In my opinion many people would agree there are superstitions that make life fun and interesting, things like four-leaf clovers and daily horoscopes, and most people will read those little strips found in Fortune Cookies. My having been raised among southerners, the Okies and Arkies that settled in places like Weedpatch and Southeast Bakersfield I was treated from childhood to many stories and superstitions indigenous to the South that were just plain fun when not downright interesting. And when not intended to do harm, to deceive and take advantage the cultures of most societies are enriched by these things and are often loath to forsake them entirely.

But these many years later and far removed from the fabulous stories of childhood, and now living in a scientific world of enlightenment and technological marvels one would think those superstitions and stories of the past would be long forgotten; but not so. In many cases they have taken on a new appearance in the shape of things like UFOs. However, not everything in the X-Files can be dismissed and those folks in Texas saw something, and most of us believe our government hides many things, some of which equate with Roswell, Area 51 and the storyline in “Independence Day.” After all, given things like JFK and the Warren Commission, 9/11 and that Commission, etc., who can blame any of us for thinking those in our government are quite capable of lying about UFOs? Just watching and listening to the present contenders for the White House is enough to cause us to believe we are living an X-Files or Twilight Zone episode, though in the case of TV and films we have professional actors rather than wannabees.

As I share with friends, one thing keeps cropping up; the feeling we all have of waiting for another shoe to drop. It’s as though we are holding our collective breath waiting for another bit of really bad news. As one dear lady shared with me, she finds herself sitting in her home with the TV off some of the time now and simply alone with her thoughts, something uncharacteristic of her usual mode of life. But we have to acknowledge all the bad news and America being without any real leadership it is no wonder some of us simply don’t even want to get out of bed lately. It all leads to much speculation as to “What’s next?” Nothing good is the general consensus. But never fear, Klaatu may yet come to the rescue; and though I’m not expecting this to happen, I have claim to a few reasons from my own “Outer Limits” for thinking it may not be entirely discounted.

Those familiar with the stretch of Wheeler Ridge between Weedpatch and Highway 5 know how desolate that long piece of road is going through open fields given to agriculture or alkali and tumbleweeds. You can drive for several miles without seeing a house or another vehicle on the road. One morning while driving this road there suddenly appeared from out of nowhere what looked like a new silver-colored pickup tailgating me. Wondering where in the world the thing could have come from so quickly on this long, straight, empty open road I began to pull to the side in order to let it pass, but glancing in my rearview mirror the thing had disappeared! I was so startled I stopped my car, got out and looked all around trying to determine what had happened to that truck; but it was nowhere to be seen! I knew it had to have abruptly turned off somewhere, but there was nowhere it could have gone and the wide open expanse of flatland all about held no sign of it, no dust trail thrown up and no growth or other obstructions that would have concealed it! It had simply disappeared!

There is nothing to match the glory of the heavens, the countless stars to be seen on a moonless night in the middle of our great deserts far removed from any human habitation. This has always been one of the attractions as I wandered such vast and empty wilderness places; but you also become familiar with the various critters like scorpions, snakes, Horny toads and Gila monsters. Generally preferring solitude I would often travel and camp alone in the deserts, and one night as I was blissfully asleep in my sleeping bag I was awakened by something moving on it. Immediately roused from a sound sleep I instinctively grabbed whatever it was and flung it away from me. Fully awake now I was conscious of the thing I had grabbed being a handful of something big and hairy, and decided it had to have been a very large tarantula. Of course, in the darkness of the night I couldn’t be sure.

When you live alone as I do here in the country without any neighbors close by it is pretty quiet, and when I lock up at night and go to sleep I don’t expect any noise or visitors to disturb my rest. So you can imagine my reaction one night to something pouncing on my bed in the dark. As I instinctively grabbed at whatever it was, it turned out to be the resident cat. I thought she had gone out for the night, the usual routine; but this wasn’t the case.

The point being I am used to being alone in the dark, and am very conscious of anything crawling or jumping on either sleeping bag or bed. But the other night something pounced on my bed, and when I grabbed for it in the darkness nothing was there! Now fully awake I turned on the light, got up and began to search; but I was conscious of the fact the cat had gone out as usual before I went to bed. I could find nothing. So, I lit a cigarette and sat on the edge of my bed pondering the situation. On the one hand there had to be a perfectly rational explanation to whatever had pounced on my bed and awakened me. On the other hand, I could think of no rational explanation for it. There are things that go bump in the night, but nothing like this had ever occurred in my life and it simply made no sense.

But when you travel through wilderness places, especially the great deserts, you are not only “treated” to things that go bump in the night you also see some strange sights. It was while lying in my sleeping bag out near Edwards AFB in the predawn I looked up to see three metallic disks in an equidistant triangular formation moving high in the sky above me, reflecting the sun not quite yet risen. They circled in this triangular formation for about ten minutes then suddenly zoomed north and disappeared. Just as I sat on the edge of my bed the other night pondering the imponderable, in like manner I lay in my sleeping bag then and pondered what I had seen.

However, at least in the case of these UFOs I had seen something; and I would far rather deal with inexplicable things seen than unseen, but there are some definite exceptions to this. One night while driving over toward Ridgecrest, as I had just started down the summit from Walker Pass headed toward the desert floor I saw what appeared to be five distinct, large fires equidistant from each other burning on the side of a hill some five miles distant. There were two of these in line, with the other three in a line equally spaced below the two. But while the shapes were those of fires, they were static; they didn’t move or flicker as fires would, and adding to the mystery they were all the same size and shape, each “fire” having five distinct pointed “flames,” two above and three below. I stopped and got out of my car in order to observe the phenomenon. I watched for nearly fifteen minutes, and suddenly the “fires” simultaneously disappeared.

If you live long enough and travel wilderness places as I have you are going to see and experience strange things some of which might properly be described as paranormal. But when I have looked at that night sky filled with countless stars, it always occurs to me that what we consider reality may pale beside what is possible; realities yet unknown and unseen. To use a thought from many philosophers and scientists, one expressed in “Men In Black,” given the immensity of what may be possible what might we know tomorrow? We may even discover why I don’t believe my departed loved ones and friends have ever left at all, but remain with me.