About “Tropical Dream”

In the winter of 1981-1982 my man and I were in the middle of building a half-log
cabin; actually, reassembling a cabin he had deconstructed previously. It was a
small shack about 18’ x 20’ as I recall. There were skylights cut into the saltbox
roof but the actual skylight windows had not yet been installed. Plastic sheeting
covered the holes.

When the wind picked up and it started snowing, the plastic sheeting began to
peel off the skylight openings. They were a good 16’ up in the air and I was alone.
This is what inspired the song Tropical Dream.

Imagining I was warm, bathed in sunlight with a cool breeze blowing actually
helped me feel better but I was irritated that I was alone in this situation so my
man became the important missing piece in this particular puzzle. He was far
away from my location at that particular moment. (Down at Sportsman’s Bar doing
some day drinking!)

When he finally made it home, we had a good laugh about the situation and put
extra blankets on our loft bed that night as there was no way to fix the openings
until morning. It was the start of a long, cold winter in Presque Isle, WI.

Track 1: Tropical Dream – lead guitar: Dennis Flink, acoustic guitar and vocals: Pauline Trabert