Recurring dream

Mr. Hayes called me at work to let me know he heard on WGNS's Swap 'n Shop that I was looking for rotary phones. He said he had about 60 of them and offered a very good price. So we set up time for today to meet up at his place.

Mr. Hayes gave me the kind of directions where turns weren't as clear to me as they were to him. When he got to the street address, I jotted it down and popped it in Google maps. Luckily, ihis property got captured on Google Street View. As soon as I saw that red truck in his yard, I knew I found the right place. It was still there.

Mr. Hayes, 77, walked me to his garage warning me to watch my step. We wound through a dimly lit maze of stacked antiques and junk to a back wall where I saw phones and cords sticking out from a wood bin.

Mr. Hayes reached up into the bin and shook loose a phone. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for. He continued to dig through the pile and eventually pulled out a huge molted skin of a snake out. He told me he was trying to catch the thing and said not to worry if I saw it before he did. He made the point to tell me it was a harmless black snake. I handed him the phone and he placed it back in the bin.

He then began searching for the much older versions I was looking for. We eventually made it out to a side house where he showed me an old wall mount that he used several decades ago. He said the children used to play on it and call the house from there.