A Belief in Extraterrestrials Isn’t Such an Alien Notion

C arson City, Nev. (AP)--Assemblyman Roy Neighbors introduced a bill to rename a 100-mile stretch of State Route 375 “Extraterrestrial Alien Highway”--to bring tourists to a remote region that draws people hoping to see UFOs .

For a laugh, a friend sent me the excerpt above. Instead, it reminded me of one of the most jaw-dropping conversations I’ve ever had. It occurred about 20 years ago with a co-worker, a guy about as level-headed as they come.

We got onto the subject of UFOs, and my friend proceeded to tell me and another colleague a story that he said he’d only told a few other people. We could believe it or not, he said.

What he told us was that some 10 years earlier, in the mid-1960s, he had been the editor of a small weekly newspaper in Minnesota. It was Christmastime, and he was delivering a holiday turkey to an advertiser. He remembers it being around 6:30 p.m., already dark, on a very clear and cold evening.

Having grown fuzzy on the details, I phoned my friend this week. We hadn’t discussed it since that day some 20 years ago.

“I was going to a little town a few miles from where the paper was and heading west,” he said. “As I left town to get to the main highway to go south, I saw this flashing in the sky, very brilliant, up fairly high, I’d say several thousand feet up, and it was like a series of bright flashes that kept blinking furiously, much brighter and more flashes than you would see on an airplane. So, without thinking I blinked the headlights on my Ford and continued west until I got to the highway and turned south.”

“I had to go two miles that way, then go back east to get to town. I could see it when I was going south, but when I went back east, I didn’t see it. I was driving along, it was maybe three miles to get to the town, when suddenly right out in a plowed cornfield to the left of me, maybe 200 or 150 feet in the air, easily seen out of the car window, was this circular object that was following me, with portholes. It was fairly dark and I couldn’t see the outline, but it was the usual saucer shape.

“It was about 30 feet in diameter and the portholes went all the way around, and it was very bright. I don’t know if it was spinning or if the lights were flashing alternately. I likened it to the landing lights at an airport, these incredibly strong strobes shooting out in all directions. I slowed down, watching it, and debated whether to roll the window down or stop and get out, but the more I drove on, I got scared, and I kept driving into town.”

My friend said he assumed it still would be there when he finished his business in town, but it wasn’t. He never saw it again. He estimates he saw it for about 10 to 12 minutes.

I remember being amazed 20 years ago that I’d known him for years before he told the story. This week he said, “Since 1965, I’ve probably told 15 to 20 people, at the most. I found when I did tell anyone, they’d never forget it and they’d come around and say, ‘What did you see today, ha-ha-ha.’ I have a fairly thick skin, but I didn’t want to be known around town as the screwball.”

Is he convinced it was a spaceship?

“I’m still wondering what the hell happened,” he said. “I have no idea. I haven’t made a career out of trying to find out, but here and there my ears have perked up. I really don’t know, other than I’ve heard astronomers talk about it and I heard one say it’s totally preposterous to suggest we’re the only life, with the vastness of the universe.”

Four months ago in Orange County, some people founded a chapter of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a national group headquartered in Seguin, Tex. Local director Deborah Truncale of Laguna Beach says her group numbers about 60 and, like the national organization, doesn’t take a position on the existence of UFOs. Rather, its goal is to push the government to release whatever information it has on the subject.

I asked if the average person pooh-poohs the UFO phenomenon.

“I would have thought so myself,” Truncale said, “but the more places I travel and the more people I talk with, I’m surprised at the number of people who believe in the existence of UFOs and life in other galaxies and worlds. And the kind of ridicule factor that used to be in the media has completely turned around, which I find interesting.”

My old buddy has heard all the questions and jokes. Yes, he was working long days back then and could have been fatigued. No, he wasn’t drinking that evening.

“I would just like to know if there was anything to it,” he said this week. “It would be nice if somehow, someway, somewhere, we could find out scientifically if there’s something to it. It would be nice to know, but I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that I’m never going to find out.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.