So after a long time of searching last night, I think I figured out what the "metal things" in my dream were.
I instinctively know that they have something to do with electricity, so I assumed it was a power plant and I even thought they were the pylons that Kolchak mentioned.
However, once I looked through Google images of pylons and transmitters, they were too tall, too widely-spaced and just not right.
Finally, I found a few images of substations and they were almost exactly what I always saw in my dream. But what I found really weird was that I've never, to my knowledge, seen a substation before. I was almost certain I had at one point or another, but once I saw the actual image, I knew I haven't ever. Except in my dream.
This is really weirding me out because I knew specifically what I was looking for, right down to the chainlink fence that surrounds the majority of the substation images.
The only problem is that the image of the metal plate in the ground seems to be for temporary construction. However, I feel as if the metal plating in my dream is more permanent, somehow.
In answer to the question about my interest (or lack of) in the 1960's Midwest, I have to say I haven't had much outside the dream.
I'm about to graduate from college, though, and in looking for graduate schools, I felt almost drawn to Illinois. I'm actually planning a trip to Chicago with my sister in about two months and I'm extremely excited about it. More excited than I've ever been about any trip, actually. I just keep thinking that Chicago is going to feel like "home" which is odd because I don't really like big cities that much. I'm actually thinking about settling somewhere outside Chicago, but near it, after I finish graduate school
In addition, I'm not sure this relates much to the dream because in it, I live in a small, quiet town--not quite rural, but a far cry from Chicago's size. So if there's a link there, I'm not finding it.
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As for the medieval dream...well, I'm not sure I was a nun. Perhaps I was just in a convent? I don't know.
I'm an English major with a strong interest in history, but I've developed a strong affection for medieval literature over the past year or so. The minute I sat down in my first medieval lit. class, I was hooked.
I've also studied French for the past 6 1/2 years, which made no sense because my hometown has a large hispanic population. I was what I can only call "naturally" good at French in the beginning. I'd miss a day of class, come back the next day and get top score on a test.
But once I started studying French in college and the language became all about grammar and preciseness, I wasn't good at it anymore. I don't know what happened. Part of me feels like, with a different learning method, I'd still be good at it, but that's not something I'm in a position to explore at this point.
I mention the French language because it has been invaluable to me in my study of medieval literature and Middle English. It's like, as a 14-year-old, I knew that when I was 21 yrs. old, I'd decide to study the Middle Ages, so I needed French.
Okay, enough rambling there; I'm definitely not getting anywhere.
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Now the final dream about WWII. I don't remember much since I only had that dream one time and it was a few years ago.
I remember that I was wearing a very loose, crisp white shirt tucked into my pants rather high on my waist. My hair was down, I think. Dark brown and curling gently at my shoulders. I had peculiar eyes. Not deformed, really...just something odd about them.
One side of the room is full of windows that are spilling light into the room. The furniture is dark, dark wood. Highly polished.
First I'm at the table with my parents. It's just me and my parents. Then we move over to the couches, I want to call them couches but something just made me hesitate.
Vi-chow? That's the word that keeps coming to me.
...I just Googled this, but nothing came up. So on a whim, I looked at an English-German dictionary for "couch."
Die couch. Not really all that similar to "vi-chow".
Anyway, as I said above, I'm very interested in history. Mostly ancient history involving Greece and Rome; medieval history (European, but mostly France and England); then there's a big jump past the Renaissance, to American history from early settlement up to the Civil War (say 1600's-mid 1800's). Then another small jump where I'm interested in WWI and II (particularly II).
As I said in my previous post, I'm just very curious about how I know if I'm regressing or if I just have an active imagination fueled by my interest in history.
I do, however, find my "discovery" of the substation images rather interesting, though.
The skeptic in me wants to challenge everything, but the believer thinks there's something compelling in all of this.
) about when I was told by an incorporated spiritual entity that my wife was pregnant of our youngest daughter, when my wife was only two weeks into her pregnancy, and neither of us even imagined that she was... 
:thumbsup:
Some people don't see historical validation as important, and think what they remember is true to them and they are remembering it for a reason - and that's enough. I can understand both views.