Page 28 - 200609 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - September 2006

28 E.T. Where Are You? 28 E.T. Where Are You? E.T., where are you? E.T., where are you? By George Jones Saturday, as I drove toward Fyffe to check out the UFO Day happenings, I had the distinct feeling I was experiencing what “The Twilight Zone”’s opening narration said of those who watched – “You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension – a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.” Riding up Alabama 75 North on a regular day can seem as though you have entered through a door of “another dimension … of both shadow and substance.” Portions of Highway 75 North might be the inception of Fyffe UFO Days. The meaning wow!" considered a dimension filled with the “shadow was changed to “Unforgettable Family Outing.” According to Cardinal, the light flashed and substance” of collapsing farm buildings, Approaching the heart of downtown red, white and blue and hovered above the derelict and abandoned cars and empty houses Fyffe, I fully expected to see the town gaily ground about as high as an airplane. from a bygone era creating the feel of another festooned with costumed aliens and flying Cardinal's husband is a trapper, so he dimension. saucers parked everywhere. didn't recognize the lights as stars or aurora As I cruised along in my red Ford Imagine my surprise when all I found borealis, or Northern lights. Ranger, with the morning sun shining down was an empty main street – no colorful banners, It's not the first time residents of Fort from a slightly hazy powder-blue sky, I thought and no inhabitants, earthly or otherwise. Resolution spotted strange things in the sky. of the hot-air balloon ride I missed earlier that As I continued to look around, unable to In the late 1990s, three military men morning. find a human being, the thought came to me – is visited the home of Jayne Miersch-Lafferty, The balloon took off at 6 a.m. and I it possible, have aliens landed and abducted saying they wanted her husband's video of an honestly couldn’t motivate myself to give up everybody in town? unexplained light. Miersch-Lafferty says the my one morning to sleep late. Just about the time I was ready to call officers said they had to take the tape and "they Anyway, looking towards the heavens, I Homeland Security – I saw movement. I spotted would get back to us what they seen on the allowed myself to imagine what vistas I might what appeared to be an earthling sweeping the tape." have seen riding several hundred feet above driveway near a school. But, Miersch-Lafferty never heard from good ol’Alabama terra firma. I cautiously approached him and asked the men again. The next thing she knew, the Then again, in a more pragmatic mental if he knew where the UFO festivities where. He video was on the Internet. moment, I was thankful I hadn’t made the trip as smiled, and told me as he pointed – “Over Cynthia Cardinal says she hasn't an ever-increasing [with age] fatalism there.” contacted authorities about her recent sighting. permeated my thoughts. I’m not certain if the organizers of UFO A fatalism caused me to consider the Days didn’t want the aliens to know where they possibility the colorful, oversized, hot air bag were gathering, but I might suggest a few signs Join Rob McConnell might have collapsed, plummeting me, and it, to pointing the way would be helpful for earthlings an inglorious conclusion upon some cornfield coming into Fyffe. on below. Well, I have run out of “space” so, “G.J. Tuesday. September 6 2006 Passing through Geraldine and go home!” as Lakeview, I finally entered the outskirts of the The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show small rural farming community of Fyffe, where Residents of Fort Celebrates It’s 2nd Year on Residents of Fort during two days, Feb. 11-12, 1989, Fyffe The TalkStar Radio Network. Resolution report UFO became a center of UFO attention. At that time, Resolution report UFO about 50 of the fewer than 1,000 residents sightings reported seeing a UFO. sightings According to published reports at the time, police Chief Junior Garmany said, “It was August 29, 2006 - There's something big, wide and appeared to be a wide triangular strange in the sky above Fort Resolution in the shape. We kept waiting to hear the sound. We Northwest Territories. kept looking at each other and saying ‘where’s Over the years, residents of the South the sound?’ We never heard anything … what I Slave community have reported a number of saw the first time was like nothing I ever saw unidentified flying objects, or UFOs. before. It was not a helicopter, it was not a There's no obvious explanation for plane. Not a sound.” them. Another witness reported the UFO as Cynthia Cardinal, a Fort Resolution looking like a “banana” flying at an angle. resident, narrates a video she took two weeks So for a while Fyffe, was the center of ago. the UFO universe, with media coming from "You'll see there's lights shooting out the around the world to study the situation. side of it," she says. "And then you'll see the However, after their brief brush with fame, the camera get fuzzy a bit." The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show community quietly returned to just another dot About two weeks ago as Cardinal Monday - Friday, 10 PM - 2 AM on a map of DeKalb County in northeast readied for bed, her husband rushed her out to On The TalkStar Radio Network Alabama. the back step. Last year, city leaders decided to " 'Look at this light,' he says, 'there's a www.xzone-radio.com www.xzone-radio.com capitalize on the continuing phenomenon with light flashing out there' … I looked, and I said