UFO's - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Unidentified Flying Objects

As a kid in the 1950’s, a favorite pastime was laying in the grass during summer evenings gazing up into the nighttime sky. With little or no light pollution back in those days, the sky was filled with countless stars shining ever so brightly. Learning about the solar system, the Milky Way and other galaxies in school may have helped spur my astronomical interest, but, in reality, it was the predominance of reported UFO sightings back then that really got my attention.

 

During this period, Roswell, New Mexico was in the news because of a reported UFO crash near the town and subsequent recovery of a flying saucer as referenced in this headline at the time. Officially, the government said the device was a weather ballon, but most people, including myself, believed the weather ballon story was just a cover-up. Back then UFO sightings were reported regularly and according to reports, UFO evidence was being stored at Area 51 in Nevada, a government owned, highly classified facility located inside the Nevada Test & Training Range.

Locally, rumor also had it that an actual alien had been captured and transported to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, which really brought the UFO mysteries close to home for me.

Peering into the night sky those many summers looking for UFO’s never did yield my own personal sighting; however, I did observe may shooting starts, northern lights and occasional flashing lights from airplanes that flew over. Just trying to comprehend the immensity of space itself was the long-lasting benefit of those summer evenings. My desire to someday become an aeronautical engineer was developed during this period, but somewhat sidetracked late when I became an automotive engineer. To this day, on every full moon, year around, I go outside to gaze up at the moon. Because of the light pollution where we live, that’s unfortunately the only heavenly body that is evident in the night sky these days.

Then in 1959, a TV series called The Twilight Zone was created by Rod Serling to further expand my vivid imagination. The shows had a science-fiction/fantasy theme, with opening and closing narration by Serling, and an ending with a twist. Most shows led to some bad dreams as I recall!

On September 19-22, the Little A’Le”inn located near Area 51 in Rachel, Nevada will be hosting a so-called AlienStock Festival to commemorate the UFO. One of the threatened activities is to “storm Area 51” and look for extraterrestrial evidence. We’ll see how that goes!

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