as a child, my family traveled very frequently - if we were not relocating to a new home because of our father's work
[more on his work later], we were taking cross-country road trips - our
favorite places were in the southwest's wide open barren landscapes
where the road stretched forever without interruption and the lights of
the next town miles and miles away could be seen with the naked eye on
the dark night horizon - my particular favorite thing was this night
riding - riding in the back seat of our "car of the year" with our
parents in the front seat and my brother and sister and i taking turns
at riding by the windows - when it was my turn for a window seat, i
would stay awake as long as i could - just to watch the night sky - the
sky dark as black velvet - peppered with millions of tiny flashing stars
- and during those "night rides" during the late 1940's through 1950's
in west texas, new mexico, arizona, nevada, specifically -
it
was nothing at all unusual for odd flying "things" to be seen in the
skies - i mean, to us, it was nothing unusual - i remember it being so
common place that one of my parents might comment, "oh, there's another
flying cigar" - most of the objects that we saw were referred to as "flying cigars"
because of their cylindrical shape - and the ones i remember had a row
of flashing lights that went round the circumference of the object - we
were never fearful of these things - not my parents or us kids - many
many times we pulled over on the side of the road to watch the object -
sometimes there was more than just one at a time - the most recent
sighting of my childhood time was when we were traveling to lubbock
texas to the funeral of my step grandfather - and traveling into the
night, we saw another cigar shaped objects with the flashing lights -
and i remember my parents talking about it with us and i remember
looking out the window to watch it as we drove -
shortly after the 1947 roswell incident,
we actually went to roswell just to see whatever was there to be seen -
there were signs and billboards and posters about aliens and space
ships everywhere -
sometime toward the middle-end of the 50's we also went to a place which i am sure is "area 51"
- my parents didn't refer to it by name and when they spoke of it, it
was always in hush-hush tones - which we knew meant something serious
but we didn't know what - in any event, on this summer trip we were
going cross-country to california - and in nevada we took a little "side
trip" - and, again, these little "side trips" were nothing at all
unusual for us - i mean, my mother might see a billboard for a group of
caves 35 miles down the next road to the right - and off we would go -
or she might see a mountain in the distance and decide that she had to
have a rock from THAT mountain and off we'd go - so, we never really had
a fixed agenda at all - ever - and this excursion was no exception -
in
any event, on this side trip, i remember the desert and mountains
around us - at some point my father turned off the two lane road and
onto a dirt road - windows down and dirt blowing in - my parents
whispering - we kids sitting and looking and not saying a word - there
was just something that we didn't understand and we knew to be quiet at
times like that - i remember seeing warning signs after a while - signs
prohibiting going further - signs warning that trespassers would be
shot without question - and i remember my father never slowing down and
the dirt swirling around us wrapping us like a hot cocoon in the car -
and then, we stopped - my father first got out of the car, then my
mother - and we were told to stay in the car - my father walked in front
of the car for a ways and my mother a bit behind - they carried a
camera with them - by then, we were transfixed by it all - i can still
remember the sound of it - the absolute total silence - the sound of the
silence - at some point, my brother and sister and i got out of the car
and started walking toward our parents who were standing closer
together now but my mother still behind - and then i remember my mother
pleading, "charles, charles, we have to leave - get back in the car -
we're going to be shot!" -- over and over - and turning to rush us to
the car - as i turned something caught my eye and i looked over my shoulder - there, on an embankment in the distance was a man with a
rifle pointed directly at us - my mother kept begging my father to get
back in the car - but he stood there, then turned toward the man with
the gun - and stood there - looking back - i remember turning again to
look back at my father as we got to the car and got inside - and he was
still in the same turned position looking directly at the man - then, he
turned toward the car and walked back, got in the car, and we drove
away - not one word was said all the way to the main highway - i do
remember my mother kept turning to look behind us on the road - but
neither of them said a word - now, i have no memory of this incidence
ever being discussed again - ever - and i do not remember ever having
seen any photographs taken that day - i cannot definitively say that
this was "area 51" - and i cannot say that this was a military
installation - i cannot say that the man with the gun was military or a
cowboy or an alien or anything else - i cannot say that the weapon the
man pointed was a rifle [it had a long barrel and the man had it up to
his shoulder] -
in terms of my father's work - i cannot say for sure even what that was - i can say that we were told that he was a "purchasing agent" for the government [but not active military] - i can say that we kids knew that he could not tell our mother where he was going or why he was going when he traveled without us [which was also very frequently] - i can say that our mother once made the mistake, according to my sister who remembers this event very clearly - and only once - of divulging something that our father had told her regarding his work and upon telling her, admonished her that she could tell NO ONE - and then, within a few days something appeared in the news media and our father rushed home, demanding to know with whom our mother had discussed whatever it was that could not be discussed and was furious to learn that she had, in fact, divulged something to a friend - then we moved again...
what i CAN say is that my siblings and i witnessed something extraordinary that day at that place - and that somehow my father knew of this place, knew where it was and how to approach it - and we grew up witnessing the extraordinary objects in the skies...
in terms of my father's work - i cannot say for sure even what that was - i can say that we were told that he was a "purchasing agent" for the government [but not active military] - i can say that we kids knew that he could not tell our mother where he was going or why he was going when he traveled without us [which was also very frequently] - i can say that our mother once made the mistake, according to my sister who remembers this event very clearly - and only once - of divulging something that our father had told her regarding his work and upon telling her, admonished her that she could tell NO ONE - and then, within a few days something appeared in the news media and our father rushed home, demanding to know with whom our mother had discussed whatever it was that could not be discussed and was furious to learn that she had, in fact, divulged something to a friend - then we moved again...
what i CAN say is that my siblings and i witnessed something extraordinary that day at that place - and that somehow my father knew of this place, knew where it was and how to approach it - and we grew up witnessing the extraordinary objects in the skies...
