Morning of February 17, 1973. Saturday.
This was a longer impersonal dream that related to similar dreams about unusual aircraft. Doing a bit of research I was able to “unlock” some additional associations which I will relate at the end of this entry that I had not went into as much detail with in my original journal when living in Florida.
I am in Cubitis in my backyard and yet am watching something like a documentary unfolding at the same time in a different location (hard to explain - but the airplane seems to stay in one part of the sky far longer than what would be possible). At times, I seem to be closer to the airplane as if I am somehow in the sky watching the scene (but not when the safety of the airplane is threatened).
I watch an experimental aircraft called the “Black Robin”. It actually looks somewhat like a soaring bird in design, with a sort of curving pattern on the backs of the wings that reminds me of bird feathers. Also in my dream are (false) “memories” and associations with a very high increase in car crashes in the region. These crashes were caused by lovebugs getting into the engines. (These are real bugs that fly around in twos, attached to each other’s “tail”, so to speak.) To stop this problem, people normally cover their grill with a screen.
The Black Robin airplane, which is on its first trip and with a large number of mostly tourists, is “attacked” by lovebugs as they swarm into important parts of the plane to cause a fatal malfunction (as well as “cloud up” the windows for the pilots). The Black Robin aircraft is of the same colors as the lovebugs (orange and black) in very similar proportions. Eventually, the airplane begins to smoke and it crashes somewhere north of my home, probably in the cow pasture. Not much happens after that. There is some sort of “tribute parade” in the town center later on (seemingly watched on television or perhaps from a camera view or impersonal or non-in-dream distance), where, for some reason, they have large clusters of cannons on some of the floats (recurring early 1970s). There is a very slight awareness of characters from “Gilligan’s Island” in the parade.
Eventually, the Black Robin’s fate becomes more of a “legend” or supposed urban myth (similar to real-life myths about lovebugs). I first heard this term (urban legend) sometime around 1972 or so - this was the first time I heard it in a dream - but am aware it is actually based on a real event. I feel somewhat puzzled, even mournful over this realization in my dream. It was as if the experimental airplane never existed and the histories of those tourists aboard were covered up.
Part of this may have been influenced by (although it is guesswork but using a fairly logical approach) the “Love and the Baby Derby” episode of “Love American Style” (apparently aired the night before on the 16th), with Bob Denver (of “Gilligan’s Island”). This is because “Derby” rhymes with “Herbie” and Herbie is the “love bug”, but relating to a Volkswagen (my wife always breaks out laughing when a certain commercial airs here - because it sounds like something else when they say it on the ad).
Years later, when I sometimes did additional “collective” stages of dream work, I thought that “Fly Robin Fly” was connected with this dream, but I checked and see that the song was apparently not released until 1975. Curious; possibly related to a newer version of my dream I had not bothered to document or a false memory of layered associations. Although Lisa M (neighbor girl) eventually had a younger sister named Robin, I do not believe there is a connection. Apparently there are even more urban myths or urban legends now about lovebugs than when I was much younger. They also call them “kissing bugs”. However, this is kind of silly in that it is their “tails” that are attached, not their “lips” (bugs do not even have “lips”).
