On today’s bill here at the Bogardi Movie Palace is “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud.” This movie was released in early 1975 so I’m not sure where I saw it first. There are a few possibilities, first it could have been in the on-base movie theater in Patuxent River Naval Air Station, either with or without Donna. Or maybe I saw it along with a handful of fellow sailors on the hanger deck on the U.S. Midway. Another possibility is that Donna and I saw it on VHS sitting on our own couch in Millington, TN or Meridian, MS.
Where ever it was, it creeped me the f*ck out. The premise of the movie is, well, in the title. This guy is having very vivid and intense dreams, it feels like he is actually there and in them, but the guy doesn’t look anything like him. In these dreams there are these brief flashes of places, there is a very distinct bridge, a large church and a statue.
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- Bridge
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- Church
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- Statue
The thing is, I actually knew these places. I could picture them in my head, but for the life of me I couldn’t place them in the real world. Was I reincarnated too? I can’t remember exactly when I found out those images were tied to my childhood memories, could be anywhere from the 1980’s to the 2010’s. I also can’t remember how it came up in topic on the Santa Fe to Hammond to Santa Fe road trip with Sally, but I regaled her with my first being creeped out by the movie to my solving the riddle of those images.
In several summers growing up, we kids (Me, sister Diane and brother Paul) would go and stay with our grandmother in Springfield, MA for a week. Every time we went there it was pretty much the same routine. There was one thing planned for each day and after that we to be quiet and play in our bedroom. Three of the day’s events meant we would walk down a couple blocks to downtown, the first day was always to the toy store so we’d have something to play with. One was to the Natural History Museum and then the other, a favorite restaurant, The Waterfall, where we got to have a milkshake.
We drove across that bridge to get to Springfield, that church was right down the street from her apartment and the statue (The Puritan) was at the museum.