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| Via Newspapers.com |
This particularly odd UFO report comes from the (Racine, Wisconsin) “Journal Times,” July 4, 1965:
VALENSOLE, France. Gendarmes in this mountain village said Saturday they are investigating a report by a farmer who said he saw a mysterious aircraft take off from his field.
Dozens of people came to see tracks left behind by the "flying saucer." Maurice Masse, 41, told the gendarmes he spotted the craft Thursday morning at dawn. He said it looked like a big rugby ball and had four metal legs. With the craft, he reported, was a small human form, about the size of an 8- year-old child.
"Suddenly," Masse said, "the craft took off and disappeared in the sky. I couldn't believe my eyes.”
Masse said he went to the spot and found tracks left by the legs and that the ground was packed hard as concrete.
A gendarmerie officer said strange tracks had been seen and that the ground was hard- packed.
Masse, who has a reputation as a calm and solid citizen, was worried about the lavender plants in his field being trampled by the crowds, who continued to arrive today.
"We don't think it was a gag," one gendarme said.
Weirdness was popping out all over around this same time. The “Fort Lauderdale News,” July 8, 1965:
The flying saucer season has opened.
So has the Loch Ness monster season. Within the last few days, strange objects have been reported from France, Argentina and Warminster in England's County Wiltshire.
The Loch Ness Monster, reportedly seen by two Scottish brothers, is so familiar to residents around Loch Ness that it’s affectionately known as Nessie.
At least five persons saw the thing in Warminster. They agreed it was a “fiery object” glowing in the southern sky after a heavy rain.
Last night Harold Horlock and his wife Dora spotted the thing.
"It was very frightening,” said Mrs. Horlock. It sharpened into focus high up and looked just like two red hot pokers--one on top of the other.”
“It was as plain and as bright as could be," said her husband. "It stopped still in the sky for at least 10 minutes.”
Colin Hampton, 18, and his friend Michael Fraser, 20, also said they saw the thing. Others reported hearing loud high-pitched noises overhead.
From Argentina yesterday came a report of a mysterious flying object seen in the Antarctic during the weekend.
[This was followed by a repeat of the Masse story.]
When I was a boy, and rather before my time, it seemed there were many more sightings of UFOs than there are now. Perhaps the ones today don't get reported - old hat by now - but I think it really is the case that there were more in the 1950s and '60s.
ReplyDeleteThere were "flaps" as they were known, when national and local news would run through a cycle of more serious than cynical reportings on sightings. The clusters or flaps I recall were Autumn 1968 and Autumn 1973. It was on a clear Oct. 1973 night my father and I observed a terrific phenomena for about 20 minutes (my mother was absent, in hospital in the next county). The best possible explanation is a military flare, except the thing began very high in the atmosphere and resembled a miles-long silvery needle or glittering string of metallic jewels, made of starlight. I thought at first it was a celestial event, but I subscribed to Astronomy magazine and knew it wasn't a nova or exploded planet. Eventually it shrank to a pinpoint of light, amidst an orange cloud, moving west, against the faint breeze we felt (although, at a height, wind might have been from the East).
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