School days
U.F.O.’s are a topic that most grew up hearing about, but in reality much of the general discourse surround the subject was rather negative and dismissive. Growing up I was a very different child. I recall several class visits to public libraries nearby, while all the other children went on to choose age-appropriate books, I would be in the other side of the library in the occult section browsing through subjects from cryptozoology to paranormal phenomena. In third grade we had to write book reports, the other kids went on to choose age-appropriate fictional books as usual. And there I was, reading a book called Alive, a story of true story of survival after a plane crashed in the Andes and how they had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive. Needless to say, the nuns at the catholic school didn’t take to kindly to my interests early on which resulted in several uncomfortable parent-teacher meetings.
Looking back to my childhood, I clearly remember an event during first grade which somehow made me see the world under a different light. One day, during the winter months, I went to school; everything seemed to be going like a normal day expect for one thing. There was a dense thick fog and visibility was almost down to 6ft. I was dropped off at school and proceeded to go to where I always went that early in the morning, the playground. It was hard seeing anything and I could barely even see the streetlights which looked like a dim yellow dots. On the monkey bars I was calling out to see which ones of my friends were there. We continued to play despite the low visibility of the space around us.
After a few moments I noticed something up in the sky; different bright colored lights in the sky. I called over to the other kids on the playground to look up to which they replied that they already were. And there we starred for what seemed a long time. Being next to the Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose, one might have easily dismissed those lights as merely an airplane or helicopter. However, these lights were too intense, very large and made absolutely no sound. I jokingly said, “it must be a spaceship” but none of the other kids laughed. We stood mesmerized by these motionless lights so much so that we kept staring even after the school bells rang. Once we began being called in by our teachers we jumped off and went to class. As I began walking towards the classroom I looked back and it appeared to be moving away, slowly, until it was gone. I know what I saw, but there was some room for doubt. The proximity to the airport was a key factor, I knew this even at the time, who would believe me. I was to find out many years later that there were similar sightings to what I saw in the same vicinity. Despite this, even today, I remain a little skeptical of the incident however, it wasn’t until an event two years later that left no room for skepticism.
Second U.F.O. sighting
It was 4th of July weekend of 1993 (if I remember the year correctly) and my family and I were on a camping trip a few miles from La Grange, California. Our original campsite was overbooked in Lake Don Pedro so we were told to go another nearby location called Horseshoe Bend near a more forested area. Having never been there before we decided to take a chance and go camp there instead. This was located near historic Coulterville at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, famous for its old mining sites. The following morning my brother and I wanted to go swimming and the campground we were at just had a gross mud-hole lagoon filled with tadpoles. The plan was made to go up to the nearest town, fill up our inflatable raft with air, then drive back to our campsite to pick our mother and then drive to Lake Don Pedro for a nice long swim. To get to the gas station we had to take Highway 132 to Coulterville which would only take 30-45 minutes to get there and back (at the very most). And so off we went…
It was my father, me and my brother in the van going on what was supposed to be a short drive. Being really into just observing nature I was in the passenger seat staring at the beautiful forested scenery. Along the highway we drove, when it struck me as odd as I noticed that weren’t many cars passing by in the opposite lane for being such a busy weekend. I dismissed it due to the desolate area we were in. At some point we started approaching a large hill which the road bend around and continued on. As we came closer to the small bend I saw the most incredible thing I will ever see in my life. There sitting on top of a nice clearing was an object, this round disk shaped object with a bright metallic glare that seemed almost mirror-like. As we approached closer the object it lifted up several feet into the air blowing up dust and dirt debris. As the debris decapitated there in plain site was the object. By now we were now directly in front of it and within seconds it took off into the sky. To see this large object shrink down to nothingness into the sky was amazing. The best way to describe its rapid ascent is to compare it exactly to the ‘warp speed’ you see in the movies, it was just amazing. As soon as it was gone my father yelled out to us if we had seen it, I did, but my brother was just spaced out in his own world looking out the opposite side. To this day my father refuses to believe what he saw. We continued up to the town, filled our gas tank, put air into the raft and drove back to our campsite. When we arrived my mother was asking what took so long. We explained that we were only gone for an hour at the most, to which she replied no, that we were gone for at least three hours. We shrugged it off, but to make matters more questionable, by the time we got back it was so late we didn’t have time to go to the lake for a swim.
These two incidents shaped the way I perceived the world around me, and above all, how I began to perceive others. Needless to say, not many people believed my experiences, and certainly my age at the time was a factor. After a time I learned to keep it to myself and no matter how much I tried to forget, new experiences would continue to remind me that there is more to life than what meets the eye.
More to come later…stay tuned.
Additional Resource: MUFON