The Stuff of Dreams Crapola?

    I dreamt last night that I was shopping at Cohoes Mills.  No, not the Wanna-be snooty Cohoes Manufacturing Company, but before that, when it was  a bare-bones old mill with a store.  

     When we were young and cared a lot about appearances, having  exactly the right outfit for any one of a number of special occasions, we would spend a lot of time shopping. Oh, the usual places we'd go---Denby's, Peerless, The Towne Shop, Frear's (kind of dowdy), Up-To-Date Shop (kind of matronly), and probably  a few more. Usually we had success, sometimes not. Then one day Ruth was shopping with others for a special dress. It may have been for an occasion at Eastern Star, of which she was a member. They went to Cohoes Mills and she found exactly what she was looking for. She described it to us:  "If you can't find the dress you want there, it doesn't exist. They have a huge room filled wall to wall with dresses." 

    So we would go there to shop, and sometimes, not always, find what we wanted. It was the kind of place where you would go to get the item you wanted, not a place to browse. There was no attempt to appeal to the buyer, just clothing on hangers against the broad length of the 4 walls in a room. 

   My dream took me to that location, though not directly. Against a background of complicated driving and direction, I found myself right at the old Cohoes Mills building. I didn't really intend to buy anything, but what caught my eye was a dress vey similar to one I owned back in the heyday.It was a straight-line rust colored dress with a subtle ivory design. I looked at it, passing by. It was Size Small. A woman nearby commented it was a nice dress. I remembered it as such; wearing it I received a lot of compliments. So I went back and took another look, found one in my size, but it turned out the dress was made of paper. That did not necessarily dissuade me. I actually once bought a dress made of paper, back in the 60's. It was blue, and I wore it once. (It would be a collector's item today.) So I considered buying the dress in Cohoes today, but then decided its pricetag of $7.39 would not justify a single wearing.  (What a cheapskate!