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Sunday, September 10, 2017

The Man in the Coon Skin Cap

When I was a little girl, my best friend, Ronnie, and I played Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett.  My brother even had a coon skin hat that he wore while hunting imaginary bears in the the backyard.    The tv show starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone and the movie starring Fess Parker as Davy Crockett managed to confuse the two frontiersmen in my mind.  So when looking at a map of Tennessee I realized that we were going to be close to Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park--we had to visit.

This is a small park in northeastern Tennessee at the site of Davy Crockett's birthplace.   There is a small cabin similar to one that early settlers would have built.   The day we were there, the staff was dressed as the settlers would been during Davy Crockett's time.   

Watching a short documentary, I realized what I knew about him was more make believe than the reality.   He truly was an American hero who, even if it wasn't popular, stood up for what he believed was right.  Crockett opposed the removal of Native Americans from their homes to Indian Territory.  He called it "oppression with a vengeance."  This cost him politically--but he stood his ground.  Finally, telling those that stood with President Jackson and his politics, Davy Crockett left Washington, telling them "You may all go to Hell and I will go to Texas."   There, he met his fate defending the Alamo.



Directions to the Park



Garden

Garden

Can you imagine Davy & his siblings running through the corn field?

Split Rail Fence--road to river

A typical log cabin

The creek by the Crocketts' home

River/Creek by home



Staff dressed as early settler

Monday, September 4, 2017

The Night of the UFO


It was one of those dark nights where every star seemed to outshine each other.   My mother and I were driving home from the funeral of a dear family friend in Heber Springs, Arkansas.   We had spent the day with family and friends, and had left late in the afternoon, stopping along the way for dinner.  

I’m guessing that around 11 or 11:30 p.m. we turned north onto the Muskogee Turnpike (in northeastern Oklahoma) off of I-40.  There were no other cars or trucks on the turnpike—just darkness with the light from a lonely farmhouse every so often.  Mom was nodding off.   The only sound was the radio playing country music.

I started noticing some lights in the sky up in front of me.   My first thought was that it was a helicopter—definitely not an airplane as they did not seem to be moving.   But they were an odd, triangular shape outlined in lights—not a shape I would attribute to a helicopter, either.   As I drove north, they seemed to stay in the same place, hovering over the turnpike.  I woke Mom up and asked her what she thought it could be.   It seemed to be getting lower and closer to the ground. 

It sorta looked like this.   But more lights.  (Stock internet photo)
Combine the photo above & this & you will have a good idea of how "it" looked.  (Stock photo)
At this point Mom and I were both leaning close to the windshield trying to figure out “what in the heck is that?”  We started thinking “B2 Stealth Bomber.”   My Dad worked for Northrop Aircraft and was instrumental in the creation and production of the B2.      Whatever this thing was, it was a triangular shape sort of like the Stealth.  But the Stealth didn’t hover.  And it certainly didn’t go as slow as this “thing in the sky” was going. 
B2 Stealth Bomber (stock photo from internet)
 
 I turned off the radio and rolled down the car window to check on the sound—trying to determine if it had the signature “whomp whomp” of a helicopter.   There was NO sound.  All I could hear was my car.   Mom and I looked at each other.  It was still hovering just a little over “highway overpass height,” but getting closer to us.  “WHAT IS THIS?”   We looked at each other again.  

Where were the other cars on the turnpike tonight???  Not a car coming or going.   No other headlights but my own and the lights from the hovering triangle, which was now almost directly above us.

As we got under it, I instinctively put on my brake and slowed to a crawl.  It was directly over us AND ABSOLUTLELY NO SOUND.   It was almost as if the sound had been sucked out of the air.  Well, no sound until my Mom looked over at me and SCREAMED: 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING???  DRIVE!!!!”

At which point I stomped the gas and barreled down the turnpike doing 90 to nothing—hoping a Highway Patrol car would come along to confirm whatever we just experienced was nothing. 

Or was it?     OOOO eeee ooooo!