Published: October 08, 2009 08:34 pm      

Stargazing expands horizon of belief

On any clear night, when the stars are the brightest, I usually end up with a stiff neck. I get it from standing out in the cool air with my head tilted all the way back to where it nearly rests on my back. Don’t try that at home without medical assistance.

I will stand there in the darkness, just staring at the stars and the myriad of flights and satellites that pass overhead on their way to somewhere bigger than Short Gap, W.Va. I especially like to stargaze in the month of August. The annual event that intrigues me so much begins its show around the 12th. That’s when the Perseid meteor showers start penetrating our atmosphere and burning brightly for us to enjoy. I have counted 20 to 30 on a good night when the clouds have not pulled the curtain on this heavenly show. Yes Virginia, I am a hardcore stargazer.

I have been delighted on many occasions to witness these astronomical events. I think it all started for me back about 1960 or ’62. I was in the now equivalent of junior high school, but at Allegany. I was also working on the Lutheran Church’s confirmation classes at St. John’s, on Arch Street in South End.

One day each week for about two months, I had to hike crosstown to meet with Pastor Fink, who taught the finer points intended to make me a confirmed churchgoer. After the class, it was another little hike to Mapleside, where my Gramma Keller would be making supper. She was my favorite cook when it came to pancakes and sausage, and fried chicken.

It was on one of these trips to New Hampshire Avenue that something extraordinary turned me around in my tracks.

There was a loud roaring noise behind me, up in the sky. I was in my Gramma Keller’s back yard, looking back in the direction of Jane Frazier Village. There, in the sky, traveling toward the airport, was a large ball of fire, and it had a smoking trail strung out behind it. I watched it disappear way beyond the airport, and probably way beyond West Virginia as well. That, my friends, was my indoctrination to stargazing.

I have seen things that would be hard for any Air Force general to explain.

Once while I was stationed in Hawaii, and living in Waikiki, I was awake late at night. It was about 3 a.m., and I was on the lanai, looking toward the north.

I saw what appeared to be a shooting star heading east to west. What it did next was mind-boggling. It turned 45 degrees, and headed earthward, then it turned another incredibly sharp angle and went north. I watched it for five or 10 minutes and was sure it had to be an alien craft, or something that we had not started to brag about yet. Now that was in late 1968 or ’69.

I have saved the best for last. About five years ago, I was in my yard, well after dark. I was watching the stars to the northwest of my house. Ben, my young son, was inside watching TV. I saw something that looked like a star shooting a beam of light at another one. I went in for binoculars, and Ben.

We both were stymied by what appeared to be an outer space dogfight. There were four or five of them moving all over the place, and shooting at one another. Not once, or twice, but many times, over and over. We watched it for maybe 20 minutes or more before finally going inside to tell the wife about it. She, as usual, was disinterested. She probably thought they were rogue weather balloons overcharged with static, or some government-like explanation.

Ben and I know different. They are out there. We don’t know who they are, but they’re out there all right, and they are armed with some kind of raygun.

Please don’t call the white-suited men yet. Just humor me, I will eventually go away. What I won’t do is disclaim what I just wrote about. How can we be so foolish as to think that we alone, are the only beings in the universe intelligent enough to travel through space and visit other celestial bodies?

Well, OK, we only personally visited the moon, but we have landed craft on various other planets and moons in our solar system. If we were fortunate, or lucky enough to slither out of the primordial slimy water, why couldn’t some other species do it somewhere else?

There are ancient pictographs of what appear to be space-suited men, not only in the pyramids of Egypt, but in South America, as well. I truly do believe they have been here. Some things done by ancient peoples, would be easier to believe knowing they had extraterrestrial assistance.

I would like to imagine that some day, the blue book of the men in black will be opened to the public. After that, genealogy will get tougher than ever.

I faintly do recall something about an uncle Martin in my past.

Joe Dorsey, a resident of Short Gap, W.Va., is a retired employee of the U.S. Postal Service. He writes occasional columns for the Times-News.