THE TWILIGHT ZONE?

When I was over at Violette's Board the other day, I came across a thread entitled 'Take me to your leader', which was about the Phoenix lights and led onto some posts about UFOs. I am not a full anorak UFO geek, but I have to admit to having an interest in them, looking at the night sky I also cast around for various objects, but usually they are just satellites and high flying planes. I have interest in lots of weird and wonderful things like that, I don't think we can dismiss these strange things out of hand, if only one per cent of the sightings are true, we should not ridicule, we have no positive proof that UFOs don't exist, after all, its a huge universe out there.

What sparked my interest was an event that happened when I was about eleven years old, when one evening just at sunset my mother and I saw a strange shape high in the sky just hanging there not moving. It was what is now called the traditional cigar shaped object, we watched it for about twenty minutes, saw it then rotate 45 degrees, and 'pouff' it was gone. It was hanging high above the Solway Firth, and I do know that other people saw a strange object that night. I became a UFO enthusiast, reading the good, the bad and the ugly of books about them. Of course, the enthusiasm died down but I still read any article I stumble across about lights in the sky or other mysterious happenings. It really is amazing when seriously talking to people how many eventually confess to 'seeing something strange' in the sky.

This in turn, jogged my memory about a rather unusual photograph that was taken in 1964 in our area at Burgh by Sands, which strangely enough is near the Solway Firth. You may have heard of or seen this photograph before [ I reprint it at the top of this posting] as I do know that at the time it was a worldwide story. A man was taking a photograph of his daughter sitting picking flowers on the marshes. It was a coloured photograph, he saw nothing when he took the photograph, but when it was developed in the background behind his daughter stands a man in a sort of white spacesuit. The photograph [in black and white print] made it into the local paper and then probably being picked up by a stringer went national and then global. Until this day no one has been able to find anything wrong with the photograph, it is not a fake, yet there is no explanation for what is there on it.



It is said that after the photograph was published that the man who had taken it, Jim Templeton,had one of those mysterious visits from two 'men in black', who questioned about whether he saw anyone before he took the photograph, they then drove him to Brugh by Sands, and apparently, became annoyed when he couldn't help them as he hadn't seen anything at the time. It is said that they drove off and left him there to walk the five miles home. The following is allegedly a quote from Jim Templeton at the time that is oft quoted in magazines and websites.

They were very strange, asking peculiar questions about the weather and behaviour of the animals. Although they claimed to be from the government, they never used names and referred to one another just by numbers. I drove out with them to the marshes but they seemed to get upset when I insisted that I had not seen anybody as I took the photograph. They drove away, stranding me alone to walk five miles home.I never heard from them again.

The photograph has never been disproved and from time to time it is mentioned somewhere and I begin to think about it again. It certainly is a fascinating incident. Well look at the photograph at the beginning of the post [I think it should enlarge if you click] and see what you make of it. Some people have said that it is just the back of a man in the white shirt with a white cap on his head, note the right arm and its odd angle. If you want to know more about the whole story, this website gives the best account and includes more detail about the Australian connection and Blue Streak rocket, that was built in this area. It also tells of an interesting incident very near to this time when there was an aborted launch of Bluestreak.

http://www.ufologie.net/htm/solwayfirth64.htm

England beware, four of the Glitter Sisters who were at Thirsk, are contemplating a summer reunion [ when it is warm and we will not be freezing out butts off on a station platform], there may be fifth, but just listen people some where near you a town could be about to be chosen. You have been warned, man the barricades, the girls are coming to town.



Speaking of Glitter Sisters, Robyn has asked me to explain her mishap, seeing she had worrying email from one bright spark who thought she had tried to end it all! She received a package from France which had been opened and examined by Customs, unfortunately, or helpfully, however you want to look at it, the customs had overdone the tape a bit, and she was trying to wrestle with the package and a pair of scissors when ooops! [but she probably said something a bit lustier than that] blood was spurting everywhere. Luckily her younger daughter was with her and was able to drive her to hospital, where after a three hour wait holding up her arm she was given two stitches, the wound is small but very deep. On top of this she has now incubated a head cold. Send plenty of love and hugs her way.