UFO for Sure

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

1764

Abstract

ld you that story to tell you this.It was while we were working in the Holland Marsh housing developments that my first encounter with a UFO occurred. Now I am careful to use UFO, for it was an unidentified flying object we saw that day. I’m not sure how the term UFO became synonymous with aliens, but we saw no evidence of aliens, only a flying object we could not identify.<figure id="af57"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*_ZwJ6U21Y5LeMBuE"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@dani_franco?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Danie Franco</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure>This was a time before the internet, before personal computers were a household necessity. The technology I had been exposed to outside of science fiction consisted of cassette decks and VCRs installed on airplanes and helicopters.I had heard about rockets that could go to the moon but hadn’t seen one. This flying disk was none of those. It hovered silently about 100 meters from the road, just at the top of the tree line of a planted forest. Three of us got out of the truck and stood at the edge of the road watching it; the fourth was too scared to leave the truck. We watched for a minute or so. Time can be so indiscernible when adrenaline is pumping like the heart of an out-of-shape man climbing a mountain. Then it was gone.Now a couple of interesting things to note about planted forests: The trees are planted in rows, and they are mostly all the same type and height. This means there is clear visibility for hundreds of yards through the trees and over them. We didn’t s

Options

ee it leave; it was just gone.Scratching our heads, we returned to the truck and confirmed with each other that we had all seen the same thing, except for Duane, who was pulling a Sgt. Shultz (see American sitcoms circa 1965). If you have ever studied witness recollections of events, they rarely agree; we all did.Blue Mountain is within a couple of hours of the Holland Marsh and is an area famous for skiing, fishing, and apples. It had been months, possibly a year, since I saw my first UFO. A friend of mine had just acquired a 1972 Chevelle, and we were testing out the muscle car’s performance on the gravel roads along the backside of Blue Mountain. The heat and humidity of Ontario combined with the dust flying in through open windows on the pre-air conditioning car became too much after a while, and we decided to pull over for a bit of fresh air, a smoke, and to stretch our legs.I was not with any of the same people from my first U.F.O. encounter. We stood in a meadow, enjoying the sun on our faces and the fresh air of the escarpment in our lungs. I know what you are thinking, and it’s not incongruous with having a smoke!Not two hundred yards from us, up along the tree line of another planted forest, a U.F.O. appeared. It seemed identical to the one I had seen previously. It just sat there silently hovering for a minute or so, then it was gone. We looked at each other. “See! Do you believe me now?” I don’t think he doubted my word again.What was the object?Drones were not commercially available, and RC planes and helicopters certainly did not conform to the disk-like objects we had seen, this being the early 80’s.</article></body>

Was it alien, though?

The Landing Pad — St. Paul, Alberta

“A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.” -Bertrand Russell

It was known as the Holland Marsh back in the day. The large geographical area in southern Ontario contains some of the most fertile agricultural land in the country, currently not being used for its natural intention as Man’s intentions have paved through.

As a side note, a provincial government project created to manage large highway and road developments once held the unofficial motto, “pave the earth."

I know: I was dating the records custodian at the time. Times being the way they were, with the global marketplace expanding and the population growing, there were two significant changes occurring.

With large chain groceries becoming the norm, local produce was no longer a requirement. In this country, we hadn’t yet grasped the idea of building vertically to house people; why would we? The land is vast. So, people started to sell their farms to developers for enough money to either retire or start up a new enterprise. It was one of these farmers I indirectly went to work for. Prior to setting up a roofing company, this farmer had worked the farm; hitting cows on the head with a sledgehammer and killing them with one blow was his claim to fame. This farmer didn’t know squat about roofing, but a friend of mine did. So, we went roofing—a fabulous job when you are young.

I told you that story to tell you this.

It was while we were working in the Holland Marsh housing developments that my first encounter with a UFO occurred. Now I am careful to use UFO, for it was an unidentified flying object we saw that day. I’m not sure how the term UFO became synonymous with aliens, but we saw no evidence of aliens, only a flying object we could not identify.

This was a time before the internet, before personal computers were a household necessity. The technology I had been exposed to outside of science fiction consisted of cassette decks and VCRs installed on airplanes and helicopters.

I had heard about rockets that could go to the moon but hadn’t seen one. This flying disk was none of those. It hovered silently about 100 meters from the road, just at the top of the tree line of a planted forest. Three of us got out of the truck and stood at the edge of the road watching it; the fourth was too scared to leave the truck. We watched for a minute or so. Time can be so indiscernible when adrenaline is pumping like the heart of an out-of-shape man climbing a mountain. Then it was gone.

Now a couple of interesting things to note about planted forests: The trees are planted in rows, and they are mostly all the same type and height. This means there is clear visibility for hundreds of yards through the trees and over them. We didn’t see it leave; it was just gone.

Scratching our heads, we returned to the truck and confirmed with each other that we had all seen the same thing, except for Duane, who was pulling a Sgt. Shultz (see American sitcoms circa 1965). If you have ever studied witness recollections of events, they rarely agree; we all did.

Blue Mountain is within a couple of hours of the Holland Marsh and is an area famous for skiing, fishing, and apples. It had been months, possibly a year, since I saw my first UFO. A friend of mine had just acquired a 1972 Chevelle, and we were testing out the muscle car’s performance on the gravel roads along the backside of Blue Mountain. The heat and humidity of Ontario combined with the dust flying in through open windows on the pre-air conditioning car became too much after a while, and we decided to pull over for a bit of fresh air, a smoke, and to stretch our legs.

I was not with any of the same people from my first U.F.O. encounter. We stood in a meadow, enjoying the sun on our faces and the fresh air of the escarpment in our lungs. I know what you are thinking, and it’s not incongruous with having a smoke!

Not two hundred yards from us, up along the tree line of another planted forest, a U.F.O. appeared. It seemed identical to the one I had seen previously. It just sat there silently hovering for a minute or so, then it was gone. We looked at each other. “See! Do you believe me now?” I don’t think he doubted my word again.

What was the object?

Drones were not commercially available, and RC planes and helicopters certainly did not conform to the disk-like objects we had seen, this being the early 80’s.