3 posts tagged “camera mart”

It was about time I had my re-occurring Camera Mart dream.
Back Story: I worked at Camera Mart for 5 or 6 years in the late 80's and early 90's. I loved it at first then grew to hate it. I still dream about working there after all this time. I have never dreamed about the place and not known in the dream that I didn't really work there anymore or that I have been away for many years and I am just coming back for a quick visit. I always have a sense of "this is not real, but let's see where it goes."

The Dream
As usual, I am wandering around the store trying to find something to do. I see Mike (who in real life has been deceased for about 3 years or more). We talk but I can't remember what about. I wish I could. Talking to dead people in my dreams seems like it could be important.
He looks really thin, and I make a mental note of this. He is dressed in his usual pocket front t-shirt, 70's style basketball shorts (the really short and tight ones with the piping) and sneakers. Usually the dreams look very blue shadowed, this time it was just sort of murky and lowly saturated.
The dream was pretty boring, other than there seemed to be a problem with some new workers...and even though the other people in the store were really bothered by this, I didn't seem to care. This pissed off the people who were complaining about the new workers. I also noticed there weren't any cameras or film processing equipment in the store, so I have no idea what everyone was doing there.
At one point Nancy (the other owner) told me to go outside and clean up the parking lot. Sure, Nance! Anything to get the hell out of that store.

I worked at a place called Camera Mart for about 5 years over 15 years ago and I STILL have regular dreams about the place. Since the first of the year, I have dreamed about Camera Mart 3 times.

When I worked there I dreamed about it a lot. The workplace was dysfunctional and stressful and it overflowed in to every part of my life, even my sleep. The dreams made me feel like I never went home!

There was one particular dream I had where the owner, Nancy, was in my grill about something with that shrill shrieking voice and I just clubbed up my fist and smashed it in her face. She went down like one of those blow up clown punching bags. And much like those clown punching bags, she popped back up and she was laughing. So I punched her again and again and she just kept getting back up and laughing. So then I grabbed her neck and shook her like Homer shakes Bart...and she just kept on laughing.

Mike was the other owner of the store - and Nancy's exhusband. They were married when I worked there, got a divorce after I left and Mike married an employee shortly after the divorce. One big weird family...

Mike loved his store, loved being known as the best photo-finisher in town, loved being king dog. Anyone who knew him knew this about him. When the business was torched and he was found smoldering at the scene, many were shocked. He later died from his injuries. All the collected evidence points to him as the arsonist...but I think there might have been some evidence that was missed. That is another story all together and this is a story about my dreams. (By the way, I was in Canada at the time of all the fires...yes, there was more than one.)

Why was I there? Why would they hire me back? Was Nancy going to totally flip out when she saw me behind the counter? These were the usual issues tackled in my Camera Mart dreams. When Mike died my Camera Mart dreams took on a whole other dimension. The first one I had came about 2 months after his passing. The big difference now were the colors of the dream space - everything was bathed in shades of blue. Also, there was no interaction between us. It was as if I was invisible to him. I would always know Mike was dead in these dreams, but in a dream it seemed normal to see dead people. Sometime in January I had a dream that I was in Camera Mart, standing next to Mike (who didn't seem to know I was there) and my father walked up to the counter, looked at me then turned around and walked away without saying a word. I said to Mike (who still didn't seem to know I was there), "I think that was my father."
 
The other night I had another Camera Mart dream. As the new usual, everything was a soothing blue. I was standing next to Mike and for the first time in the dreams since his death: We acknowledged each other. The part that doesn't make sense is that I was showing him and a few coworkers how to make a stuffed meatloaf...
But after the meatloaf lesson, I hugged him.

What was the worst job you ever had?
Submitted by salaryman.

I can't talk about it without triggering rapid flashbacks. The husband says I get a shell-shocked Vietnam Vet glaze over my eyes. In my head I hear the music of Platoon.

Camera Mart.