E N C O U N T E R--A T--A S C O T--P A R K
by Scott Santa (with Alfred Lehmberg)
(From the MUFON of Ohio Newsletter, December, 2020)
The exact date is not recalled, but on one day in August 1974, a pseudonym friend, "Mike," and I had nothing going on. Bored, we idly elected to go to the drive-in movies.
(I must add here that I only seem to recall, at this point, that I was with someone at all; likely was; I think I was; but I am just not sure. I could have been alone. This speaks directly to the high strangeness of the evening's whole affair.)
It was a beautiful summer evening; that much is clearly remembered! There was not a cloud in the sky. Stars were everywhere and so thick they looked like they could be reached up and touched. Real "Starry Night" stuff!
We paid for our tickets, drove in, and parked (in the back, of course!) We're 19 and always hoping to find that mythic car full of like-minded ladies!
It was not quite a full house that night, but it was adequately packed. An obligatory gang of noisy kids were playing at the playground just under the screen. Everyone was settled in and ready to watch a double feature of unmemorable movies.
This was a "normal" night. As normal and mundane as I've come to expect . There was no foreboding tenseness, no unsettling portends, or eerie foreshadowings. (That would come later). Definitely a night to let one's hair down. We got some food and drinks and settled in to watch the cartoons. We were sitting quietly munching our snacks, watching the silliness of the cartoons, and waiting for the movie. Then, I became unexpectedly distracted by this bizarre movement peripheral to the screen. A movement where movement just should not be!
I began to make out this creeping sharp-edged "something" approaching the movie screen from behind and above. Then, just like thatt, a HUGE, and I do mean MONSTROUS object entered my perception. A boomerang-like chevron "thing" loomed into view! It towered above the screen! It dwarfed the parking area! It was all the eye could see; as far as the eye could see!
I shouted to Mike, asking if he saw it, too. "Yes,what the hell is that!" he replied. (That reply was to be nearly our last conversation on the subject; ever!)
Then the object moved!
Its speed of advancing from behind the screen was an awesome languidness. My best guess is that it was moving no more than 10-15 mph! It seemed to float, dirigible-like, rather than fly. It had no lights. There was no illumination of any kind! Indeed, it could only be seen at all because the object was so coalsack black and unreflective that it blotted out the brilliant starfield in the sky behind it! And, it was utterly,silent.
Mike and I got out of the car and stood and stared at this "inexplicable impossibility"!
As I said before, the size of this "craft" (for want of a better term?) was nothing short of enormous! From wingtip to wingtip it overlapped the entire drive-in. In fact, it dwarfed it! It "dwarfed" it by 3 to 4 football fields in size (as can be seen in the illustration below). It proceeded ominously in a straight line, passing right over the first row of cars and headed right towards me!
By this time, I noticed that almost everyone was standing outside their vehicles, and, like ourselves, were pointing to the sky They were looking around to make sure everyone else was seeing the same thing they were! It seems there were plenty of witnesses! Everyone in the bleeding drive-in saw this thing!
As the object continued over my head, ALL of the lights in the drive-in, as abruptly as if thrown on a single switch, went out! The movie stopped; the concession stand went black! Running cars died. I noticed that several people were trying to start their cars and leave! Their cars would not start either.
As difficult as this is to explain, I was aware of all of this occurring around me though my recollection is that I never really took my eyes off of the object. I must add that there was no panic "expressed" around me! I didn't feel any myself! I could tell some folks were terrified, yet all were quietly zombified into some strange and unusual immobility! Mesmerized? Glamoured? Enchanted?
Mike and I weren't speaking by this time. I do not recollect us ever speaking again about whar was happening before our eyes. At this juncture, I felt as if I was by myself (though I wasn't, I seem to recall)... so my over-riding recollection is that my senses and focus was completely occupied staring at this wafting yet monstrous "thing" as it continued on its way! By the time it arrived directly above us, an unsettling strangeness started to ramp up! It felt like something wasn't quite right with my perception! The air started to feel thick and gooey.
I could see and feel the air around me shimmering thickly. Similar to what one sees on top of "egg-cooking" asphalt or a concrete highway on a hot summer day, but minus the heat. Just these blurringly wavy distortions. It was like the air had an unnatural weight and density to it. The air "felt" like honey or molasses! MIke and I both seemed to have some difficulty moving in it!
I remember my ears popping even though it was completely silent around us.. Quiet like a tomb!. It was not deafness; it was just total silence. The other people around us were not talking or yelling. Nothing! An astonished immobility like a "headlight frozen" deer.
The shimmering air had the effect of making me feel as if I were walking underwater. Since then, I have read where this is now understood as the "OZ" effect. I felt that were I to have reached down and picked up a large piece of gravel, I could have thrown it and hit the bottom of this thing slowly hovering above us. That's how close it appeared to be!
I was struck again by the complete and utter silence around me. Everyone seemed to be in a funk and just standing around looking at this foreboding and psychotic thing. As to it; it never veered or changed direction and hovered above us all for what seemed like 10 minutes, (although I cannot be sure of this length of time). Time got "funny." Time may have even gotten lost..
The object was traveling from the west and proceeding languidly on an easterly track. Finally, when it cleared a vacant property and was over a vast field of undeveloped acreage behind the drive-in, the "OZ" effect ceased and just disappeared. I felt as if a weight had been lifted off of me. The air abruptly thinned out and lost its shimmer, and "normal time" returned! It seemed that everyone around me also felt the change. Suddenly, all the lights in the drivein flicked back on! Everyone must have jumped at this change. I know I did! The cartoon restarted and the snack bar lit back up. It was like a lightswitch had again been flipped.
I continued to watch the object until it disappeared from my view in the distance to our east. It never changed course and "flew" or floated in a straight line. It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. Then stuff got really weird...
Once I lost sight of it I got back in my car, almost robotic-like, and then just completely forgot all about the whole strange affair! ...Just forgot! What I had just witnessed was just gone from my mind. Gone like remembering what color socks I was wearing on some particular day in 1962! Mike and I did not speak to each other about it, ever! We just carried on with watching the movie as if nothing had happened. Apparently, so did everyone else in the drive-in. At least, this is my recollection.
No one, and I mean nobody, was running around asking questions or doing anything but watching the movie and acting normal. I recall having to go to the bathroom sometime afterward and as usual, there was a bit of a line to get in. No one talked about what had happened. No one said a word about it. Moreover, when the movie was over, I don't remember leaving the drive-in or what happened afterward. The rest of that evening is a complete and utter blank! But, obviously, I dropped Mike off and went home completely forgetting what had just happened. I mean, I put it out of my mind altogether! I have no idea what time I got home that night. Another complete blank! I never told my brother or my parents what had occurred! There were no news stories later on. In fact, I had a bit of a black hole in my memory from that point on, until some years later.
I was in a bookstore and happened upon a paperback edition of Edward Ruppelt's book, "The Report On Unidentified Flying Objects", and BANG!, the experience at the drive-in that night long ago, poured back in upon me as if a flood gate had been abruptly opened! Recalled memory download! It was bizarre!
Well, truly, and strangely compelled, I sat down and absorbed tyhe contents of this book! I was overwhelmed by it and the memories it provoked! I had lost contact with "Mike" by this time, years later, so was unable to verify the experience with him, but in my mind's eye it was as clear as any day in my memory can be.
I confess I have my suspicions now, about the aforementioned missing time I alluded to. After years of reflection, it seems obvious that something other than just a "close encounter' sighting may have happened. I have never explored that aspect of my experience. That seems a beast best left unpoked.
Still, I highly suspect that something else may have happened to me personally and to everyone else in the drive-in that night. Yet, I do not know. I cannot recall anything like that, but there is that gut instinct nagging at me that there was something, some further interaction, something else I was supposed to do or remember. Something.
This inexplicable and unrequited itch has never gone away after that chance encounter with Edward Ruppelt's book. But why did I forget the experience at the drive-in until then? All those thrown warning flags come due for a reasonable person. I was, without question, confronted with "something" that was distinctly impossible! It happened as I have described it, despite the fantastic scenario that is manifested in a reader's imagination. I've never had the luxury of disbelief, myself.
It has been suggested to me that I put an ad in the local paper to see if there was anyone else who happened to have recalled the affair. After mulling over that option, I decided it would not be such a great idea. I can only imagine the responses I would get; but I'm okay with that at this point.
Like I mentioned previously, I don't have the luxury of disbelief, nor do I need validation from anyone. It's like the sentiment expressed best in the James Fox documentary, "I Know What I Saw". I know what I saw.
I don't know what it did to me, if anything, except to provoke an undying interest in the subject of UFOs. It was a most confusing event for which I wish there was some explanation, but that's where it must be left. There is the choice of" throwing everything away" chasing an ephemeral unknown, or trying to live a normal life. What remains?
"I know what I saw."
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