Morning of December 18, 1971. Saturday. (Original date corrected and validated.)

My childhood dream of being followed by a brontosaurus (apatosaurus) across a bridge until I decided to jump (and by which, after seemingly falling a fair distance, I then landed heavily on a window which then broke, cutting into my feet) was based on a hodgepodge of real-life experiences:

1. The movie "Dinosaurus" (1960) which I first saw at my older sister's (Marilyn) Rose Street apartment in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1966 as well as reading the Dell comic book adaptation at the time.

2. The redundantly titled movie "The Giant Behemoth" (1959) which I first saw in the late 60s in Florida.

3. An accident that I had as a toddler that nearly severed my left hand, caused by my fall upon a broken larger glass mug (including one larger triangular piece) from a higher distance that broke just prior to my fall upon it. I still have the large scar, which, amusingly enough, looks much like a reversed map of Florida (that winds around my wrist), where it happened.

4. A real life location - the playground at my elementary school in Florida, which was quite realistic in orientation and overall appearance (unlike in many cases with other dreams).

5. A real life location - the El Jobean bridge in Port Charlotte, Florida, but which looked much longer and more like a suspension bridge in my dream (probably with superimposed details from one of the many monster movies I saw when younger).

6. My home in Cubitis, my dream starting near the front of the rabbit shed in the backyard.

There is a brontosaurus (apatosaurus) near the front of our rabbit shed near the doorway very early in the morning (as it is still dark out). It was apparently somehow frozen and dug up during some work my father was doing to make a larger rabbit farm. Just as in the "Dinosaurus" movie, the brontosaur comes to life with a lightning strike and a somewhat quirky stop motion animation feel (which many of my childhood dreams had).

However, instead of the brontosaur being tame and even friendly as in the more comedic "Dinosaurus" movie, it then assumes a presence of actually being more like the creature from "The Giant Behemoth" and, sensing potential danger (but at the same time having a vague awareness that in actuality I am instigating the chase for potential excitement as in almost all such dreams), I decide to take precaution and simply run as fast and as far south from my home as I can. Getting to the El Jobean bridge in Port Charlotte (which has somewhat of a superimposed location awareness as something I saw relating to a London bridge in a movie I think, as again, the El Jobean bridge does not have the features of a suspension bridge in the middle section other than in my dream), I decide to cross, as there are no cars anywhere (yet I also get some sort of fleeting impressions of almost toy-like cars of various colors such as green, blue, and red, from the 1940s being around somewhere). I get this feeling that such a large creature would not be able to cross the bridge and even if he/she did, the bridge would probably collapse (and perhaps I would then be safe on the other side). The dinosaur is of a darker blackish green color with sort of an oily appearance, not quite scaly. (The "brontosaur" in the "The Giant Behemoth" movie is actually more tyrannosaurus-like relating to head and such, but in my dream, it is still a bit more like the one from "Dinosaurus".)

I get about halfway to two-thirds of the way across the bridge when I see the brontosaur still following me - oriented somewhat more to the west than where I am. I am somewhat concerned that the bridge may collapse "too soon" (before I get all the way across), so in assuming some sort of "dream logic" I start to climb over the east side of the bridge (the side that would also be oriented towards the direction of my home) and jump, hoping the bridge, if or when it falls, will not fall on or near me.

After I fall, I land heavily, feet flat and somehow standing (but knees bending slightly from the force), going through one of the panes of a large wooden four-paned window. The feeling and event is probably also borrowed (as well as from the toddler experience of the fall and the deep wrist cut) from real life events where I used to jump from the monkey bars at school as well as foundation pillars (a little less than roof level) of the shed my father was building and usually landing feet flat and standing (trying this later on, when a teenager, I felt a tremendous pain in my groin as well as hurting both my legs, so that was the last time I did that - so perhaps this dream was also a warning which I did not heed).

I then briefly feel intense cold pain in my feet (similar to the feeling in my wrist I vaguely remember from the accident as a toddler). A sort of numbness is there but it does not really bother me that much. The "crash" of the window breaking was fairly loud to me but somewhat staccato (due to it lying on the ground I suppose). I look around and wonder why I landed in the western side of the playground of my school (seemingly on a weekend) and not the ocean. In fact, I am nowhere near the ocean and feel a bit puzzled. The dinosaur threat has seemingly completely vanished as well.

However, I need to take care of the matters at hand so I then sit down on the ground and begin to pull the large, flat, triangular pieces of glass from the bottom of my feet (the glass sections covering nearly the entire area of both my feet). There is hardly any blood, curiously enough. It seems to be in the morning, perhaps around seven o'clock. The brontosaur was struck by lightning and came to life around nine at night, yet the bridge chase seemed to occur around late afternoon or early evening just prior to sunset, so this dream had unusual time distortions.

There seemed to be a sequel years later. (See link.)