The other night my girlfriend and I were in Walgreen’s buying toiletries and such, and we made our way to the magazine rack. She bought a magazine about the lifestyles of the rich and famous, while I bought Open Minds, a publication about UFOs. I haven’t opened it up yet, so it was probably a waste of money. Actually, it was definitely a waste of money. It doesn’t matter because I wanted it at the time. The definition of impulse buying I suppose.
Like a lot of people, I have always been fascinated with UFOs. When in a bookstore, I will usually end up in the UFOs/Ghosts/Vampires aisle looking a books by Erich von Daniken and Richard Hoagland. Heck, I even made a pilgrimage to Roswell, New Mexico and the International UFO Museum and Research Center. While there, I saw this realistic display of an alien autopsy.
And this replication of Mayan art that is supposed to show an astronaut.
Is it real? I don’t know. But, it’s cool to think about. Last night, my girlfriend and I saw Zero Dark Thirty, and it was the first time I have seen Area 51 in a movie that did not involve aliens. That has nothing to do with this post, but that’s pretty cool, too.
As a UFO buff, I must admit that I have had a UFO experience. It wasn’t an encounter of the third or fourth kind, but it was an encounter. During my high school days, my buddy and I were out on the town doing things that high school kids do. The action was winding down, so I drove him home before heading to my house. As we went down the road, we noticed a light in the sky. I said something along the lines of, “What’s that?” Enlightening, I know.
“It’s probably a radio tower.”
“There’s never been a radio tower there before. Besides, they have red lights, and that one keeps changing colors.”
We watched it until we pulled into his driveway. That’s when we just stood in his front yard and stared at it.
“Maybe it’s an airplane.”
“It’s not moving.”
“Maybe it’s a helicopter.”
“Maybe, but it’s not making noise.”
At some point, we realized that we were not going to figure it out, so he went inside to get his dad. You need to understand that his dad was a prominent politician and held one of the most powerful offices in the state. This was no flunky that we were pulling out of bed to look at a UFO.
He came out bleary eyed and stared at it with us. Suddenly, a bright ray of light shot out of it toward the ground and stopped just as suddenly. It wasn’t a spotlight. It was like a laser beam. His dad never said a word. He just went to bed. After a while, my buddy went inside, too.
I drove home with the light still hovering in the distance and stood outside to watch until I couldn’t stay awake anymore. The next day, I called my friend to talk about it, but he didn’t want to talk.
“I’m not talking about it.”
“Why not?”
“Because people will think we are crazy.”
“I know what I saw, and it was a UFO.”
“No it wasn’t. There’s no such thing as aliens.”
“Who said anything about aliens? It was an object flying in the air, and we couldn’t identify it. That’s what a UFO is.”
“Whatever, I didn’t see anything.”
Three people saw an Unidentified Flying Object. One (his dad) never mentioned it again. Another (my buddy) denied seeing it. The other (me) buys a UFO magazine and hangs out in the UFO aisle at the bookstore.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 