Saturday, January 30, 2010

What strange things happened in your life?

After reading yesterday that the worlds last ‘FAT MAN’ of a freak show, had died, I got to thinking.
What is the strangest thing I had ever seen?
When just a child in the second grade, Dad took us to an air show, there I saw a plane crash. A real plane crash and the pilot was killed.

One night in Missouri Sherry and I both saw a UFO. Not up close but far up in the sky. It was lit up like an airplane with it’s landing lights on. It appeared at first like a slow, shooting star, or a real real fast air plane. What made us know it was not airplane it did a 90 degree turn at that speed. No plane I know can do that. At the time I worked at Kirksville Air Force Station. A Radar site. I called and sure enough something had appeared at speeds in excess of 5000 mph. I reported it, of course I was told I was mistaken.

One of my favorite poems is ‘The cremation of Sam McGee’. And my favorite line, which I used in my novel ‘Sticky’ was, ‘The Northern lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see was the night on the Marge of Lake Labarge I cremated Sam McGee.’ When we drove to Alaska and passed Lake Labarge, Sherry got a little tired of my story.



Did you ever see Siamese Twins? Daisy and Violet Hilton, Siamese twins, lived out their last years near out home. They had been world famous and had stared in some show business.

They were featured in Freak shows before they were six years old. Managers had cheated them out of all their money and they were desperate when they ended up in Charlotte.

They worked at a grocery store where our family used to buy vegetables, the ‘Park ‘n /shop’ on Wilkinson Boulevard in Charlotte. A brief story is here
http://www.sideshowworld.com/tgodHiltonSisters-SSNL.html
BTW Paula, they lived in San Anton in the 1930’s.
I was once hit by lightening, and can remember it pretty well, I saw it coming and it was strange, you are gonna get hit! I was washing pots and pans on Mess Duty in the USMC. I was using Sandsoap and a brush. When I got hit the sand soap was thrown in the soup and was never taken out. No one complained.
There was a song in the 50’s, ‘Strange things Are happening’.
Thanks for coming by the log.
Nite Shipslog
PS: Strange…..
When I'm not in my right mind, Is my left mind crowded?
I honestly quit watching the evening news. They always begin with a serious, “Good Evening”. Then it goes downhill from there, when they tell you they just lied, it is NOT a good evening. Somebody killed someone, Someone is going to release poison gas, or a terrorist is gonna drop a bomb.

8 comments:

Bookncoffee said...

Wow, seen a UFO...how cool is that? Wonder where they were from?

I saw a boat race in Destin once and a boat flipped over and the boat race/driver died. It was very sad.

Wow I got to visit your blog twice in one day. I start with the most recent posts when I read blogs. You must have had two fairly recent posts. lol

Debbie said...

Yeah, I've seen some strange things in my life too. I'm glad you didn't get electricuted from the lightning but that soapy soup gave me a giggle. I remember Dad telling us about Mess Duty and how ya never knew for sure what you were eating because so many of the crew would get sea sick while preparing the food.

Love ya'll
Debbie

Anonymous said...

Dear Jack, this entry of yours kept me awake at ten past three in the morning.
One of the nicest, strangest things, I saw, was a barefoot goatherd, in the middle of a forest, after I got pretty much lost on my way, in the North of Spain. And yes, she was beautiful enough, to offer me fresh milk and cheese.
Please have you all a wonderful Sunday.
p.s.: it might take a while longer to finish the book, as i tend to read various chapters again and again - thank you for that.
p.p.s.: the reflection was indeed "asking", as the outside came kind of inside of that small church, yes, one of a key moment for me.

Paula said...

My youngest daughter and her family saw a crash at an air show and I think the pilot was killed. You and Sherry have seen some strange things. The only thing I remember is a calf born without any hair. It lived four days. The twins are very interesting and cute too. Too bad someone didn't protect them.

betty said...

you two have seen some unique things over the course of your life; glad you survived getting struck by lightening too

weirdest/uniquest thing I saw today was a glass we had that broke when it was in the cupboard and the top of it was resting at an angle on the side of the glass. really weird, not sure how that happened

betty

Fred Alton said...

Jack, you have surely seen some strange things. I can only remember one at the moment... There was a man who came to the church where Dad was pastoring in New Orleans, LA, while he was visiting one of the medical specialists in town. Half of his body was growing larger than the other half. I cannot know the excat figures - but to give you an idea, looking into his face from his nose to the left was like 6 feet tall - but from the nose to the right was like 5 feet 6 inches tall. It was the weirdest looking thing. And the man was well-mannered and had pleasant speech. He was very much protected by what I assumed to be his Mom. I think I was 14 years old when they came through. We were told that doctors speculated that he would have been 9 feet tall had they been able to help him when he was a child.

Anonymous said...

Wow...those are amazing and strange happenin's for sure. And of course you were "mistaken" when you reported the UFO. Interesting post!
:)

Fred Alton said...

Oh - I meant to tell you, I finished reading Sticky a couple days ago - wiped my tears and started reading Rags! I like your style...and the fact that it is not full of cuss-words and sleazy scenes also makes it more interesting to read. Thanks Sherry, for the good proof-reader's input!