to work full time downtown.)

I went to the antique show downtown with my parents on Saturday. That is always interesting, and my parents usually buy me something which is very nice of them - they are very generous to me and sometimes I feel guilty about it but I try to be generous back when I can. I also try to avoid materialism, but going to look and stuff and more stuff is counterproductive. But this kind of thing can teach one to learn when to focus on quality vs. quantity or vice versa.

I am trying to decide if I want to continue to work in this building or move to another. Transfer interviews are ongoing beginning last month. This year was not my favorite - it really depends on what kids you have in a given year. Occasionally we get student surveys on how you're doing - for example, I just did a flash in the pan ACT prep course for one afternoon and got everything back from being the greatest ever to being a horrible teacher, but feedback is always too general to know exactly what they liked or didn't like and why, so it just leaves one with disappointment but no strategy - the surveys are not useful.

But also lots of friends moved on to other buildings, but there are always new friends coming, too. I am not naive enough to think the grass is really greener, there are pros and cons to every place, but I do really think some have a more positive environment than here. But it sounds like I might get a nicer schedule next year if I stay here, so who knows? If I did leave, the department would be losing a team leader and the only AP Stats teacher, which could leave them in kind of a difficult position. On the other hand, perhaps my growth is limited here and could be higher elsewhere - I don't know.

I am also thinking of going for national board certification next year - I have an informational meeting about that this month. If I ever do move to another state that could be useful, but in general it is a good thing to do, mainly it is an investment of time and money so I'll have to see the details.

Spiritually, I've been rather level the past little while. I'd like to grow and am looking for inspiration. Do you know that feeling you get when you're really into your prayers, dua'as, etc? I want that more often, I'm always trying to pursue that, but sometimes pursuing isn't the way to go, sometimes you have to be still for it to come. I have realized that spirituality is rather cyclical - it has ebbs and tides, according to hadith of Ahlulbayt (as). You have to take the highs and the lows together. In lulls, focus on avoiding sin and keeping up the required acts, and in highs, build your extra deeds. Always try to focus on good akhlaq - good demeanor, manners, behavior, etc.

I had some weird dream last night that woke me up. I was sitting out front in a lawn chair and noticed an old man apparently spying on me and people with me through binoculars. Then we realized he and the people with him were looking at the sky. So we looked at the sky and there was a very very red/pink star that had never been there before. So we started staring at it too. Then, two green blobs appeared and started rotating around the red star and my brother said they were Medusas. We went inside the house and I noticed someone in the back yard in a blue hot rod spinning out, ruining the lawn. I went to stop him from ruining my parents' lawn and he was repentant and stopped the car. The grass was very wet, muddy, tall, and I recognized the yard from previous dreams in which stuff was buried under the ground. He was about to get out of the car when a brown-amber colored beam of light appeared in the distance. I ran to hide behind a tree and as the beam moved, I moved to keep behind the tree relative to its position. The boy in the car ran toward me and the beam paused, seemed to notice his motion and came toward him quickly. I told him to freeze, and he laid down on the ground motionless. Then the light engulfed him and picked him up off the ground and he was screaming. I didn't say or do anything, just hid from it behind the tree and I felt guilty because I hadn't wanted him to run to my tree because his motion had caught attention and I didn't want to get caught with him. I was worried he would give my position away. I felt I should've done more to help him but my first thoughts had been for myself and I felt bad about that. Then I woke up feeling anxious and had to get up for a few minutes before I could go back to sleep. Did I tell you about the dream I had last month in which a hole opened in the sidewalk under my mom and she disappeared before my eyes? My brother and I tried to find her under the pavement but there was just a giant chasm, like a sinkhole under the pavement and no sign or sound of her. That one woke me up disturbed too. I had to call my mom the next evening to make sure she was fine but I didn't tell her about the dream.

Dreams

If you've read my blog in the past, you might recall that I had made some posts about recurring places in my dreams.

Lately I've been reading a book that made me think about dreams again. One thing this author (Robert Moss, if I recall) says that I am pondering is that the places in your dreams are as real as this place, just a lot more fluid and possibly much easier for us to control/manipulate. In Islam, we learn that this world is really not the "real" world, but illusory - it is what our senses tell us is there, but ultimately our brain chemistry acts much in the same way to images in this world as it does to dream or "imaginary" images. This is one reason why people can heal themselves sometimes through dreaming or imagination, because the body and brain can respond to these "made up" visions the same way it does to sensory input from this world.

So it seems to be that the dream world or imaginary world is as real as you decide to treat it. If you decide to regard it as real, then you can interact with it as if it were and get results much more "real" than you might otherwise, such as the healing, etc.

Well for about a week, every time I wake up I've asked myself what I just dreamed. Sometimes it takes me a moment or several to realize I was dreaming at all because it was so real or so gone already, but other times the dream itself wakes me up and I remember it quickly. I turn on the bed light, write a few notes about the dream, and then go back to sleep. As I write the notes, I have discovered, I think, that every single dream is in a recurring place. Previously I had thought only certain dreams of mine were in recurring places. As I think about the dream, I realize that although maybe I wasn't in that exact same place, it is connected to it, or it is the same place but slightly modified. So I am concluding that perhaps there is some entire universe-reality in my dreams of actual places that I can see and describe, sometimes I could map them, and sometimes change at will, and I keep dreaming in that universe, the same places, every time, my whole life. It is a big place - so I can go somewhere I've never been before in my dream but realize how it is connected to other places I have been - just like someone can go to, say, Pueblo, in real life for the first time, so it is unfamiliar, but he or she has a sense of how it is connected to Colorado Springs, Denver, Chicago, or whatever.

Perhaps that lends credence to the idea of its reality, just maybe not as collective as one as this one? It makes dreams seem much more important and powerful, a whole other life, one in which we have a lot more direct manipulative power. Yet one connected to this reality, our brain working out things, who knows all what - so that sometimes we can do things in our dreams that can affect us here, like healing, or we can pay attention to dreams and learn something about what is going on in our psyches, perhaps.

Some people in all religious backgrounds have claimed to be able to travel in this reality in their dreams, and to meet people who had lived before or are in other places, etc. Maybe they really can! Maybe we really can! Anyone want to try to meet up with me in dreams? :) I had one experience like this I can particularly remember in which I woke feeling I had really been to this basement room in the Haram in Mecca that I had passed through once briefly when I had gone for hajj. It was really peaceful; but I don't think I commonly experience that - but maybe people can train themselves to do so.

And then there are the occasional precognitive dreams. It is suggested that these dreams are just tapping into something that is 'in the wind' in our psyches before it has happened in this reality, but time is much more fluid in the dream world. I don't know that I've ever had a precognitive dream; I wonder if any reader has?

Anyway, I'm still thinking about a lot, such as some other ideas I read about - that we can have guides - sometimes human or animal or whatever in our dreams. I've noticed lots of cats and dogs in my dreams, more than I expected. Last week I saw Scooter, a cat that my brother's family had but they quit taking care of it (! lots of sadness, anger, .....), it became a neighborhood cat and a few weeks ago it disappeared. In my dream he was on a neighbor's roof in pouring rain. He came when I called him and he was terribly skinny and that's what woke me, and I remember thinking, "This is Dreamworld, you don't have to be skinny if you don't want to be" and I think he got the message, he seemed okay and I lost contact with him then, and I also felt his appearance was meant to alert me to something, like a message for me, but I am not quite sure I figured that out.

Another idea I'm still thinking about is the idea of problem solving in dreams. I think we've all experienced it to some extent, when you are thinking of some problem, sleep and wake up with an answer or solution. Apparently in history some people used this as a major source of their problem solving and creative work. Robert Louis Stevenson claimed the vast majority of all of his stories were written by creatures he called "brownies" in his dreams. A lot of physicists had scientific breakthroughs in dreams - and I did study physics after all, didn't I? :)

I've also noticed a lot of these dreams I've had, 'I' am not necessarily in them - sometimes I am more of an observer, or 'I' am there but not really, like I am playing a character that is kind of me but that I am not really that attached to, like I am not "in" that person so much. That has surprised me, too. But we'll see what happens if I keep paying attention to the dreams.

Waking and Remembering God

How often are you awakened by your dreams? And at what time of night? If you pay attention, how often are they disturbing, but you forget them by dawn or within a few fleeting moments of being awakened? I'd like to hear your answers, and on a relate note:




I was reading something about the history of sleep, and it seems our patterns may be distinctly different from those of the past. Some people believe that before the modern era of electricity, etc., that people used to sleep in 2 or more shifts over a longer night, and would often wake for an hour or two between shifts and during these interludes they were very productive in thought. The Prophet (saw) used to get up in interludes of the night for prayer, such that his sleep apparently was half the night and his prayer the other half, according to some traditions.

People are trained now to try to sleep again if they awake at night because of missing other opportunities for sleep and rest. But the lost solitude, the lost time of reflection, the lost meditation, the lost prayer, maybe too great a loss. What if being awakened is the call of God for you to remember Him while others are playing or heedless?


Your souls are in God's care always and when you sleep it is like a minor death and it is Allah swt's will to return you to wakefulness or to keep your soul from this realm of consciousness and existence. Where is your soul when you sleep? Does it move from your body? Or is it in your body but elsewhere as well?

Pay attention for a week of every time you wake in the night, and ponder your waking and remember God who made you. Let me know what happens, I'd be curious to hear!

A night filled with recurring places

Last night I woke up around 2:30 from a dream that was taking place at my parents' house. But it was a recurring version of my parents' house that exists only in my dreams, and I woke up and thought about it I realized I had dreamed of that place before. It has the old yellow shed and red shed they used to have. On the north side of the house, there is a gap between the wooden fence and the neighbors yard which does not exist in reality. People were walking down this gap to do something in an alley behind the house which also doesn't exist in reality. As I drifted back to sleep, I dreamt of other places that have some vague basis in reality but exist only in these dreams yet I realized I had dreamed of them before.

I had a dream of a house I live in very loosely based on this one I live in now. But the back yard of the one in my dream is very different - it is hilly and grown-over and there is a mini-lot to the side of the house that is also grown over. I've only seen this house at night time, and the neighborhood is laid out similarly to this one, but it is not the same neighborhood. I remember another house in the neighborhood and could tell you how to get to it by walking. In that house, the floors are unsealed and there is a big grandfather clock and there is a basement with lots of antiques in it.

Then I was remembering/dreaming about a park that I've dreamt of before. This park is long and narrow and has an unusual playground. There are lots of trees and trails in the park. Near the park is a path that goes up a hill to a zoo/natural history museum but these are not like the zoos/museums I've been to in real life. Another trail from the park also takes you down alleyways in neighborhoods and small jeep trails that take you to small sandy ravines and large empty expanses of land and abandoned farming and mining equipment. Another road from the park takes you to my university - or the dream version of it, anyway - which has an opulent student center , different buildings, and secret passageways around campuses and bazaar or flea-market type vendors along certain roads.

Somewhere near that place is a kind of mall or shopping or center that has 4 levels. There is a dark curved hallway that leads to a little-known food court and huge game room. An outside hallway curves to a movie theater and a giant stair-step plaza.

There is also a dream version of the high school I went to. In my dream there is a different road to get to it by the small shopping center near it and if you go up that road you end up in a maze of concrete hills and basement-back entrances into the school. Inside the school, there are three levels and math classes are on the top level. Down a long hallway there is a stage for drama class that no one seems to know about or use.

Often these places are so vivid I could draw maps for you and describe particular stores to you. This mall seems to be related to this parking lot of dreamt of before and a long road somehow related to Academy Blvd.

But there is another place that has these weird giant art pieces like giant clocks or giant abstract art pieces with flags tied to them and it turns into rolling hills and remnants of old stone buildings on hilltops, and ancient graveyards that aren't spooky.

Anyway I'm rambling and clearly this would make no sense to anyone but it was interesting to me that last night my dreams involved lots of places that recur in my dreams but that I didn't recall until dreaming about them again.

Okay - off I go to school!

Lineage

I found this Fan Genealogy Chart online and uploaded it to my iDisk for people to download and use. It is a good one for doing longer family trees - if you get to the end, just start a new fan for that person.

I'll come back to geneaology in a little bit, but first just some random stuff.

Paying attention to my dreams, I've come to the conclusion that my recurring places in dreams are normal for me. There have been several other recurring places I've dreamed about since I last blogged on it - different places than those I've mentioned. So my dreams must have a landscape all their own - at least certain kinds of dreams. This morning I woke up from a dream that struck me as odd - I was a junior high music teacher and we were putting on a musical production of Planet of the Apes that I had written. I have no idea why that came up - I haven't been involved in anything Planet of the Apes related recently. When I was in junior high my choir teacher was who I wanted to be like when I grew up. I was really into choir at that time. As for Planet of the Apes, I remember my brother had some of Planet of the Apes comic books that came with 45 records - you would listen to the story on the record while reading the comic book. We had some Star Trek ones too that I really liked as well. Those things were awesome!

I took my nephew to a circus on the base at Fort Carson last night. His sisters were both doing something and he had a free ticket from school and wanted to go out so I took him. We were just a little bit late because he didn't tell me until it was about time to go and we had to get through the gate security line to get onto the base. The circus was the typical cheesy lame stuff I remember from every circus I've ever seen except Cirque du Soleil (which is awesome, literally). And the ticket for me to get in was outlandish at $20 - but my brother gave me the money so I can't complain. Nephew had a good time.

So today for no apparent reason I went through the family charts I could find at my parents' house. A few pieces are missing and may be located later. I'll share what I found, starting with my grandparents - maybe someone will find it in a search for their own family history sometime.

Grandparents -

Mom's side - Ralph Gordon Anderson born somewhere back East December 13, 1915 and Frances Marie Andritsch born November 11, 1917 in Colorado Springs, CO.
Dad's side - Park Forsythe Beatty born April 5, 1927 Toquerville, UT. Served in Navy WWII in San Diego, and Gladys Marie Allison born 11 25 1924 Fairplay, CO, also served in Navy in San Diego in WWII.




Great Grandparents -

parents of Frances - Josef Andritsch born 1893 immigrated from Fohnsdorf Austria through Ellis Island at the age of 14 in 1908. Went to McCurtain Oklahoma then Elbert County, CO, then Colorado Springs where he was a Coal Miner at the Peakview Mine. Married to Ethel Nancy Cummings (Nancy Ethel Cummings) here in Colorado, born 12 28 1895 in Newport, KY. I

parents of Ralph - Albert Anderson born July 27, 1883 (from Sweden maybe?) and Rachel Guddal born January 21 1892 somewhere in the U.S.

parents of Gladys - Viola May Ooley - of Coffeyville, Kansas ???- family lore says that her mother pulled her off the street when the Dalton Gang shootout happened on October 5, 1892 - Viola was very emotional about it, very angry at the gang for the violence. But that would mean she was a lot older than her husband and I don't know if that's true - maybe the story comes from her mother instead. Gladys' father was Millard Ernest Allison born February 22, 1900 in Tablerock, Colorado (a potato farming community near what is now Black Forest, in El Paso County but close to the Elbert and Douglas county lines). He worked as a shoe cobbler in Leadville, Fairplay and Colorado Springs, and he served in the Navy in WWI. I did find that Millard's dad's brother was married to a gal from Coffey KS - that would be a farfetched connection to the Dalton gang thing but you never know.

parents of Park - Vera Forsythe born June 1, 1894 in Toquerville, UT and Walter Lamb Beatty born July 7, 1892 in Toquerville, UT. Walter was semi-famous in his day - he was a real 'cowboy' who served as a guide for 20 years in Zion National Park and is mentioned and pictured in some books about the park and had several roles as a movie extra, including at least one speaking part, in the films Ramona (1936), The Badman of Brimstone (1937), Drums Along the Mohawks , Stagecoach (1939), Union Pacific (1939), My Friend Flicka (1943), Thunderhead Son of Flicka (1945), Ramrod (1947), Bugles in the Afternoon (1952), Brigham Young (1940), Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949), Red Canyon and maybe more.





Great Great Grand-parents

parents of Josef Andritsch - named Josef Andritsch and Maria Rogi

parents of Ethel Nancy Cummings - Frances A Bryant b. 1887 and Ira George Cummings, b. 7 1 1857 Tobin Township Perry City Indiana, died 1927 in Colorado Springs.

parents of Rachel Guddal - Gabriel Guddal born January 1 1870 in Tonstad Norway and Christina Mydland from ?

parents of Albert Anderson - Anders Petterson born February 5 1848 and Botilda Olsdatter born 3 17 1841

parents of Millard Ernest Allison - Millard M Allison born 10 14 1873 in NC and Nettie Jones

parents of Vera Forsythe - Benjamin Henry Forsythe born 11 18 1868 in Toquerville, UT and Barbara Lamb born 2 17 1872 in Toquerville, UT.

parents of Walter Beatty - John Thomas Beatty born May 25 1869 and Helena Lamb born 10 2 1869, both born in Toquerville, UT. (Helena and Barbara were first cousins.)





Three-Greats Grandparents -

parents of Frances A Bryant - Alexander Bryant b. May 1826 Kentucky and Eliza b. 10 1836 Tobin Township Indiana.

parents of Ira George Cummings - Issiah Cummings b. 2 19 1823 Perry Indiana, and Nancy Butler. (Family history says Ira George Cummings was a full-blooded Osage, but census records do not confirm and it appears to be untrue - maybe it comes from the Bryants or Butlers, if at all).

parents of Anders Petterson were Petter Jonasson Al and Elin. (Obviously, Petter's father was named Jonas).

parents of Botilda Olsdatter were Ola Mansson born 3 21 1810 and Sissa Olsdatter.

parents of Gabriel Guddal - Johannes Aslaksen Guddal born 1 25 1844 in Tonstad and immigrated to the U.S. with wife and kids. Married to Ragnhild Gundersdatter born 6 30 1847.

parents of Millard M. Allison - Thomas B Allison born 10 12 1836 in Burke near Old Fort, North Carolina and Martha Bird Hicks of Burke/Old Fort, NC. Thomas Bird Allison died in 1902 in Elbert, Colorado.

parents of Benjamin Henry Forsythe - Thomas Forsythe born 9 20 1813 in Kelso, Roxburgshire, Scotland and Mary Browett born 6 25 1823 in Bottsford Leicester England.

parents of Barbara Lamb - Mary Hardy Foster born 5 1 1834 in Bradford Essex New York and Brigham or Brighman Young Lamb b 6 27 1833 (Yes if you haven't figured it out yet, the family in Toquerville were all Mormons from the very beginning of the church, continuing today for large parts of the family tree, although I don't know where this name Brigham Young comes from as he was born only a few years after the famous Brigham Young.) born 6 27 1832 in Avon Longton New York.

parents of John Thomas Beatty b 10 24 1845 - Maryann Duffin b 1 29 1852 and John (also Thomas?) Beatty/Batty

parents of Helena Lamb - Edwin Lamb b 12 23 1831 (brother of Brigham) and Elizabeth Hardy b 8 29 1839(sister of Mary Hardy Foster).




Four-Greats Grandparents -

parents of Olsa Mansson were Mans Olsson and Hildegard Persdatter. (Obviously Mans had a father named Ols/Olsa and Hildegard has a father named Pers).


parents of Ragnhild Gundersdatter - Gunder Knutsen born 1816 and Anna Svensdatter born 7 2 1814. (Obviously Gunder's dad was named Knut and Anna's dad was named Sven).

parents of Johannes Aslaksen Guddal - Aslak Johnsen Guddal born 6 20 1802 and Astrid Isaksdatter Liland born 9 12 1802

parents of Thomas B Allison - Moses Allison born 7 15 1805 in Old Fort North Carolina and Susannah ? born 10 10 1806.

parents of John Thomas Beatty - George Batty Jr. b. 8 14 1819 Pilley York England and Encora Woodcock b. 10 15 1822 England - immigrated to US.

parents of Martha Matilda Bird Hicks - Wilson Lee Bird born 4 5 1807 in Burke NC and Rebecca Lyttle b 7 18 1807 in Burke NC

parents of Mary Browett - Benjamin Browett born 1775 in Bottsford/Bottlesford England and Mary Sparks born 3 14 1782 in Bristol Gloucester England.

parents of Thomas Forsythe - Thomas Forsythe b. 6 4 1782 Kelso Scotland and Isabella Jackson

parents of Brigham Young Lamb - Almira Merrell born 6 15 1807 in Hartford, CT and Able Lamb born 3 9 1801 in Rowe Franklin Massachussetts.

parents of Mary Hardy Foster - Samuel Hardy born 9 21 1804 in Bradford Massachussetts and Caroline Bacon Rogers born 9 6 1806 in Noragewalk, Maine.

parents of Elizabeth Hardy - same as those of Mary Hardy Foster

parents of Edwin Lamb - same as those of Brigham Young Lamb

parents of Isaiah Cummings - Uriah Cummings b. about 1780 Virginia and Sarah Lanman born 1779 Derby Caswell North Carolina




Five-Greats Grandparents -

parents of Astrid Isaksdatter Liland - Isak Eilefsen Liland born 1757 and Karen Olsdatter Tunstand born 1759.

parents of Aslak Johnsen Guddal - John Nicolaysen Guddal born 1775 and Berthe Torgiesdatter Guddal born 1773.

parents of Moses Allison - Thomas Bird Allison born before 1755 in MD and Cassandra Bird born 10 3 1760 in Rock Creek Prince George's MD

parents of Wilson Lee Bird - Reverend Richard R Bird b 8 27 1769 in Rowan NC and Elizabeth Westlake born 5 22 1780 in Greenbriar, VA.

parents of Rebecca Lytle - George M Lytle born 11 27 1785 in McDowell NC and Ann Clark born around 1785 in NC

parents of Almira Merrell - mother was Phebe Shepard.

parents of Able Lamb - Aeneas Lamb and Anna Blackmore.

parents of Caroline Bacon Rogers - John Rogers and Rhoda Davis.

parents of Samuel Hardy - Benjamin Hardy and Hannah Brokleback.

parents of Thomas Forsyth - James Forsyth b. 1 18 1756 Nenthorn Scotland and Jean Minto

Parents of Isabelle Jackson - Christian Ladlie/Laidley and Henry Jackson

Parents of Uriah Cummings - Thomas Cummings b. 1750 or 1754 VA, and Sarah Henry b. about 1740 Rocky Mills Hanover VA

parents of Sarah Lanman - James Taylor Lanman b. 1752 Fairfax, VA and Sythe (Seth) Blake Sommers b. 2 29 1756 Fairfax VA







Six-Greats Grandparents

parents of Karen Olsdatter Tunstand - Ole Torgieson Guddal born 1731 and E Berte Halvorsdatter Seland.

parents of Isak Eilefsen Liland - Eilef Eilefson Leilan and Gundvar Olsdatter Tonstand.

parents of Berthe Torgiesdatter Guddal - Torgie Mauritzsen Guddal born 1755 and Tora Johannesdatter Lindeland.

parents of John Nicolaysen Guddal - Kristi Omsdatter Lunde and Nicolai Atlaksen Rosstol born 1733, son of Atlak Nicolaysen Rosstol and Ragnhild Tongiesdatter.

parents of Thomas Bird Allison - Mary, born around 1725 and Benjamin Allison born around 1725 in MD.

parents of Cassandra Bird - Benjamin Bird born 6 13 1775 in Prince George's MD and Elizabeth Allison born around 1735 in Dorchester MD

parents of Reverend Richard R Bird - same as parents of Cassandra Bird

parents of Elizabeth Westlake - Thomas Westlake born 1 1 1755 in Trenton NJ and Mary Bracee born 9 21 1762 in CT

parents of George M Lytle - Captain Thomas Lytle born 6 6 1750 in Rowan NC and Susanah Perkins born around 1752

parents of James Forsyth - Thomas Forsyth b. 10 19 1718 Nenthorn Berwick Scotland and Isobel (Elspeth) Madder b. 11 20 1719

parents of Thomas Cummings - Thomas Cummins b. 1716 VA

parents of Sarah Henry - John Henry and Sarah Winston b. 1709 Richmond VA (sister of the famous Patrick Henry "Give me liberty or give me death".

parents of James Taylor Lanman - George Taylor Landman b. 4 4 1715 and Elizabeth Taylor b. 1712 VA

parents of Sythe/Seth Blake Sommers - George Sommers/Summers b. after 1724





Seven-Greats Grand parents


parents of Benjamin Bird - Thomas Bird born around 1680 in England and Anna Benedictsdottir Stedham born around 1691 in New Castle, Wilmington, DE

parents of Benjamin Allison - Thomas Allison born around 1696 in Charles, MD and Barbara Burch born 1697 in Newport Charles MD

parents of Isobel Madder - dad George Madder

parents of Thomas Forsyth - Walter Forsyth b. 1688 or 1690 in Nenthorn Scotland and Janet Leach of Stitchell

parents of Thomas Cummins- Malachi Cummins b. 1695 Fauquier County VA and Elizabeth

parents of John Henry - Alexander Hendrie Foveran Aberdeenshire Scotland and Jean Robertson

parents of Sarah Winston - Isaac Winston b. about 1680 Hanover VA and Mary Dabney b. about 1676 Hanover VA

parents of George Taylor Landman - William Landman b. 1680 or 1689 Richmond Co VA and Catherine Thomas b. 1680 or 1693 North Farnham VA

parents of George Sommers/Summers - John Summers b. 1687 Maryland and Seth Harrison Lucas






Eight-Great Grandparents -

parents of Thomas Allison - Charles Allison born around 1663 in Charles MD and Elizabeth Posey born around 1675 in Port Tobacco Charles MD

parents of Janet Leach - Ninian Leach and Catherine Williamson

parents of Malachi Cummings - Alexander Cummins b. 12 10 1677 St. Stephen's Parish, North Cumberland Co VA and Sarah Muttoone Great Wicomico Parish VA

parents of William Landman - John Landman b. before 1673 Richmond Co VA and Jane Barrow b. before 1673 Richmond Co VA

parents of John Summers - John Summers died 1702 VA







Nine-Greats Grandparents -

parents of Charles Allison - Thomas Allanson born 10 6 1639 London Middlesex England and Mary Roberts born 1 29 1645 St. Andrew Holburn Middlesex England

parents of Alexander Cummins - William Cummins b. about 1659 St. Stephens Parish VA and Anne

parents of John Landman - William Landman b. 1647 Northumberland VA and Ann b. 1651 Richmond

parents of Jane Barrow - Jonathan Barrow b. 1647 Richmond VA




Ten-Greats Grandparents -

parents of William Cummins - Nicholas Cummins b. 1636 England and Elizabeth Hooper b. 1635 St. Stephen's Parish VA

parents of William Landman - John Landman Northumberland VA and Mabel b. 1618 Northumberland


Eleven-Greats Grandparents -

parents of Nicholas Cummins - Nicholas Comins b. 1602 England and Ellen Elison b. 1610 Hampton Parish York County VA

parents of John Landman - John Landman b. 1600 VA and Mary b. 1604 VA





Twelve-Greats Grandparents -

parents of Nicholas Comins - William Cummyne b. about 1575 London England






That's about as far back as our records go for now. If anyone has any information on Viola May Ooley who married Millard Ernest Allison let me know!

Another Recurring Place of Dreams

I woke up last night and realized I had been dreaming of another place that has recurred in my dreams.

This time, the place was a dirt road. This road is about 5-10 miles long and shaped like a backwards L. The scenery on either side of the road are yellow open farm fields. There are no intersections until the road ends at a farm house. The farm house is on the left side of the road and is very old-fashioned. It is a small wood house surrounded by trees and the farmer is an old man with a straw hat. There is no modern machinery at this farm - it is all horse-and-buggy technology.

I suppose this place may be a transfiguration of the Venetucci farm near my home in real life, even though I know in my dreams it is not the Venetucci farm. Rather, it seems to me almost as if the road takes you back in time as well as moves you in place because the farm is so archaic that I almost think it is a place of the past. The road may be related to the old Bradley road, because it is L-shaped, as well.

Another road is also related to this one. The second road is apparently southeast of the first, and very different. This one is a very long two-lane paved highway, also on open plain flatlands. There is never any traffic on this road. Along this road you can find a place that just has lots of old car parts and decaying cars, you can find a lake, you can find a drive-in theater, a power transformer station, and a private airport.

This road must be related to the real life roads of Bradley, Powers, and highway 24. Powers is now a very busy road with traffic and lights everywhere. But both of these roads are East of here and all of the things mentioned exist, although looking rather different, on these roads somehow. The road in the dreams, however, is very empty, straight, and decreases in elevation. So it does not look or feel like these roads despite the similarities.

In my dreams, it seems both of these roads are rather unknown or secret - no other traffic but me most times.

In the dream last night, the road to the farm was very muddy. But I don't remember the rest of the dream and don't think the dream actually involved the farm, but only the road.

Recurring Dream Addition

I had previously posted about recurring dreams and recurring places in dreams that I have noted in my life. (You can find the post by going to the labels in the sidebar and choosing dreams).

Well, last night I had a dream that I came to realize involved a recurring place.

Where I work, all the math teachers have a math office in which there is are two long lines of work desks facing each other where we all sit and work. In my dreams, a variation of these desks exist, but they are in a huge warehouse-type building that is kind of dark. In my dream last night, these desks were under a quarter-circle glass window that went from the floor and arced up to the ceiling. We were noting that it was raining really hard outside. As soon as we said that, it stopped raining, and a few seconds later, it was snowing a dry windy blizzard snow and was snowing so much that it was instantly accumulating on the glass panes. Then I woke up.

But I remembered dreaming of this place before. In previous dreams, the rest of the warehouse was also dark and had many cubicles and partial walls. I can remember sneaking around the warehouse trying to get computer parts and software for something we needed to do but didn't have the right stuff for. I also remember the landscape outside of this building being a lot like the surroundings of my junior high when I had went there years before, except that there was a practice baseball diamond in my dream in a wrong place.

And on the subject of dreams, something interesting happened last week. It was the middle of the night and I was asleep and I dreamt that something like a small animal jumped on my bed or someone hit my bed. Then, it happened for real, being strong enough to wake me up. I have no idea what actually made the bed move because I don't have any animals that move about the house and no one else was there. But it felt like someone punched the bed down near my feet, or something like that. I was not startled and didn't feel afraid, I just went back to sleep. But when I thought about it later, I thought it was pretty strange - nothing like that ever happened before that I can think of.

Recurring Places and Themes in Dreams

Well this morning I woke up with those tell-tale signs of impending cold-type illness contracted from the hazards of being a public school teacher. Along with that, I awoke from a dream that was one of several "recurring" ones I've had over the course of my life. They're never exactly the same, but I have had a lot of dreams where places that exist only in my dreams reoccur or in which certain themes reoccur. Many of them were restricted to childhood dreams, but some into adulthood as well. When they reoccur, it is rare and often years apart.

The one this morning, I can't remember all the details anymore, but the recurring part is that somehow I ended up in this small mall that doesn't really exist. In my dreams, however, there is a small mall (like The Citadel or something, or rather, maybe one wing of it) but it exists either on Security Blvd. in Security or near Main in Fountain. Why on earth every now and again would this non-existent mall end up in my dreams, I don't know, but it does. Not often, but it has come back on more than one occasion, which makes it interesting. I could give you detail of all the stores, which do not really exist in the real world either, and the layout of the place. And when I first woke up, it was so real that for a moment I doubted if it were not really real but I had just 'forgotten'. Because I had been there many times before and knew a great deal about it - the escalators, the secret passageway into a back elevator, the old chandelier in a fancy department store, the great bookstore that had discarded library books that were special and dad and I loved. Sometimes it was actually a library, and there was a spiraling stair case down a tower to the kids' section, and at the top of the tower was an observatory. Sometimes this library was not in the mall but somewhere else like a campus and I had to sneak to get the books I wanted and into the secret parts of the library as it was highly guarded and had heavy electronic security. Sometimes the mall would be bigger and had long curving hallways. In this mall, it was not located near here, but it was dark and had a game room with one of those gumball machines that gave really special prizes (although I can't remember what they were). And in that big mall, it was always a struggle to find the exit without getting locked in and trapped, and if you got out, then you couldn't find your car because the parking lots had literally moved, and so I would end up trying to walk/run home for about 20 miles, again feeling in a hurry, and trying to make shortcuts through neighborhoods. None of these streets really exist, but I could describe every storefront, draw a map of the streets, the houses, where certain people lived along the way, etc. But it was one of those dreams that you never get home, it just ends before then, probably by waking you up due to frustration and repetition - getting stuck in a repeating cycle that never progresses.

Another dream that seemed very real was a recurring one I had as a kid. This dream was probably the most recurring and most realistic of all my dreams. It was so real that for years I thought it was indeed real until one day I actually thought about it for some reason and realized it was impossible - but I had to actually reason it out to conclude it never could have happened. You see, this dream involves the floor duct in my childhood bedroom (for the heating system.) I vividly remember as a child getting out of bed at night, taking the vent cover off ( which is maybe 12 by 4 inches), and crawling into the duct (which in reality is only 3-4 inches across in many places). The duct curled back tightly under my room to underneath my closet where it opened into a room about the same size as the closet and there were many other paths and turns, too. I cannot remember any longer the details of what I did there, but there were creatures or people that I met and talked to. I believe I did shrink to get there, and the people/creatures were also small. There were notes pinned on the duct walls on yellowed paper. At the time, I could draw a map for you of the ductworks I traveled through in my dreams in precise detail. I was sure I had been there, until realizing it must have been only dreamt.

Another place of dreams related to the closet - my closet was above a staircase, so it had a steep ramp on its right side. In my dreams, I could climb up the ramp, push through a secret door, and enter a fantastic secret library that contained anything I wanted to know. When I got older, it became a library with secret undetectable computers that contained all knowledge and did anything I wanted them to.

Another recurring place dream - I used to dream long ago that I would be driving through my neighborhood and when I got to about where I happen to live now (about 1-2 miles from my childhood home), all the streets would change name and direction completely and become a foreign place. Also, I used to have a recurring dream about a secret place found by following the railroad tracks south from this place (where the old Safeway is). You could access the secret place only by following a man in a black top hat driving a push cart - you'd have to run after him, and you'd end up in a beautiful secluded forest glade type area. Sometimes the push cart man would chase you away or chase after you so you couldn't get in or he'd get too far ahead and the forest glade would never appear. Sometimes it was the full moon you followed to get there.

The last recurring place dream I can remember right now is one about an elementary school playground. My real elementary playground was a big gravel yard enclosed by chain link fence. In my recurring dream, the playground was also a big gravel yard enclosed by chain link, but was not intended as the same place and did not look quite the same as the real one. In my dreams, the playground was filled to the top of the chain link fence with gravel and had dunes even higher. The only exception was a trench that was a few feet wide that followed the fence just inside its perimeter all the way around. We kids would hide in the trench unless we were running stealthily from dune to dune to try to get to the only feature on the playground - a downed plane - a big one, decaying and partly buried in the sand. But we were always either trying to get there or hide from people who were there.

As for recurring themes in dreams,

I do remember having dreams of flying, but never flying fast, always more like swimming or floating in the air.

I also would have dreams of running as hard as I could but moving in slow motion and never gaining ground. This happened more in the days when I was a runner in real life.

I also had dreams of finding out right before final exams that I had registered for a class and forgotten about it and so had not attended it all semester. So now, I was desperately trying to pass the class by acing the final. But, in the dream, I was racing to where the final was supposed to be and when I would get there, there would be a sign on the door saying it had moved all the way across campus and I would run again and again trying to get there but never actually getting there. This one would occasionally happen even for years after I graduated from college, in fact, I don't think I had that dream while I was actually in college, but only after.

I also (only as an adult) would have dreams of my teeth crumbling. It didn't hurt and I wasn't bothered in my dreams, but rather I was fascinated by the feel of the teeth crumbling in my mouth and would playing with them with my tongue, which only made them crumble further. That one was also very realistic so that I at times had doubts that at least some of my teeth had not really crumbled.

Now, some of these dreams have had meaning - such as the teeth dream, which I felt had meaning, possibly it meant change or evolution in my life, neither good or bad, and dreams about running in place or final exams or streets changing related to stress, being too busy, wanting more control, etc.

Some seemed to be living out fantasies - such as the secret library behind the ramp in my closet. (In a later version, it was a secret computer room on my college campus).

But some apparently existed for their own-selves - such as the forest glade or the duct dream - and I tend to wonder if maybe, in some out-of-body kind of way, there really wasn't some reality to that duct one - in an unreal kind of way, of course.

The most 'real' reaction I ever had to dream comes from one I don't even remember. But once, when I was in junior high, I awoke from a dream, knowing and positive that it was time to get up and get ready for school and mom would come to wake me in a few minutes. But I was wide awake, so I got up in the dark (it was winter) and got dressed, went to the bathroom, etc., to get ready for school, and when I came out of the bathroom I saw on a clock it was only about 12:30 p.m. I was shocked because I had been certain it was time to get up and go to school. I had another 'real' one in junior high I don't remember anymore - in it, my homeroom and math teacher had said something I can no longer recall. I didn't remember the dream at all, until one day I was sitting in class and I suddenly remembered what she had said and began to think it really strange and puzzling, finally realizing she could not have said it and I had dreamt it - but somehow subconsciously I had been operating for some time in my daily class life as if she had said it - very strange, that one, and wish I could remember what she had said in my dream, some nonsense thing.

Well maybe I'll think of more later. But maybe others will blog about their dreams, too!