Gordon, History & UFOs
Part 2 - Continued
By Gordon James DungavelMy next sighting was not actually witnessed by me but in many ways made more of an impression. I remember I was off school with a very bad cold. I had been banished to my bedroom where I lay being tortured by my mother brandishing a towel and a large bowl of steaming boiling water under my recoiling head.
Late one night I lay with my runny nose in my small bedroom which I shared with my younger brother Colin in our bungalow, 51 Harperland Drive, Kilmarnock. I remember it happened as 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' was about to come on, my favorite band at the time AC/DC were to be on it performing from their recently released 'Highway to Hell' album.
"The light was out in the bedroom and the TV low as not to disturb my sleeping parents next door. Suddenly all Hell broke loose. I thought the bedroom window was going to crash in. Someone was beating on it with their fists and screaming like a wild-man. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. "Get out here, get out quick", screamed the maniacal voice."
I pulled open the curtains and it was my brother pounding on the window. I thought he was being attacked. I remember I was wearing only my pajama bottoms as I rushed from the bedroom, followed behind by my parents. I dashed out from the front door to be confronted by Colin. His language in earshot of my half dressed parents standing at the door shocked me, as (1): My parents never swore & (2): If we were to be heard swearing, father would ruthlessly kill us!
So, I knew whatever the commotion was for. Colin wasn't fooling about. However it only took his next statement and I went into autopilot. "There's a huge UFO stationary over the Mount", he shouted breathlessly, pointing and pulling me towards the railway embankment. We both raced up the sloping man made pathway leading up to the railway tracks themselves. He pointed frantically down towards The Mount (a large wooded old folks home which was next to Kilmarnock's golf course, about 200 yards down the track from our house.)
The sky was dark, bar a few twinkling stars poking out from behind the clouds. "I swear, just like the one in your stupid books, same shape, exactly the same shape," (he was of course, referring to the controversial Adamski-shaped scout craft photographed by the author George Adamski). Colin continued, "It's been there since I came from Rugby (the football park).
"It was rocking side to side, the whole thing lit up white, hovering just above the tree tops". I could sense his utter frustration as he scanned the empty skies in every direction. We ignored the shouts from our angry parents coming from the bungalow as we continued to stand there for over half an hour."
I was semi naked and my bare feet ached but only two passing trains forced us to retreat from our observation point. Then suddenly my heart stopped, I could hear an audible thump in my chest as a bright light appeared from darkened cloud to our left above our house. Unfortunately my sense of wonder evaporated as a bright full moon revealed itself. "Was that it, you cretin?” I asked him with mounting sarcasm. He was adamant that it wasn't and marched off in a sulk returning to our house where he had to undergo the wrath of my father.
What impressed me about this episode was that my brother was about as uninterested in UFO's as my Dad was. He had never once read one of my UFO books no matter how much I pestered him. He was not the type of person to come up with fanciful tales, even to this day a UFO could land in front of him and he would shrug his shoulders.
But he knew I was fascinated by the subject and his excitement was purely an unselfish one, he wanted me desperately to see what he had. I got him to draw what he had seen, I was expecting your usual hubcap type saucer, but his drawing was spookily close to the Adamski-shape.
One could argue he simply read and copied the illustration from one of my books, but that was one hell of a performance he put us all through just for a laugh, which is not Colin's predisposition.
"Months of back door sky watching began; I would stand for hours staring at the night sky. Dad had given up chastising my unusual hobby and got used to coming out with the dog at 11 0'clock to tell me it was time for bed. These many hours sky watching gave me a great insight into what was flying around our skies at night."
I got used to the deceiving airplane landing lights, and the small roving satellites which once I swore were UFO's I got very used too, nick naming them 'Movers'. Birds, bats, even glowing white owls would prickle the senses. A year would pass without incident but I was quite happy standing, watching, a lone figure in the darkness, but like a fisherman the excitement was not in the catch so much, it was the expectation of the catch, that was the payoff.
Then a split-second sighting would rekindle all the awe this subject held for me.
In the darkness of the garden, I spotted an orange ball of light coming from my neighbors garden, it was flying at waist height, it zoomed up and over the wire fence, flashed by me, then swooped up our 6-ft brick garden wall and up into the heavens. This small baseball orb of pure orange light was something I'd never heard off before. I never told anyone about it at the time, but later on told my Mother. She said something similar had happened to my Uncle George.
In his younger days he had been out with a group of friends poaching salmon from local private grounds. When a small orange light zigzagged through the trees towards him. Thinking it was the torch light from the gamekeeper he did a runner leaving behind his rod etc. thinking he had outran his pursuer he stopped in the dark woods for breath, only to turn round to be confronted by this small, silent disembodied ball of rotating orange light right next to him. Well George was a hard man, a prize boxer in his day and frightened of nothing but mum said by the time he got home he was white and shaking with fear.
Anyway, I digress. I'm not too sure about the length of time between my odd experiences in Scotland but I would briefly like to add, that in my early teens I too would be up to no good sneaking into private areas forbidden to the public, (must have inherited that trait off my criminal pilfering ancestry) with my good friend at the time Tom Hynd. He was always poaching rabbits, which I went along with begrudgingly as I was scared stiff of handling his snappy fearsome looking ferret.
"Despite killing anything that moved Tom was keen on observing wildlife. I soon found myself on many occasions bored out of my box watching badger sets in the middle of the night, or bricking it when I'd hear the ghostly scream of foxes at play."
However, one occasion in particular stood out, which I'll never forget. I can’t recall exactly the area by name in Kilmarnock which was our hunting ground, but one night we were in cover having set up rabbit snares covering the circumference of two large fields. As we were in the middle of nowhere there was no light pollution from the town or from the village of Gatehead up the road. Our eyesight soon adjusted to the dark, and you could quite easily make out foxes stalking their prey through our binoculars, or anything else scavenging the countryside. However I was far more interested in the bright stars that were now flying low across the skies.
Tom was yet another UFO skeptic for every time I mentioned the subject, Tom would delight in inflicting tremendous pain towards me, (at least it wasn't only the wildlife he liked to torture). But that night I watched as what I thought at first were satellites pass above those fields until my patience with Tom ran out.
I marched off pointing at yet another silent bright light sailing passed barely one hundred foot up above the field. They are not planes, helicopters or satellites", I shouted at Tom, "I'm off to get the police", I angrily threatened at 3.a.m in the morning heading home, furious at Tom's utter belligerence and indifference to the spectacle in the skies in front of him. There I was thinking we're being invaded from Mars and there's Tom more concerned I would frighten off one of his rabbits!
My next encounter worth a mention, as it brings in a more common dimension to the UFO phenomenon regards the authorities. We were going to school (Grange Academy) as usual when Ian Lewis another good friend of mine and I spotted a large bright light high above the school. It was as large as a full moon and sparkled like a huge diamond. Lewis was most impressed. 'Oh it's just a UFO', I said nonchalantly.
"Lewis was unlike my other acquaintances at the time, he actually had an open mind to such a possibility. In fact he was more gob smacked than me. He stood ridged watching it for twenty minutes. Then it disappeared as if someone had turned off a light switch."
We were both late for class, I went into school, but Lewis was made of sterner stuff than I. "That was a UFO", he declared and off he marched by himself to the police station. Next day he came to my house early before school. "God, I'm in such trouble", he moaned."The police came to my house, they took statements, then the MOD turned up, there were about twenty guys all over the house, my parents went nuts", he explained. I bravely answered him, "I hope you didn't give my name!", I gulped.
He was quiet for the rest of the day as his parents were very strict, only he new what punishments they had in store for him still.The next day Ian was back round my house with his tail between his legs, "They've been again last night, the police, they've told me the light was caused by some guy in Ayr (15 miles away) letting off a flare.
They made me sign a paper agreeing that this is what I saw", he gulped, "I'm never going to report anything else like that again", he swore. This was long before we knew anything about cover ups, conspiracies or MOD denials. Poor Lewis came to school black & blue the following day his father having made sure Lewis would never report anything like that again.
Oh, I have my one & only ghost experience which took place in Scotland during those years which I will re-call for you in my next chapter.
