fireball

When I was 7 years old I remember looking out my bedroom window one day after school and seeing a bright burning object that I thought was a comet, that’s what I said to my Mom when I ran downstairs to tell her, “I just saw a comet!” It looked like those pictures in my space books of comets, a fireball with a tail. I don’t recall her reaction but the image of the fireball is burned into my memory. At some point we reached the conclusion that it must have been a meteor, probably looking at my books and determining that comets don’t come burning into our atmosphere.

The next day as my Dad was dropping me off at school he ran into a friend of his that worked for the local newspaper, his friend’s son also went to my school. Dad told him about what I saw and he quizzed me about its size … as big as an apple? grapefruit? … the quote in the paper about it being the size of a grapefruit was his word, not mine, it was just a ball of fire with a tail on it that was big! Anyway my quote was included in the article you see here, we cut it out of the paper and saved it, that article has been tucked away, stumbled upon occasionally while going through old stuff, all but forgotten.

Then one night in 2007 while watching TV I stumbled upon a show about the “Kecksburg UFO”. The witnesses’ description of what they saw in the sky jogged my memory, it said it was visible for hundreds of miles. I thought it sounded very similar to what I saw so I dug out the article to read. It did not have a date on it but mentioned I was 7 years old … mmm … that would have been 1965 the same year as the Kecksburg incident. That’s what I saw!

I eventually went to the local library to look up the newspaper from December 10, 1965, I printed out copies and finally read the continuation of the article that was on page two. Below is a scan of part of that front page and the preceding day, December 9th, to me it helps to understand what all was going on in the world at that time.

One thing I found interesting is that the Gemini 6 & 7 space missions were going on at that same time, below is a scan of the article that was below the “fireball” article. One of the program objectives of Gemini was “to perfect reentering the atmosphere and landing at a specific point on land”, that is just one of the strange coincidences I have found in preparing this story.

Here are links to some of my finds …

Here’s an Ohio papers story:

“‘Fireball’ Brightens Sky”

Pictures taken from the Pontiac Michigan area:

“Analysis of the “Kecksburg UFO” Fireball Trajectory”

A collection of reports of the incident:

“A dark December evening”

Information on a power outage in the east that same day:

“portions of six neighboring states and eastern Canada were plunged in to darkness”

A recent (November 2009) news story:

“Is case finally closed on 1965 UFO mystery?”

I have no conclusions, it’s just interesting stuff!

Okay … I just realized that the link about the power outage is November 9, 1965 … not December … but I’m gonna leave it there because I still find it interesting!

more ludes

“inner-lude”

“outer-lude”

interlude

Roscoe thought I should put this video up, he said it kind of fits the recent themes … not color and it mentions younger days … I think he just likes the dog in it …

I like this video, it has some cool images and follows the old photo theme …

ufo

I took these photos to school as a kid to show my friends … I told them they were real … a UFO in my back yard. The teacher was interested also … so eventually the word got out that the flying saucer was taped to the kitchen window and I took a picture of it. The fact is that the picture of the flying saucer was cut out from the front cover of our “weekly reader” just days before, anyone paying attention would have found me out.

The photos were taken at between 3:30 and 3:40 pm on March 9^th 1967. I know that because it was written on the envelope by the teacher, she wrote “4 P.M. 3-9-67”, but you can see a clock on the kitchen wall showing the time.

The pictures were passed around to other classes at school, my sister was a year older, her class saw them and probably others. My teacher Mrs. Kent removed one of the pictures, I know this because I wrote on the envelope “Mrs. Kent took one” which I never got back!

I saw a real UFO in 1965, I didn’t know that until 2007 … to be continued …

swinger

My brother sent me this email about the “between channels” entry:

“put on that Indian headdress so I can take your picture by my stuff”….fucking priceless!!! That looks like a picture from that old white Polaroid Swinger camera you had.”

“Anyway, I remember playing with that camera a lot when we were little…so cool…we could see the pictures almost right away. Digital has nothin’ on the old Swinger! Oh…by the way…as it turned out, those chemicals with the Polaroid film that we used to get all over ourselves…hands…etc…was toxic!”

“Do you have any other photos from that camera? I’d love to see them.”

I responded with this picture attached:

Okay John … put on these old shades of Dad’s and lay on the floor next to the “GI Joe” guns, Nazi armband and some of my coin collection.
Perfect … damn, I got my shoe in the picture!

He sent back a colorized version:

“What do you think…could be my new facebook photo…I’d have to get rid of the swastika though…I wouldn’t want to start getting a bunch of friend requests from a bunch of nut jobs.
I love these old shots.”

That armband was something my father took off a German soldier during WWII, he also took the pistol that you see pictured below in another of our creative photos. Also in the photo is the silver certificate, an “A” ration stamp from WWII, old presidential campaign buttons .. all laid out on a map of Germany that shows the history of my father’s time spent there. Also that picture you see in the picture, well that’s of a flying saucer that I took out our kitchen window .. that will have to be a future blog entry!

Here’s to you John .. the creative collaboration continues forty years on …

between channels

I found this picture I took of my brother in my bedroom when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old, I don’t know, my brother is 3 years younger than I, how old does he look?
He was young enough to do whatever I told him to do … “put on that Indian headdress so I can take your picture by my stuff”.

Anyway, that book at the bottom of the stack is called “Mans Reach Into Space” .. I googled it and found this:

That’s the book! … haven’t seen that cover in 40 years.

One of the other items you see is my transistor radio, I would search the dial late at night for all kinds of music and would be happy if I just found some cool noises between channels … you know, space like noises … you can’t get that anymore with all this digital crap  … give me old fashion radio waves!

That other book on the left with the light colored spine looks familiar, can’t place it.

Above that is a little box I kept my coin collection in, and to the right of the radio is a framed 1899 silver certificate dollar bill that my grandmother gave me.

I painted that thing in the upper right hand corner, one of those paint by number deals.

I cut out pictures of some cool cars that I taped on the wall on the left side … that one looks like a station wagon … cool.

epiphany

I have always had an interest in astronomy ever since I studied it in grade school, and as I learned about our planet, solar system, milky way, the universe, I have put myself “out there” visualizing it.

This video does what I have attempted to visualize:

Thinking about it … before learning about space I would visualize being “out there” much more locally. I grew up by railroad tracks and as a child lying in bed at night when a train would go by I would mentally board that train and “slip away”, it would start with me being in the boxcar … then above the train … going with it … it would lull me to other places … and to sleep. The best was on a summer night with all the windows open, you would hear the train coming for miles … then mentally jumping on when it was behind the house … and listening as it rumbled for miles in the distance, leaving my physical body behind.

“the entire universe is reflected in man”

That also reminds me of a book I found out about during an October 2006 interview with Joseph Arthur, which this is part of:

things are exactly how they are supposed to be

i am not my circumstance

i am not my situation

i’m beyond my circumstance and my situation

life sets up difficult situations that are there for your character to build through

-Joseph Arthur

Joseph mentions the book “I Am That” during the discussion which prompted me to search for it, finding a downloadable pdf file.

I downloaded that about six months ago and occasionally browse it … just now I opened that file and quickly scrolled down to randomly read part of it and fell on page 156 where my eye landed on “When I was younger, I had strange experiences …”

close moon

tonight’s full moon is the nearest to earth that it will be all year

while driving home from work today at the foot of the bridge was a man … not your typical homeless looking one, a regular looking guy … he had a cardboard sign that read “WILL WORK FOR FOOD AND SHELTER” … it’s rare to see that in our community … it was cold outside … 17°F

found this video from EELS’ new album … thought it fit somehow

dream theme

Yesterday I read and responded to a blog entry Jennifer made about recurring dreams. I responded with: “A recurring dream I’ve had with a similar theme always revolves around school, in grade school or high school it was not having an assignment done or being late. In college it was just not going to class and realizing at the end of the semester I had to find where to go to take the final exam! The college/university dream I’ve had occur well after those school years, I guess it’s a just not being prepared dream.”

I just had that recurring dream last night, it was about looking for a math class location, I just started walking knowing I would recognize the building, go in and find the room. After walking in different directions and not finding it I looked at a campus map I had, no words were on the map, just shapes similar to the surroundings, it was of no help, it would tell me where I was but not where to go. I was approached by someone who recognized me, he was an important person, maybe the president of the university, he questioned me about a recipe he heard I had, when I told him he must be thinking about someone else and asking him for directions he responded with a “if you can’t help me I won’t help you” attitude. In crowds I ran into old friends. It then turned into a dormitory hallway with keys left in doors and broken locks, I collected those keys and attempted to repair the locks. Former coworkers were in that dorm, one asking if he could sleep in my room for a while because he no longer had a room to use. I myself was also trying to find a place to rest in this unheated bare dormitory.

The meaning of part of this dream I relate to a business equipment inventory tax filing that is due the end of the week, in the past it was a relatively simple task of adding purchases and deleting a few disposals and aging everything one year. This year it is much more involved with matching many deletions that have been on the depreciation schedule for decades that I have never had to identify before, categorizing obsoletes and researching filing rules that in the past I didn’t care about.

fanatic

Back in the year 2000 CSNY was touring for the first time in over 25 years, I read an account of a fan who had gained access to one of their rehearsals at Cleveland State University, he ended up being like a fly on the wall for over five hours, what an experience! He even recorded part of the rehearsal and shared it with other fans. The first show of that tour was at the Palace in Auburn Hills Michigan, which I attended with my brother and our wives, we had front row seats! One of my memories of that show was being baptized by Neil Young … prior to one of the encore songs the band members went to the edge of the stage to acknowledge the crowd, Neil took his glass of harmonica water and threw the liquid onto the audience, I ducked but the majority of that water landed on the back of my head and down my shirt … yes the water that he dipped his harmonica in to keep the reeds moist, water with his spit and DNA. My hair dried hard like there was sugar or something in that water. At the end of the show we moved front and center (we were at stage left) and enjoyed the encore performance of “Woodstock” and “Long May You Run” from that perspective.

Two memories of that show that would have escaped me if I did not write them down are Neil and Steven walking out at the beginning with their arms around each others shoulders … and when Neil walked up behind Croz, center stage before the second encore, and gave him a big ‘bear hug’.

My notes also contained “most impressive songs”:
“Almost Cut My Hair”; David’s great vocals!
“Only Love Can Break Your Heart”; Neil directly in front of us on piano!
“Rockin’ In The Free World”; as good as any Horse version!

I was inspired by that stalking fan of 2000, so when I found out that a rehearsal for their 2002 tour was going to be in Saginaw (the first show again was at the Palace) … well … here’s installment #3 of my writers block deep dive into my hard drive …

CSNY 2002 Saginaw rehearsal

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> > > At 07:54 PM 2/2/02 EST, I posted:

Yes, the CSNY crew is in Saginaw, as evidenced by 7 semi tractor trailer trucks outside the rehearsal venue. I spoke to Rocky (from Neil’s road crew, he ran the “Meet & Greets” during the ‘99 solo tour) he said that the “boys” won’t be there until the day before the opening show and that they’re having set up and equipment rehearsals until then.

> > At 10:39:40 PM 2/4/02 EST, I posted:

……….add now 3 tour buses (between venue and hotel), and word from local venue employees of Tuesday PM rehearsals……….

> At 5:45:54 PM 2/5/02 EST, I posted:

… 5 more tour buses arrived (one of them Neil’s custom bus) and another semi tractor-trailer with a “Lionel Train” logo.

So …. a total of 8 semi tractor-trailer’s and 8 tour buses … and as of 3:30 pm no music has been heard coming from the venue, but it looks like everyone is there!

**************************************************

It appears that rehearsals were held between 4:00-8:00 pm today (Tuesday Feb. 5th). I arrive at that conclusion because I was there between 2:00 – 3:30 pm, Neil’s bus arrived about 2:30, and I returned that evening and saw it leave at about 8:30 pm.

But it was not time wasted for me….

… about 3:00 pm ….

The venue was very secure, almost impossible to enter. But when I went to the doors by the venue office, with the intent of going to the office to inquire about allowing me to enter for no other reason than being a fan, as I went through the first set of doors, of which you had to go to the office on the right because the second set of doors were locked, someone was leaving and as I grabbed the door they asked if I needed direction, I said “no, I think I know where I’m going”.

With not a clue I went to the left to find a door to a room that had about six tables set up and a buffet lunch. In that room was David Crosby sitting with his wife Jan, and a few others who I did not recognize. I peered in the door, took a deep breath, and said to myself “wow”. I proceeded past that door to the next, that one entered the same room, I again saw David, but also saw entering from a door on the other side of the room Neil’s son Ben in his wheelchair accompanied by two people, at first I thought one was Neil, but it was not. I then walked back to the first door and stood there for a few seconds before I got up the nerve to walk in and introduce myself to David Crosby, shake his hand, and ask for an autograph (I just happened to have the “Déjà vu” CD cover with me). As he signed it I apologized for intruding on his privacy, and apologized at least twice (I did feel like a heel bothering him, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity!). He was very gracious about my intrusion. When he signed his autograph the table he set the CD cover on had one of those soft cushioned table clothes and he poked the pen through the paper, he said “oops, sorry” and started signing again with a lighter touch.

I thanked him and left the room and found my way to the arena, the smell of burning sage was present (a spiritual cleansing ritual that Neil had been doing on recent tours, I first experienced it on his 1999 solo tour). The stage was set and they were testing different light patterns on the screen behind the stage. I was on the upper level and proceeded toward the stage, I stopped when I was to the immediate right of it where I saw Larry Craig (Neil’s guitar tech) down by the stage side. I decided to sit down, trying to decide what to do, still in awe of being there! I thought it would be great if they started to rehearse, and I would just sit back and listen. Surveying the area and the people on the floor I noticed an bald elderly gentleman who could have been Mo Ostin or Ahmet Ertegun (recording industry execs known for their close involvement), not sure … but very possible.

After about 5 minutes I saw someone walking toward me on that same upper level I was on, it was a large black man, about 300 lbs …  shit! As he approached behind him was another man who I heard say something like, “were did they say they saw him”, the large man said, “he’s right here”. I was asked what I was doing, I said that I worked in the area and had heard of the rehearsal and thought I would check it out, he said it’s a private rehearsal and that I would have to leave … “by those doors right there” … pointing to the first exit he saw. I said I’m parked on the other side of the building, can I go out by where I’m parked, he said “no” … “those doors right there!” … I said “okay”.