April 11, 1966, Appleton Post-Crescent
Fifty years ago, this UFO was spotted over town. Say all you want about the changes downtown, but these "aliens" were hovering over residential areas that have largely remain unchanged after fifty years. However, one still wonders...if these same visitors returned today, would they recognize Menasha?
Re UFOs in Menasha, that's my old neighborhood. Sorry I missed them. If they were wary of a gang of dispersing Lutherans I don't think Menasha has much to fear from an alien invasion.
ReplyDeleteJ Krahenbuhl
Oh how I loved the UFO craze.
ReplyDeleteWe used to build UFOs, including portals with a flashlight inside. Fishing line over a telephone wire or tree branch allowed us to levitate it. We usually set up near the road for higher viewer numbers. The people who saw it either hit the brakes or the gas or both. Some would get scared and some would laugh. Tons of fun.
Ha ha! This is my church!
ReplyDeleteHa ha! This is my church!
ReplyDeleteThere were so many more fields back then, but I do wonder if this was right behind Bethel, in their huge back yard that is like a giant field. Now that space is a community garden for the church. I once planted tomatoes in it.
ReplyDeleteThe field Sheila is referring to stretched all the way from the Appleton Road to London Street. It was a great place for playing all sorts of games. On the site of the church was the old Barker (??) house with an apple orchard. The house was abandoned and we considered it to be haunted. Only the very brave would enter the house at night and then only will holding someone's hand. Kids nowadays are sure missing out on a lot of real adventures.
ReplyDeleteJim Krahenbuhl
In the late 1960s, a boy in my 5th grade class at Clovis Grove claimed he was an alien from space. We didn't believe him. He even took us to a vacant lot (not the Bethel church field) to show us where his spacecraft landed. We still didn't believe him (although he was pretty weird). Nowadays I guess we would be expected to turn him in to Homeland Security.
ReplyDeleteI was just there today, and recalled all the potato sack races we had in that open land. I went to school there in the 80s so it was mostly mowed. The area closer to Appleton Road is still wooded, and doesn't have playground equipment in it. I think Bethel has camp nights there in summer. It's cool to know it was an orchard previous, which explains the lot size!
ReplyDelete