The Franklin News-Post
P. O. Box 250
310 Main Street, SW
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540-483-5113
Fax: 540-483-8013
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
By MORRIS STEPHENSON -
After a long lapse of not hearing any new stories about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), I heard one from another reliable source Sunday afternoon.
And of all places, I was told the story at the second Creek Freaks' annual picnic at Lynch Park in Rocky Mount.
It also came from an unsuspecting source. A long-time friend and retired dairy farmer Galen Brubaker and his wife, Ruby, said they had been planning to tell me this story earlier but never got around to it.
Galen and Ruby were special guests. They are the ones who gave the county five acres of land, just upstream of the old steel Coles Creek bridge, for canoe access and a playground beside the Blackwater River.
The Brubakers said their encounter took place in the mid-1960s in Arizona. They were on vacation and that particular day had gone to see the Grand Canyon. They were on their way to Flagstaff.
Their four daughters started talking about the bright moon, while looking toward the west. Galen didn't realize at first what they were talking about because he could see the moon coming up in the east. The girls were looking to the other side of the car.
When everyone in the car got on the same page, they realized there was, indeed, a bright object on the left side of the vehicle, and the moon was on the right side as they traveled north toward Flagstaff.
Brubaker said the object appeared to be about twice the size of the moon. He also estimated it to be about 1,000 feet away from the vehicle.
"At times, it appeared to be following the car," he recalled.
As they watched the object, their youngest daughter, Brenda, became scared and remembered something she'd heard from the Bible about an object coming from the sky and taking the youngest child.
Daughter, Jeanette, the oldest, told her baby sister that no, she was wrong. The object took the oldest, not the youngest child.
Galen said he decided to pull over so he could get a better look at the object. Brubaker and his wife said the object was round in shape and very bright. They estimated they watched the object from the parked car around 10 minutes, although neither was looking at their watches.
They said the girls became nervous and wanted to get away from the object, so they resumed their trip and lost sight of the object behind trees.
The next morning, the Flagstaff and other daily newspapers in the area, had headlines about the UFO sightings from many residents in the area.
They brought the newspapers back home, and Ruby made note of the UFO sighting.
"I've got the newspapers and the notes at home, but I'm not sure where they are now," Ruby said.
They, like others, don't know for sure that it was a UFO, but that's what Galen and Ruby believe, and so do their four daughters.
And I still have a couple other people I need to talk with about their encounters. One, in particular, is a retied couple who live at Smith Mountain Lake, and the UFO they saw was over Franklin County not that long ago. Maybe I will have the opportunity to talk to the couple in the next week or so, and I'll have another UFO report for the column.
A Dog Lover's/Race Story--Robert Jones called the other evening to relate a story he'd heard from friend and former race car driver Eddie Yarborough.
Eddie drove Buddy Arrington's second car when promoters had short fields back in the growing up days of NASCAR.
Eddie heard the story from Wanda Lund, widow of popular "Tiny" Lund, an easy-going, likable driver who was huge, thus the nickname.
Eddie attended a recent reunion at Hillsboro, N.C., and Wanda was in attendance, along with a lot of other early drivers, including one of my favorites, little Rex White.
She said Lund had a dog that went with him everywhere. Wherever "Tiny" was, the dog was close by. (I don't know anything about where the dog stayed on race days, nor do I know the pooch's name).
After "Tiny" was killed during a race, Wanda said she never saw the dog again. Lund was buried some 35 miles from where the couple lived in North Carolina.
Wanda said three or four days after the funeral, she went to visit "Tiny's" gravesite. The dog was there, lying on top of his master's grave.
When she walked closer, she discovered the dog was dead! Apparently it had grieved itself to death. She had no explanation as to how the dog found the gravesite. That will remain a mystery forever.
In the early '90s, I became good friends with Wanda and her second husband, Bud. We talked a lot about "Tiny" and shared stories. But this one I had never heard. I plan on giving her a call one evening to ask her about it.
Speaking of racing widows I know, Doris Roberts, "Fireball's" wife, died last year. Wanda, "Bunny" Turner, widow of Curtis, is still living in Christiansburg. And as far as I know, Francis Flock, widow of Tim, is still alive and well.
Hummers' Report--There's been a little female hummer hanging around since the last of September or early October. It's a little female.
Since we're not outside as much as when the weather was warmer, the sightings are not as often.
But either wife Hazel or myself have seen at least once about every day. This past Saturday morning, the little hummer landed on the back feeder and stayed there for a couple of minutes, eating a lot.
She flew off and we didn't see her Sunday, although I stood on the carport a long time, watching the feeder at the back of the house.
I have a feeling the little gal loaded up and headed south when I last saw her Saturday. Time will tell.
And Finally -- Thanks to all of you who expressed your condolences in the loss of "Squeak" a.k.a. "Smoke," my cat who was killed last week by a motorist of Route 40 in Ferrum. |
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