The UFO Boom of 1973

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Hi, hello. Welcome back.

Hi. Tonight, I made chili goods for Hailey and myself. It's delightful. Thank you and some cornbread.

How very southern of me. But if you hear any noises, I mean there were a lot of beans in there. There were a lot of beans. So I'm just going to throw that out.

So I'm sorry. But this is natural. This is the body's response to... It's a body work.

Yeah. Yeah. It's... You know what?

This is a biology, a testament to biology. Yeah. And maybe an education for the rest of you out there who were like, I just came for true crime. I didn't want to hear your dumb ass stories and your flatulence.

I mean that is a common theme in our comments. About the flatulence. Yeah, the flatulence especially. Sure.

Sure. Yeah. We don't really do. No.

Maybe we do. But not on the flat part. A little on there. Yeah.

It's been a while. It's a couple weeks. My son has been horrifically sick. Yeah.

Really sick. We had a lot of snow. Yeah. Snow and then like no snow school was canceled.

It shouldn't have been at least in my area. Right. Yeah. Well, I got up on one morning and I said the job to work.

Even though the kids weren't there. But I was like, got up. I was like, we got out school today. And as I'm driving in, the rest of the county got significantly more snow.

And we did. There's one area of my county that got seven inches of snow. Wow. Oh my gosh.

And I had like a dusting in my yard. I was like, this is fine. But yeah, it turns out. You administrators and your shenanigans.

Yeah. No. It was a call. It's definitely a call.

In my day in 2010, I walked to school in 30 inches of snow. Oh yeah. So okay. No.

All right. We didn't go. We didn't go. Kind of.

Whoa. What was that? It was a photograph. So we were in my home.

Yeah. It was a photograph of my deceased grandparents and myself and my brother and children. I think they're mad. They're on the ground.

No. I'm sorry. Did you hit it? Or did it just fall?

It was kind of fail. See, I'm telling you, they're pissed. They're pissed. It was back in their day.

They went to school in the snow. You know what? My grandmother always told stories like that. She was like, there would be a million inches of snow when we would have seven miles barefoot.

She'll tell me this with a sick hangout of her mouth. I got back and I died by my mother recently. We were talking about, I was so since the hurricane, my school got all these donations of things because we were distribution sites. So as we were like finding places for a lot of the stuff to go, we had a lot of things like feminine hygiene products, stuff like that, the deodorants and things that I kept for our school one for our students.

Because we are constantly needing that kind of stuff. I constantly put it out for kids and you know, it gets used. So as I was going through everything, I was like, you know, I don't want, I was telling my mom was a guy, I was sorting through all this stuff today and I, you know, made different piles of stuff that we were going to keep. So we're going to give like, you know, send other places and yeah, I kept all the plastic applicator tampons because I didn't keep cardboard ones.

I, you know, got rid of those. You said only the finest for my students who have yes, only the plastic ones. And I was like, the kid, like they don't, I mean, they'll use them, but like, I don't like to use the cardboard ones. I don't use them.

Yeah, this is not fun. So I was like, yeah, I'm not going to keep those. Mom, it's like back in my day, all we had was the cardboard applicators. They should be lucky to have them.

I was like, mom, I was like, if that was all we had, absolutely, I would keep them. But it's not, I was like, I have a plethora of plastic options to distribute. She's not wrong. She's not.

So in, in my day to like, the plastic ones didn't come out until I was well at high school. So yeah, we always use the other ones. Yeah, yeah, it's not uncommon. And you know, wings didn't come out for a long time.

Yeah, it was just the regular pad, like, you know, the wings, it was like, wow, and that you could actually have a pad that was thin. Right. Because I mean, I'll never forget my side note here in fourth grade, Hazel Noriega, hold up this ginormous, what I consider to be a, I just gave birth pad. It was massive.

And she holds it up and she says, this is what I have to use because I started my period. And I was horrified because I hadn't started my period. And I was like, Oh my gosh, it's like, it's like a diaper. And you know, and it was like belly button to mid back.

And I was horrified by this. And I was like, Oh, well, you know, my grandma talks about having the belt. Yes. And they were like, you flip the pad to the belt.

And my grandma used to use rags because she couldn't afford the belt. So she used rad as in her underwear. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And she said, that's where you get the term. I'm on the rag. Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. She's on the rag. Interesting. Interesting.

Yeah. No, I, when I, um, do you mind when I got my period? I was in sixth grade. So 12 11 or 12.

Yeah. So it's great. I was actually homesick from school. I'd struck her throat.

And what a time to get it. Yeah. So I remember though, getting it in my mom, like shutting me in the bathroom, gave me a box of dance. I was like, figured out.

She liked, I mean, she obviously like told me how to use them. She's like, you have to use them because I was dancing 20 hours a week at a studio. And I was in tights and like, I couldn't wear a pad. Yeah.

Because you know, with your little tights, you don't wear underwear. Typically, um, or if you do your work a song and I was 12, I'm not wearing that. So I didn't wear like, because you're under where it would show, like, why are they? Yeah.

So you didn't wear them. So I was like, you, I mean, and dance costumes, like on stage, like you can't just like, you're gonna have to figure out how to use them. Did she give you the cardboard ones? I don't remember.

As I was trying to remember, that would have been a cardboard one or a plastic one proves your point. Booyah. I feel like she gave me a plastic one. Oh, like that's the only ones we ever that I remember ever being bought for me were plastic.

So that meant that she was probably not a plastic. She knew. Well, she had a hysterectomy about it. Yeah.

So she didn't have a period anymore. That too. Yeah. I know you know a lot about our menstrual cycles.

I didn't say a lot about mine. Oh, well mine's, I was also in sixth grade. Yeah. And mine, I felt weird on a Friday night.

I remember we went to authentic Mexican restaurant and I was like, I just don't feel really good. My stomach kind of hurts. My mom was like, what do you mean? I was like, I don't know.

I just feel weird. And then the next day at my evil aunt's house, yeah, my evil aunt used to give me like 10 cents and would make me fold her laundry. It was really weird. Yeah, she was manipulative and horrible.

But anyway, that's another story for another time. Anyway, but I got into the bathroom and I was like, oh, and it was, you know, I was bleeding. And I was like, oh my gosh, it's happening. But then I felt so awkward about it, you know, like, I didn't want anybody to know.

I don't know. It was weird. Interesting. But you know, it has been with me since then.

Yeah. Yeah. And here we are as I approached this Perry menopausal season. Yeah.

Yeah. Now I've switched from the tampons to the menstrual cup, the diva, the diva, if you will, diva, I've been using that for several years. Do you like that? I love it.

Really? So you just emptied out when it's full? How do you know when it's full? It's like every 12 hours.

Oh, so I like in the morning, and then you just pop it back in there. That's kind of a nice thing because you don't have to worry about like the toxic shock syndrome. Or like having to like every time he goes to the bathroom, like having to change that like it's just one of those things. And it was actually really helpful for me when I was working hospice, because I was on the road so much.

Yeah. So there was a lot of days where I would leave the office at, you know, eight 30 to go on visits and things like that. And I wouldn't get back to the office until four and not have access to a bathroom. Do you have to like also, you know, remember, oh, yeah, it's in there, you know, before you like do taxes and stuff?

Yeah, I wouldn't, yeah. Yeah. Because it's I mean, can you really can you feel it? Like, is it like a tampon?

Really? No, I mean, like, I know it's there, right? But yeah, it sounds bad that I would just be like oh, I can't ever feel it. That does not bode well for me.

Yeah. Yeah. You just like, I mean, but yeah, you have to be comfortable getting up those in personal level, say, with yourself, because it's like there's nothing that like, the tampon you have is trained right? This doesn't have a mirror.

You have to like, like fold it in half, right? Yeah, to put it up in there and then to take it out, it's got like a stem. Wonder that you just have to reach up in there and pull it out. Sometimes I get to like pop the seal.

If it's like really, because it like expands, right? Like it's like a catch everything. Yeah. So it's just it's because it's gonna get a little messy.

I was gonna say, just get messy and pull it out. It can't go everywhere. Yeah, if you can get it out one like, motion. Can you just dump it in the toilet and then clean it out?

What do you clean it with? I have like, you can do just warm water and just like rinse it out, or then make like a cleanser. Interesting. And you just wash out in the sink?

Yeah. Great. I don't know. Yeah.

I use your bathroom. I mean, yeah. And then at the end of the cycle, you just either boil it or stick it in your dishwasher. I don't have working dishwasher, so I have a special pot.

I had a, I had put it in the dishwasher before when it worked. It's my top rack beside the zero bowl. Oh, do you need a bowl? And I'm like, nope.

Nope. No, I have like a little like, I actually call it like an oatmeal pot, like a tiny little pot. I think now on, I've got to bring my own utensils when I come to your house. I'm just saying, and you're like, Oh, look, look, you know, I made chicken and I'm like, Oh, cool.

I got my own bowl. It's fork. Yeah. Cause I mean, you do have to like fish it out with a fork.

Out of the, cause it's hot. Oh my. You've got it like. I just clean it sterile.

Yeah. There's shit in there with other like, Oh, I'm like, Oh, I'm like, you're Holly, you need a fork. No, wash that. I've never not had your period blood on my, there's a lot of it when you boil it, like you've washed it out.

Oh, so you boil it first and then put it in the dishwasher? No, like you would rinse it like when you're done with your cycle for the week, like you rinse it out like you would normally. And then when you want to do like a, like read sterilization for the next go round, you stick in there and sterilize it. So Haley's DNA is on this work.

Yes. Most people's DNA are on forks. I mean, the downstairs DNA. Care for that.

Listen, I mean, friends, in a past life, we shared a straw mattress. No. Now I'm drinking your menstrual blood. Oh, I mean, we have gone to like deep depths of water.

Wow. Yeah. I mean, it's just what you do. What are we doing?

We're going to talk about you with those right now. What a segue from diva cub in your dishwasher. I mean, it kind of looks like you. That is true.

That is true. That's pretty, pretty interesting. Okay. I'm sorry for you.

You know, there. Yeah. Well, we're going to talk about the 1973 UFO boom. There was a boom of you.

There was in many different points in history, but 1973 had a very large amount of you. I wonder what the deal. I mean, it wasn't even the bright and teddy or for the US. I know what's happening.

It was a lot. So we're going to talk about mostly in Tennessee, but during this time, there was also that makes a lot of sense. There was also an abduction that happened, but it was in Mississippi. But I do want to talk about it as well.

I want to hear all of this. Yes. Excited. All right.

So as the country's involvement in the Vietnam War was coming to an close. We have to have something. The war is over. The war is over.

Something. Yeah. The vice president resigned during that time. The president was embroiled in a scandal.

Almost certain to end with the impeachment. Yes, Watergate. There was a war raging in the Middle East between Israel and Egypt. Arab oil producing countries announced in embargo against the US, the United States for its support of Israel, which means that only people with even an odd, it depended on the day that you could get asked.

Yeah. And it was very expensive. Gas is extremely expensive. There was some misunderstandings between the US and Soviet Union regarding the war, which pushed the countries to the brink of nuclear confrontation with the US military on Defcon 3 Alert for the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

So all of this is going on in the 70s. Meanwhile, there's also a shit ton of UFOs. I mean, as long as they don't use fuel to power their I mean, that's actually clever space travel. Exactly.

Yeah. I like it. Yeah. So the fall of the 90s.

One of the largest waves to be of those sightings in US history. There were hundreds of reports that came into the news outlets across the country. The greatest concentration of those actually were in the Southeast. So right now, our neighborhood seems right.

Yeah, it does. A newspaper accounts, chronicle unknown objects in the night skies, and even a few reports of high strangeness on the ground. I mean, that seems right. High strangeness of the ground.

Um, September and October became the autumn of aliens. Oh, fun. That's a great time for a festival. Oh my gosh.

Yes. And a beautiful time of the year. Exactly. And you know what these aliens, they know what's up.

I mean, fall in the mountains is stunning. It's beautiful. They know. That's hard.

I wouldn't come in the summer to. No, it's way too hot. Yeah. Even aliens.

What? Yeah. Absolutely. Did you see that happen?

Come on. Yeah. Come on over. Um, yeah.

So I'm a valence. So that was going on. Yeah. In Nashville, Tennessee, the encounters began on September 3 of 1973.

The Tennessee unreported a site by a South Nashville homemaker and her three children, who described a distant light that changed colors than a red triangular object with three white lights moving rapidly across the sky. Metro police investigated but proclaims the lights to be out of their jurisdiction. We don't that's absolutely no one. We have other crimes to take care of.

Lights in the sky are not our jurisdiction. Yes. That's it. We're done.

Yes. Female hygiene products are not part of our jurisdiction. Not part of our jurisdiction. So, you know, keep on lighting up there, Diva.

Yep. We'll see you later. Yeah. So I think because of that declaration, you know, that's not their jurisdiction.

Yeah. The reports in Nashville didn't attract a whole lot of attention for the next few weeks. But West Tennessee law enforcement apparently didn't get the memo that lights in the sky are out of our jurisdiction. Because on September 25th, the Tennessee unreported that Shelby County deputies in Memphis spotted a wearing hovering craft, sleeping the ground with two white spotlights.

Well, later that week, there were similar reports by sheriffs in Lauderdale and Obean counties judging by news reports. The OVOS seemed to be getting closer to Middle Tennessee, making their first landfall in Guiles County on October 1st. All right. Well, so they hover.

They let people know like, hey, we're here. Yeah. The really like country music. Yeah.

Oh, wait, out of your jurisdiction. Yeah. Let's go more towards Memphis. We love Elvis, you know, that kind of area.

Yeah. Yeah. So on September 1st, the Pulaski citizen reported that three teenage boys witnessed the landing of an egg-shaped craft near the Anthony Hill community and a large hairy, stiffly walking occupant. Bigfoot.

Me when I haven't shaved. I mean, so all winter. Oh, there's now. Now, especially.

Was it a ginger? It doesn't say. So that's not you then. Not me.

It's true ginger. Yeah. Yeah. It could have been Bigfoot.

You mean? I love you. A Tim. See?

I love it. Might have been. So reports continue to come in from Tennessee and around the country throughout the first week of October. The one of the most famous abduction cases in U.S.

U.F.O. history broke on Thursday, October 11th. And that's the one we're going to talk about in Mississippi. We're going to talk later.

Yeah. Yep. We'll talk about that in a minute. So in the week that followed that, there were reports of strange lights, unusual aircrafts, landings, and bizarre occupants coming in from all across America.

October 15th, the Pulaski citizen reported that a Berea Tennessee family saw lights in the woods and a separate witness spotted a being with a glowing white head crossing a highway nearby. Claw-like tracks were later discovered in the road, as well as what appeared to be landing marks in the woods. I mean, I hope you look both ways. Make safe choices.

Right. It's going to cross a road. Yeah. I also wonder if there's not some like, some like panic.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, oh, we read this. And so suddenly we saw this in another part. Yeah.

Right. Well, it's like Satanic Panic, right? Yeah. Exactly.

You see one devil worshipper and you're seeing them everywhere. Exactly. Exactly. You see one diva cup.

You've seen them all. You absolutely put them in your dishwasher and keep on going. You can't move them off for somebody of work. Yep.

Keep trying. Okay. With your fork. Okay.

I'm sorry. Start with spooning and then work up to fork. Yeah. That's a gradual progression.

Okay. So the October 17th issue of the Nashville banner reported sightings. New newspapers are there so many from around Tennessee. Columbia, Hartsville, Knoxville, Lawrenceburg, Lebanon, and Mount Juliette all had sightings.

The next day, the Tennessean reported glowing cones and saucer shaped objects in Clarksville, a triangular object hovering over a car near Springfield and the tail of a Putnam County farmer, minissed by two lights that barrel directly toward him before shooting almost vertically into the sky. Can't you see like a big burly farmer guy who, you know, really isn't annoyed by anything? Right. Nothing really gets to him.

He's seen a lot on the farm and then suddenly aliens are chasing you. Yeah. Yeah. With your light.

That's cuz you're maybe. Yeah. That would be scary. Yeah.

Okay. So at last though, the visitors entered, finally entered the Metro Nashville Police Department's jurisdiction. You know, they originally said not our jurisdiction. They've come back.

Now they are in their jurisdiction. Oh, I think they are. So yeah. It's reported there were several sightings around Nashville on the evening of October 18th, including a silver cigar shaped craft and glowing blue mist and a trio of hovering at glowing objects.

So after, you know, the objects are seen, they then vanish with a great speed. The next night, the blue mist was back along with more glowing hovers, which made this humming and whistling noise. Wow. Yeah.

Reports from around the country and Tennessee began to slow in November, even as interest in UFO books, magazines, TV shows and movies began to take off. It was a holiday Thanksgiving. Yeah. We had to get the automavaleons come to it.

Exactly. It's like the summer of love and eventually it all comes to it. It's gotta come to it. Yeah.

In the years that followed though, aliens crept into all corners of pop culture, evolving, you know, from the flying saucer craze to, you know, kind of what we see in pop culture today. Right. Aliens. There were, you know, lots of talk about the big headed grays, crashed flying saucers, government conspiracies, all kinds of stuff going on.

So yeah, that's kind of the overview of the big UFO boom of 1973. Don't you think it's interesting that they picked Tennessee? Yeah. Well, that's just where this article was from.

Well, but for a lot of their heavy duty. I think there was also a lot going on in Missouri. At the same time, I saw several articles and I was looking for, you know, the story that were out of Missouri, but Tennessee just thought right. You know what always does.

Yeah. Well, let me tell you a little bit about this abduction for Mississippi. Cool. Yeah.

So I know it's not our typical area, but I just wanted to talk about it because it's kind of fun. Okay. So on the evening of October 11th, 1973, we have 42 year old Charles Hickson and 19 year old Calvin Parker. They tell the Jackson County, Mississippi Sheriff's Office that they were fishing off a pier on the west bank of the Pasquigoula river in Mississippi.

When they heard a whirring, whizzing sound, they saw two flashing blue lights and observed an oval shaped object that was 30 to 40 feet across and eight to 10 feet high. Parker and Hickson claimed they were conscious but paralyzed while three creatures with robotic slit mouths and crabs like pincers took them aboard the object and subjected them to an examination. I think they got broke. They wouldn't be the first in our stories to get broke.

No, they would not. I wonder if it was through their belly buttons. Maybe. So follow the incident.

Hickson gave interviews and lectures to get on television in 1974. He claimed additional encounters with aliens and in 1983, he authored a self published book called UFO Contact at Pasquigoula. Parker later attended UFO conventions in 1993, started a company called UFO Investigations to produce television stories about UFOs. In September of 2011, Hickson died a heart attack the age of 80.

In 2018, Parker released his book entitled Pasquigoula, the closest encounter in my story which is quote the first full account of the event given by Parker along with how it affected his life. It is interesting that in some of the stories that we've done about UFOs, it does seem like those who were abducted are continually sort of followed by these aliens. They just don't give up. Like once they taste the blood.

They're attached to their attack. Like your diva cup can. It kind of does. It seems like they follow that.

Yeah. On June 22, 2019, a historical marker was unveiled at the site of the alleged abduction funded by the historical society and with placement approved by the city. Parker attended the unveiling as the Hickson's son and his family. Parker stated quote, it is emotional for me.

I can't really describe it because I'd break out in tears if I do. I wish when I died, I could be buried right here underneath this plaque. That would explain it the best. It is quite an honor.

I guess because if this happens to you, first of all, it's so unbelievable. How are you going to articulate that to folks that most people probably won't believe you're going to think you're crazy? I mean, I think that it would be validating to have somebody recognize like, hey, this is where this happened. Yeah.

Parker died from kidney cancer in August 2023, the age of 68. There was a lot of skepticism. Obviously. There was an aviation journalist and you have a skeptic Philip J.

Class that found discrepancies in Hickson's story. He noted that Hicks interviews that take polygraph exam conducted by an experienced examiner and concluded that the case was a hoax. An investigator, Joe and Nickel wrote that Hickson's behavior was questionable. And that he later altered or embellished his claims.

Nickel suspected that Hickson may have fantasized alien encounter during a like walking a dream estate and suggested that Parker's corroboration of the tale was likely due to suggestibility because he initially told the place he had passed out at the beginning of the incident and failed to regain consciousness until it was over. So, you know, they're thinking maybe he fell asleep and dreamed it up. I mean, devil's advocate here playing both sides. Like I said, it's hard to rationalize.

And I think that as human beings, we want answers for everything. We want to rationalize everything. So, it's easy to be like, well, you were sleeping. And I'm not saying that this happened.

But, you know, it should, on his defense, if it did happen, people just aren't naturally going to be like, oh man, I believe you, they're going to be like, you're a bad chick. And I think that, you know, even if you try to explain it, they'll be like, oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. It's human nature.

We want reasons for everything. And there could be something out there that we just don't know. I mean, you know, God, for me personally, it's on, he's omnipresent, you know, we can sort of see pieces around us, but I mean, you can't touch him. You can't, you know what I'm saying?

Like, so it's hard for people to wrap their minds around, how can this, you know, sort of metaphysical be reality when, you know, we live in the rational? I say, why not? Absolutely. I'm hoping that Haley will get a bit of it too.

You know, because it would make her really good, not because I want her to be harmed. I want the story. Yeah. I think that would be a good.

I would sacrifice my belly button for that. Wow. Yeah. Boopock house.

Wow. Yeah. I have already once been probed through my belly button. Me too.

The letter? Yeah. Same girl. Got the star and everything.

Me too. It's a brand of belly button. Me too. So when my mom had surgery, I think it was for when she had her strike to me.

They missed her belly button and put it in above. The one's about to go to belly button. So, yeah. Who the hell was this surgeon?

I was he drunk. Possibly. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Bless it. No. No. They did a good job on mine.

Yeah. Same. Mine's very healed because I was 24. I was 22.

Yeah. We were working together. You had your attack. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mark was has a star in his belly button as well.

All of us are like, but his doesn't bend. He saw his skull water. Yeah. I had my appendix the old fashioned way with the big kind of cross my stomach.

I still have my appendix for now, but you know what they say. Like when one goes typically. Yeah. Don't worry.

We can take it out here. Oh good. Yeah. Okay.

Do you want to like lay down on the carpet? I mean, do you like that's gonna be bad for your carpet. Yeah. We could do the garage.

You have a drain in your garage? Uh, yes. I have a floor. A pump.

Yep. Yeah. We could do it that way. Yeah.

That way you can kind of hose it. I like that. The blood down. Clean it off.

Yeah. I don't want that on my car. Yeah. No.

But in plastic. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good idea.

We could take care of it. It'd be fine. Okay. How many?

Well, if you like this next time about your alien abductions or home surgeries or diva cups or when you started menstruating. Yeah. Any of the above. We would love to hear it.

We would. You can do so by sending us an email at mountain mysteries dot abolition at gmail.com. You can find us on Facebook at mountain mysteries tales from Appalachia. Find us on Instagram at mountain mysteries dot Appalachia and the ever fun patreon patreon.com slash mountain mysteries.

Let's go. Maria Kentucky. I love it. It's a Tennessee.

Nailed it. I mean, we can also do breathe. Tennessee. Let's do both.

Yeah. Memphis Nashville, wherever you saw us fighting and if you saw. Yeah. If you've seen some aliens or you have your grandma did like send us an email.

Let us know. I don't know. I don't know. And what do you think about cardboard to your boss?

What about those? What about the do you book? What is your preferred or the pads with wings? Like all the things.

Yeah. What do you think? Are you perimenopausal? Let it know.

Do you think tonight? All right, y'all. Until next week. Bye.

Bye.