UFO’s: A passion I’ve been chasing for over 30 years

 Chapter One: My first encounter

     My very first sighting of a UFO was back when I was 5 years old. Without giving my age away I’ll just say it was the last year of Jimmy Carter’s presidency and being five at the time I really didn’t realize the significance of the sighting until years later.

  It was sometime in the summer of that previous mentioned year and my Grandma had broken some vertebrae in her back so she was laid up in bed, in what was called traction, which is where one or both of her legs and or back was always being suspended to help ensure against bed sores and to help speed up the healing process. While she was in traction a we called it my Grandpa had moved her bed downstairs since she would be unable to climb stairs for quite a while. The dining room in which her bed was placed had a large picture window and since this was the days before computers, internet, smart phones etc. Grandma was limited to reading and watching tv, also back then the 13 channels we did receive all quit broadcasting fairly early at night so my Grandma got to just staring out at the stars at night while everyone else was asleep. She had Grandpa pull the bed closer to the window at night so she’d have a better view. One night in late summer I was sleeping at her house as I often did back then, my brother and I would get up at 5 a.m. with Grandpa go fishing, work in his garden or if the right time of year hunt some sort of animal or bird. I don’t do that stuff now but growing up in Northern Wisconsin back then that’s all you did. Anyhow, on this particular night I was having trouble sleeping so I got out of bed and made my way downstairs to the bathroom. Now I was five at this time and my memory isn’t the greatest so I cannot recall for the life of me what time it was or exactly what day it was but what happened that night will always be ingrained in my mind. I had to go right by Grandma and her traction bed to get to the bathroom and as my feet left the last step and hit the floor I began to tiptoe past her to the bathroom. I got about five feet when I heard Grandma speak, “Homer, come here, quick.” Her voice sounded urgent and I being just 5 years old did exactly what she said, the bathroom could wait. I got to Grandma’s bedside and before I could even say anything she pointed out the window and up into the night sky. “Do you see that bright light?” She asked. It didn’t take my eyes that long to find what she was pointing at. Right there up in the star filled sky was the brightest and lowest star I had ever seen, it was also more orange than most stars I had ever seen. It bobbed up and down in the same spot high in the sky for a few minutes. “It’s been there for about half an hour,” my Grandma said whispering as if the orange star would hear us and leave if we were discovered, “I thought I was seeing things because of my pills, but you see it?” She asked almost pleading with me. I shook my head affirmatively and continued watching.  After a few more minutes something truly amazing happened and it is the reason I remember this so well, besides being a moment that only my Grandmother and I could share with us and no one else, it was truly a remarkable and unexplainable event. The bright orange orb stopped bouncing, moving and glowing. It turned a dark purple and as soon as it did about ten smaller extremely bright yellowish orbs shot out of it, going in all different directions at a very high rate of speed. Some went right, some went left, some went straight up and all were gone from our eyesight thirty seconds later. Slowly the remaining purple orb turned orangish yellow again and then shot off out of sight. My Grandma and I just sat there staring out the window for a few more minutes before I spoke. “What was that?” Grandma didn’t say anything for a few seconds and then said, “That was a UFO, and Unidentified Flying Object.” She said matter of factly. “Was that aliens?” I asked her, she thought for a moment and spoke again, “It may have been, we will probably never know.” I slid off the bed ran to the bathroom and then returned to her side. I jumped up into the bed next to her and stared out the window hoping to see more UFO’s with her. I fell asleep next to her and was a woken a few hours later when Grandpa and my brother came down for breakfast. I just slipped out of bed and followed them, not even mentioning the UFO Gram and I had seen. She would go on to tell everyone who would listen and I ended up being obsessed about UFO’s ever since.

I’ve spent the last 30 years or so researching, watching and hypothesizing about the Unidentified Flying Object phenomenon. Although I have never seen anything like I saw that night I have seen UFO’s since and will continue to scrutinize the night sky every chance I get. I also think I was lucky to share such an experience with my Grandma, it was something that only she and I shared and I believe that sighting made us closer. So this week I am going to concentrate on UFO’s. My next post will be about the History of the UFO phenom and I’ll give examples of some of the earliest UFO sightings ever recorded. I can’t wait to share these stories with you guys. Until then I hope everyone has a pleasant day and as always: PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 PS:UFO's are my favorite subject and what got me into the Unexplained. I've been researching this phenomenon for over 30 years. I'm so excited to share some awesome stories with you over the next week!