ENCOUNTER: THE LAKE: 1965-66
[Sumner County, Kansas; Date: 1965-1966; 4-5th grade time frame; Residence(s): Sanford Hughes Place, and the Pettigrew Place on N HWY 81.]
At Wellington Lake, west of town, there were small dirt tracks meandering through stands of pine and other trees planted much earlier to stop erosion rather than provide an attractive lake view. I recall being with some of my family, perhaps for a picnic or church event or just a happenstance of a pleasant day, but definitely something where other people were present.
Again, there was the odd silence that muffled sounds and a cloudy caste to the sky I would swear had been sunny – lighter- a short time earlier.
The silence was that cotton-in-your-ears kind of absence of sound.
I could hear the throb of my heart and the tide – the ebb and flow of blood flowing - - of my breath.
Movement is next. I recall a slow speed movement in myself and slower than normal movement in others I saw.
The sky draws my attention and I gaze upwards. It is a dome. I seem to recognize that or have some familiarity with that notion. No words just a concept of a hazy clear bowl upside down overhead. There is a hazy and gray cast to it that seems to explain the decrease of light and the muting of the hues and colors seen earlier. The wind has died down to utter stillness and the sweater I had worn because of the cool breeze now needless.
I glance upwards again. Something is up there. I sense it and feel it to be there. Something is ahead as well. The sandy road seems very detailed to me as if I can count and touch every pebble and grain. The road stretches out in infinite detail and dimension yet nothing changes. My soundless steps in the sandy loam of the road is distinct and I can feel the shifting as my feet move forward. I move yet do not actually progress forward.
Then there is a memory of cars and other people crowded to the side of the narrow curving lane. Tall pine like trees beyond them. Everyone is standing as if frozen. I walk past them... They stand motionless looking toward something and do not see me. One is a young woman in a wide floral skirt who is half in and half out of an old car (similar to an old converted hotrod).
I was scared...but it was – distant, as if I was drugged or cut off from all emotion...
As I dug through some old family pictures to scan and preserve, I ran across several showing a trip to the lake in the fall of about my 5th grade year. They appear to be early fall and there is no memory associated with the circumstances of the pictures being taken.
Oddly, for many years, the night sky would seem to call to me. There was a strange longing as I gazed into the inky blackness dotted by small glittering lights. That feeling, unlike the memories enumerated here, faded after some years. All I know is these were my experiences as completely and as factually detailed as I can make them. Perhaps it is all, as Charles Dickens, once suggested in ‘A Christmas Carol’ all caused by an undigested portion of poor beef or perhaps it is caused by some undiagnosed brain malady.
Some might say the over active imagination of a child. Yet, it is the nature of the memories that give pause. They are sharper, clearer, and more significant seeming than any other memories of dreams or childhood play.
The Reports 1965 [fourth grade- fifth grade]
In Kansas July 22, 1965 a report of military witness (es) from Forbes AFB covered 13 pages in Blue Book. The trend seemed to be tossing out scientific terms to impress and astound. At a stop sign the witnesses got out to observe the object described as a small elongated object looking like a dime on its narrow side was observed and estimated to be about 15 miles away. It was shiny silver in color and the left side was brighter than the right side although the sun was shining on the right of the stationary object. It was finally obscured by clouds moving in and the witness left noting that there had been no motion and familiar with celestial bodies and aircraft could not identify the thing, Winds were clocked at 16 knots from 050 degrees. Inside the report the noted that no weather balloons had been reported by Topeka or Forbes. Small showers were west of Kansas City but did not show on radar. There was seven miles visibility and 6/10 cloud cover. Investigation had no scientific or technical background which would aid evaluation. Object was one half the size of a dime (held at arm’s length), was seven degrees above horizon. The summary conclusion for this sighting was “object astronomical (perihelia). Object was stationary. Position of sun in relation to reported object consistent with perihelion sighting.” Just what was in perihelion is unnamed. Perihelion denotes the time when an object is closest, or aphelion, to the sun (planet, asteroid, and comet) which occurs in December at the solstice and furthest in June. So the use of the term appears incorrect without naming what was close to the sun; what they end up saying is basically something was close to the sun. Well, duh. Also, unaddressed is the fact that the side of the object opposite to the sun shone brighter (65-07-7437955 Forbes AFB,KS. PBB).
August 1, 1965 was a Sunday and reports of UFO’s cropped up over eight western states and Monday officials at Wright Patterson said they and Project Blue Book they represented were “satisfied they were the result of natural phenomena,” except for one radar blip in Wichita, Kansas. The military spokesman from Tinker in Oklahoma City also had a blip but indicated that what hundreds of people saw had been the planet Jupiter or assorted stars. The writer added, “Ordinary radar does not pick up planets or stars.” Local planetarium director in Oklahoma also noted the stars and planets suggested were not in the sky to be seen at the time.
Closer to home on that first Sunday of August 1965, however, was the report that a Deputy Sheriff Everett Tucker of Wellington, Kansas, along with his wife had seen a “cigar shaped silvery thing in the sky” about 4:50 a.m. CST. It had a reddish vapor trail and moved rapidly to the north. A Wellington police officer had observed one object through binoculars and said it was about the length of three cars, was egg-shaped, and moved in an erratic manner along a straight path.”[i]
Again as evidence of strange things in the neighborhood - August 8, 1965 ten miles east of Seneca, Kansas a 22 year old from Kansas City, Missouri observed an object for about 1-2 minutes. It was described as oval-fat, almost round object grey-white in color noted because it was a light object in a night sky and because it remained near the ground. Estimated it to be about a half mile away from observer but moving toward him to within ten yards. Object then made a sharp turn to the right and disappeared suddenly. Size of an automobile about ½ mile away. Windy, cloudy with moonlight. Noted inversion at 8000 feet. Summary conclusion was “insufficient data” since FORM 164 sent but not returned with further information. (1865-08-7472489 Seneca, KS. PBB).
As summer was winding down in 1965 and the first days of August arrived headlines bloomed with the news “Flying Objects Zooming Over State” by a Bill Stevens from an Oklahoma City paper informing readers of sightings from Purcell (southcentral), to Tulsa (northeast), and to Guymon (in the panhandle). A similar article by a Jack Taylor in an unidentified newspaper was “Sky Objects Excite Region.”
In northeastern Kansas and the community of Prairie Village on August 10th something strange happened when a civilian witness saw an object for 3-5 minutes. The night was clear with a moon when the witness saw a silver-white triangular object- with a red glow above the triangle. Red light appeared larger than an airplane. It came from the SE then turn sharply north before it disappeared from sight. An airplane was seen a few minutes after the object disappeared. Plane was clearly visible and contrasted with object. (1965-08-7473144, Prairie Village, Kansas, PBB).
In mid-September near Lyons in central Kansas an observer sighted an oval-shaped silver object with white lights extending out in all directions. The summary page of the Blue Book file read a “single object” and it was labeled with ‘insufficient data” and a probable sighting of Venus except for the duration and positional data omitted because the witness had not filed a FORM 165. Inside the report was a letter the witness had sent to someone at the Department of Defense (dated 14 September) “I saw aircraft which was unlike anything that the general public is aware of…This was witnessed by thirty other people…one was a police officer… I am very concerned...” and the President (dated 15 September 1965) where the witness stated “…three round objects flew over my community…not airplanes.”
These letters earned a response that would become standard with requests to fill out the FORM 165: “In 18 years of investigating over 9000 reports” the Air Force was noted as the report agency for such phenomena, “the evidence has provided almost conclusively that “they are “objects either created and sent aloft by men, generated by atmospheric conditions, or caused by celestial bodies or residue of meteorite activity…” (1965-09-8677117, Lyons, Kansas. PBB).
