“Yes, definitely!”
The interview concerns a pair of sightings in Detroit, Michigan in the mid 1990s.
“It was very low and it had lights that were spinning around the perimeter of it.”
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: OK, the first question is always “Have you ever seen a UFO?”
DAMIEN: Yes, definitely.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: You have! OK! Tell me about it.
Look! Look! I’ve got a UFO sighting!
DAMIEN: I was probably about 12, 13, 14, somewhere in there, and I literally saw a flying saucer.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: It was a saucer.
H.O.P.: Ooooo!
DAMIEN: It was very low and it had lights that were spinning around the perimeter of it. And it sat above a house across the street and I got a good five second glimpse at it before it just disappeared.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: It just disappeared or it took off?
DAMIEN: It took off. It was a flash of light and it was gone.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: A flash of light and it was gone. In the flash of light did it disappear or did it go in any particular direction?
DAMIEN: It went in a direction. It went up and away and then it was gone.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: In just that fast? (Snaps fingers.)
DAMIEN: And I was terrified after I saw it because it was so vivid. And I was also pretty young and I really didn’t know what to make of it. And I knew about UFO’s and this really just confirmed…what I’d seen.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: How large would you say it was?
DAMIEN: It was big. It was bigger than a house. But it was far up in the sky.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: How far up in the sky was it?
DAMIEN: Hundreds of feet. But it was above the house down the block and across the street from me.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: What color was it? Was it at night time?
DAMIEN: Yeah, but it had white lights around the outside, almost head light size, probably…every five feet apart, around the perimeter of it. And it was real narrow. Almost a saucer.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: You’re the first person I’ve interviewed who’s seen a UFO.
DAMIEN: I’ve another one, too, but I’m not so sure about this one, but…
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: What attracted you to look outside?
DAMIEN: You know, I have no idea, that’s probably what was so strange about it.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: So you just went to the window and…
DAMIEN: Yeah.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: And what time was it?
DAMIEN: It was night time. Maybe nine o’clock.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Had you been asleep?
DAMIEN: No. It was just a regular day. I’d probably been out playing with some friends, or something, and, yeah, I just happened to look out the window and it was right there.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: So it was early enough that there was other activity going on around…
DAMIEN: Maybe so. I wasn’t in bed yet and I was still pretty young so it was definitely before midnight, so I’d say nine or ten o’clock.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: That is interesting.
H.O.P.: Oooo, oooo, oooo! First guy with a cool UFO sighting!
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Do you have a question you’d like to ask, H.O.P.?
H.O.P.: Okay, first, what color were the lights?
“The second one I saw was really strange and, I mean, it could have been some sort of air craft but it was such a strange shape.”
DAMIEN: They were white. The second one I saw was really strange and, I mean, it could have been some sort of air craft but it was such a strange shape. It was six red lights that were in a straight line. They were linear. It wasn’t like any type of airplane. It was like a definitive six dots and it was moving across the sky, and it was flying real low. It wasn’t making noise like a helicopter or an airplane. It was silent. But it was really strange.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: So you just saw it passing…
DAMIEN: Yeah, this row of six lights and I’ve never seen a configuration like that in an air craft.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Did you observe any kind of outline shape?
DAMIEN: No.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Where was the first sighting?
DAMIEN: They were both in the same place, it was just outside of Detroit, Michigan, and there was a construction site across the street where they were building new condos at the time and we used to go over there…
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: The first or the second…
DAMIEN: Yeah, this is the second and we used to go over there and play in the dirt.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: And how old were you at the time of the second sighting.
DAMIEN: It was like in a couple of days of each other.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Oh, okay, so a paired sighting.
DAMIEN: It was.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Interesting.
DAMIEN: Wild.
(After we’d turned off the recorder, Damien noted that about six weeks later a UFO of the same description was reported on the news, it having been seen in Ontario, perhaps around the London area. I asked what year and it was perhaps 1996. Somewhere around 1993-1996.)
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Did it make you a sky watcher?
DAMIEN: Oh, definitely.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Do you go down to Fernbank to look at the sky, or do you have a telescope…?
DAMIEN: Well, I really like hiking and camping and some of my best experiences have been out west because you actually seem like you’re closer to the sky, the stars seem closer, all the constellations, plus you’re away from the city and you can see more without ambient lighting.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: I’ve heard that out at the Grand Canyon is the best place.
DAMIEN: Yeah, Grand Canyon’s beautiful, I’ve been there at night. Yeah, anywhere out west is very cool and I’ve been to like the planetarium in Chicago to see their humongous telescope.
What is your most interesting coincidence?
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: OK, the second question is always “What is your most interesting coincidence”?
DAMIEN: Oh. That’s a tough question.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: That’s what everybody says. If you want you can have a chance to think about it a bit…
DAMIEN: I know I can think of something more interesting but one that just happened recently to me that was pretty strange. I was fishing in Lake Allatoona and using what they call Silver Shad.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: What is a Silver Shad?
DAMIEN: It looks like a small minnow with two hooks on the bottom. Made of plastic, and it rattles. And I’d been fishing all day and was with Bill Sheffield, didn’t catch anything, and I broke my line off on the way back in. So, I tied off another lure, we finished our little loop around, totally other side of the lake, I snag something, I reel it in, it’s a rod and a pole with the exact same lure that I’d just lost on it.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: That’s funny.
DAMIEN: Isn’t that interesting? But it’s a funny coincidence.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: That’s a good story. And the third question…
H.O.P. sings the first few notes of Beethoven’s Fifth.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: And the third question is just what is a story you’d perhaps like to tell. Just a little piece of history that comes to mind.
DAMIEN: A little piece of history. Man, this is hard. That’s a good question. Pertaining to anything?
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Pertaining to anything. Just what comes to mind.
DAMIEN: I’m brainwashed with music.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Oh, yeah. Of course. Well, I get all kinds of stories. I have gotten stories of entrepreneurship and banking practices.
DAMIEN: I don’t know. I just got back from vacation, actually. I should have some kind of history about something.
What is your earliest childhood memory?
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: OK, let’s skip that and do another one. What is your earliest childhood memory?
H.O.P.: Ooooo! The fourth question?!
DAMIEN: My earliest childhood memory. One that I always seem to remember, and I was real young, just like that set of eyes that looks out, not realizing much else, I was obviously an infant, but we had this gigantic Alaskan Malamute, looked like a Husky, it was an 80 to 95 pound dog named Valentine…
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: She would have been like a monster to you.
DAMIEN: Oh, yeah, just humongous, covered in fur, and I remember just laying on my back and this dog would come over and roll me over with its nose, just push me over, and I couldn’t do anything at the time, I was just a baby, I’d flop over. It’d come over and look at me and nose me back over. I was too small to speak or to even get up on my own, I just remember this huge dog looking at me and I was just a set of eyes looking at him wondering, “What’s he going to do?”
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Did you have any feelings about it? Were you scared or did you trust the animal?
DAMIEN: Yeah, I trusted him. And I remember mom saying that they didn’t trust him. It ended up being OK but they were real nervous at first, this gigantic dog sizing me up. I had him for years. He was a sweet dog.
H.O.P.: Was it a he or a she?
DAMIEN: She. Valentine. My dad gave him to my mom on Valentine’s Day.
(Not a typo. I had to check that again. Valentine was identified as a she.)
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Well, great. Thank you. You’re the first person I’ve talked to who’s seen a UFO.
H.O.P.: Great! Now, time for the ending theme.
H.o.p. sings a closing theme and gives a round of applause.
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