Rang Dream

Last night I dreamt that I walked into a room in my parent's old house and bumped into my grandfather, who was all dressed up for St. Patrick's Day with dark green sportcoat and a kelly green tie. He was even wearing a green bowler hat. He was happy and had a twinkle in his eye. It was strange to look him face to face and put my arm around him; he seemed so small. He was old, but healthy.

His friends called him Rang, short for Rangval, his Norwegian name. He was dressed up, I'm sure, to go out and sing barbershop quartet songs with his group, the Vallyaires.

Only after I woke up did I realize that he seemed small to me because, in the dream, I was my full-sized adult self but was a little boy when he died, so all of my memories of him are as a towering adult. It's strange to have such a realistic dream of someone who died 30 years ago, to dream of him in a proportion that I never knew, and to remember every detail and line in his face.