the "dish" ran away with the spoon - or - the bus tried to run away from the ufo...

many many moons ago in the late 60's my children and i were traveling by bus enroute to monroe in northeast louisiana from little rock - the bus was full - we shared seats together, with my son, about five or six years old at the time, sitting next to the window - as we traveled south, our seats were on the right side of the bus - we were on a rural stretch of road between a little town called sterlington and our destination, monroe, [about 15 miles apart] when my son tried to get my attention, tugging on my arm for me to look out the window - i looked up, and there, in the sky over the fields beside us, was a huge object - an unidentified flying object [ufo] - i remember being so startled that i closed my eyes and then re-opened them to be sure i was really seeing what i knew i was seeing - and sure enough, the object was still there - the other passengers on that side of the bus were all looking at it and talking about it - i remember a lot of the passengers from across the aisle getting out of their seats and into the aisle to see it better - by then, there was general commotion with passengers wanting off the bus - passengers telling the driver to drive faster [which he did] - and all the while my children and i are watching it spellbound as it seemed to be moving very slowly parallel with us - it was not high in the sky, but very low - well, low enough for us to see it out the window without straining to look upward - i cannot say how far away it was but i can say that it was close enough that the texturized surface of the body was visible -

i remember trying to memorize all the details of the craft - its size, shape, color, how it moved - that it had no sound, none at all - that there were no engines visible - no wings - nothing at all characteristic of a plane - its size was at least that of a football field - it was oval/circular, with a domed top - if you think of a donut with a glass dome, then, that would be close to its shape but more oval than round - the glass seemed clear although i do not remember being able to see through it - there was a row of what appeared to be windows or lights encircling the bottom of the domed top - the body [donut] of the object was a matte grey - like a battleship color and very matte [non-shiny] and i remember there was what seemed to be a bit of "texture" or "mottling" to the matte finish - almost like cast iron cookware looks texture-wise [well, the old kind, anyway, like my grandmother used] -

in any event, the ufo continued beside us for quite a distance, although i cannot say how far - but for more than just a few minutes - and then, just as suddenly has it had appeared beside us, it made a 45 degree turn to its right and upward and was totally out of sight just instantly - i mean, it literally zoomed - zoomed! - and still no sound -

the bus is now traveling at a high rate of speed as the driver really was attempting to out run it and most passengers were anywhere from hysterical to more hysterical -

by the time we pulled into the monroe station, there were already news reporters there - i remember wanting only to get my children and leave - to get away from it all - by then, i somehow felt extremely fearful about the experience - as if "they" were "looking for me" - i don't mean that it was just a little feeling but an overwhelming one - as a matter of fact, i left the station without even getting our luggage - we took a taxi straight to my mother's house - and once there even, the feeling did not subside - by then, i wanted to just flee - literally - to somewhere that my children and i could not be found - to this day, i am unsure of my profound reaction - i had grown up having seen ufo's in our many travels - they were discussed by our parents - they were nothing new to me - and i had never responded with anything but total curiosity before - but this was the first "up close and personal" such experience - there was absolutely NO doubt what this object was, let alone what it was not - it was daytime - the day was clear - there was no mistaking it - so, perhaps it was these factors that precipitated my response - i do not know -

within a short time after our arrival, my mother's phone begin to ring - reporters and law enforcement - several days later, several men dressed all in black [i kid you NOT] came knocking on the door to interview me, identifying themselves as being with wright patterson afb - i told them what i saw - they had me draw a diagram of the object and i did - they took it with them - i remember at least one of the men giving me a business card when i asked for it - i also remember that some time later, when i phoned the number on the card, there was no such number - i called wright-patterson directly but no one had heard of the person for whom i asked - oh, and lest i forget, some of the news reports released identified this "object" that was seen by a bus full of people as nothing more than a "smoke cloud" emanating from an industrial site in sterlington -

not long after this incidence, my children and i moved back to monroe because my mother was ill - we moved into a little community just at the city limits - a rural area where i had hoped our lives would take on a simpler tone - but that was not to be -

more in another post down the line...

oh, the little kindergarten type sketch at the top is done from today's memory but is overall accurate -

ok - something weird[er] just as i edited this post just now, the house phone rang [we don't use the house phone ever] and the incoming call was from ohio - we don't know anyone in ohio - have no business there - the call was unidentified except for "ohio" - the only association i have with ohio is that is where wright patterson is located - weird - oh, and when i answered, there was no one there - weirder...

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Sterlington&1s=LA&1y=US&1l=32.696098&1g=-92.0858&1v=CITY&2c=Monroe&2s=LA&2y=US&2l=32.5092&2g=-92.119202&2v=CITY#a/maps/l:::Sterlington:LA::US:32.696098:-92.0858:city::1/l:::Monroe:LA::US:32.5092:-92.119202:city::1/m:hyb::::0:::::1:1:1::/io:1:::::f:EN:M:/e