My Personal Experiences and Memories
from Mike C
Presently, I'm a 45 year old white guy, living out west. This story is an event that really bugs me, and I can't seem to ignore it's implications.
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It was a pleasant and clear autumn night in Michigan, a medium sized suburb of Detroit named Southfield. I was 12 years old and in 8th grade, it was 1974. It was Friday night after the local high school football game, and I was walking home after the game ended. It was normal for me to walk the half-mile back to my house. I was with my friend (also named Mike), who was walking the same way. We were close to my home in a neighborhood of small suburban houses on a well lit but quiet street. The scene was completely normal and calm.
Suddenly there was a bold and jarring flash that took up most of the sky. It was a giant blur, and everything up above us was lit bright orange. It felt like someone just flipped a switch and the sky lit up, and then went back to normal. As soon as it happened, it was gone. It was completely silent. We were surprised and both responded with, "What just happened?"
There was nothing to see, since the event was over instantly, but there was something very unsettling about that moment. Was it a meteor? Why was it silent? I know that I saw something, but there's an odd skip in my memory.
The color seemed utterly bizarre and unnatural, it was a very bright and very saturated orange. To this day, whenever I see a campfire, and look at that the way the coals can glow as a warm radiant orange, I say to myself, "That's how the sky looked that night."
We continued to my house, I said goodbye and Mike walked home. I was excited to get home and watch a television show I really loved (KOLSHAK, The Night Stalker) that started at ten o'clock. I clearly remember making an effort to leave the football game in order to get home in plenty of time so I could watch this show. But when I walked in the door, my parents were angry that I was out so late. I was surprised because I had intended to be home at about 9:30, but instead it was well after 11 o'clock. It seemed odd, but I remember that I was actually more upset because I missed that cool TV show.
The next Monday a group of friends, including Mike, were all in the cafeteria at school, and I told everyone that we had seen a bizarre light on Friday night. Mike said, "Yeah, a UFO with lights and everything!" That shocked me. I hadn't seen anything with lights. Did he see something I didn't? Mike and I never mentioned that night again.
That was over 30 years ago, and I have no idea what has happened to my friend Mike. I've always had a memory of this event, but the orange light in the night sky, was one memory, and the missing time (maybe two hours?) was another. They seemed disjointed.
It wasn't until the mid-1990's that I realized that both memories were the same night. I was watching an interview with Chris Carter, creator of the X-Files, who talked about how he loved the same TV show (KOLSHAK, The Night Stalker) when he was a kid. When he mentioned that show - Instantly the memories resurfaced and slammed together with an almost electric jolt, like somebody just flipped a switch in my head.
That was 34 years ago, and I have been sort of freaked out lately, trying to make sense of the implications.
peace,
M!
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Note: I easily googled the TV show KOLCHAK (spelled without an 's') and it was only on for one season. So, this makes it the fall of 1974. Given that exact date, I would have been 12 years old, and I was in 7th grade.
