NUFORC Sighting 48562

Occurred: 1982-09-14 02:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2005-12-31 00:03 Pacific
Duration: 45 min
No of observers: 3

Location: Ripley, TN, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Left a trail, Emitted other objects, Emitted beams, Changed Colo

The three of us watched a large object with flashing multicolor lights in neighbors field for 45 min to an hour

While celebrating the birth of a new granddaughter in Dec., my ex-husband(who is a good friend) asked me if I remembered what we saw in Ripley when my daughter was 4? When he mentioned it I instantly recalled the event and how it got pushed back in my mind I'll never know. Anyway,my ex was a young Methodist minister and was assigned 3 small churches in and about Ripley.We call it a circuit. We lived in a small parsonage in the Edith community which was a bit in the country. My Mother had gone with us on the move to help with my daughter who was 4 at the time. We're from Mississippi. My ex.was going to school at Lambuth college in Jackson, Tn had 3 churches and boy were things hectic. Anyway we had an elderly couple who lived next to us that we'd become friendly with. They were in bad health so we took it upon ourselves to sort of check on them. They lived about 350 to 400 feet from us if that and had a huge garden spot to the side of their house and back view of ours. Our bedroom window faced their garden and part of the house. We'd been in bed for awhile and my mom comes knocking on the door and says,"children, gret up,get up, there's something going on at the _____ next door! I wake up and think what in the world now. I was on the right side of the bed with the window next to me and when I looked in that direction I saw lights flashing. My ex was awake at the same time and said,I'll bet its an ambulance. Mama,by this time was in the room and was going on about,"look at that ,its an airplane! I'm trying to get awake and say Mama,how in the world would an airplane get out there?!!! So I peeked through the window,well we all werepeeking and there was this thing flashing all these multicolored lights right in the middle of these folks garden. I told my ex,Man that's ot an ambulance, why would they be in the garden out back, and have you ever seen an ambulance like that. This thing looked like a christmas tree lit up. there were red,blue,green,yello,white and amber lights just flashing all over it. I mean, if anyone had driven by,they couldn't have missed it. It looked like it was a pretty good size,the garden area had a lot of land on the back side. It didn't make any noise and it seemed like it was just a little above the ground. Mama is saying she thinks its a drug drop from a helicopter, I'm half awake and trying to sort this out and get her to calm down and be quiet. My ex is just WOW,look at that. I tell Mama, its not a helicopter,its got the wrong lights,its quiet and why in the world would anyone drop something in the_____garden in podunk Tn. I don't really know what I was thinking,it was just so weird. so we watched it for a long time. It just kept flashing and seemed to be turning, it kinda looked like a lit up turnip. That sounds silly but is easily understood. My daughter doesn't remember too much of this but woke up and thought it was Santa Claus. The lights didn't seem to have any pattern,they were just flashing all over this thing. What my ex and I did notice was that the lights didn't seem to be shing outward in a long direction but were confined pretty close, and cast shadows. By now,we're wondering why the ____ haven't woke up and noticed something strange in their garden.My ex had the bright idea of just going out there and finding out what was going on. I asked him if he was crazy,didn't he realize that we didn't really know what that thing was,my mom told him it was drug dealers and he'd be killed. I mean this was just really,really surreal. Mr. Davenport,at this time I don't think UFO had even crossed our minds. I know Mama didn't. That would be just too far out of her realm of reality and experience. So we watched some more. We remarked that if it was a helicopter we'd hear something,It was so close I could have probably hit it with a rock from our back yard. About that time,Mama pulled the curtain open wider to get a better view and I was trying to get her to quiet down and don't right in the window and the thing beamed a whitish ,blue light right at the window. Well whatever we thought it was, we all knew we'd been spotted. ___and I hit the floor with the baby,and Mama started crying and screaming that we were going to be killed. I remember peeping up at the bottom of the window and seeing this thing out there sorta of shifting and this light going through our room like a searchlight. Then it just shut off, the object rose slowly and just eased on. No big burst of speed, or anything like that. Mama wanted to call the police about drug dealers,my ex started the UFO thing and I remeber telling them,look, we can't call with wild stories about drug dealers cause that implicate the old folks next door, and we really didn't know anything of the sort, I told my ex that, we were new,in a goldfishbowl being in the ministry and young,what would people out there think of their new preacher seeing ufos in the neighbors garden? And God forgive me,I told my little one that it was santa checking the area out and that if she told anyone he wouldn't come back. The next day,I went over to the ____ house and asked them if they heard noises the night before. They told me they went to bed around 7 and didn't wake up until 6. They had a big,old house and probably wouldn't have noticed much anyway as their room was on the opposite side. I eased around and took a look at their garden area and there was no sign of any kind of depression,suggesting a landing,but the old stalks in the garden were whipped around.Looking back now,this was a very extrordinary event,maybe even more so than I know.How this got into the back part of my mind is the real mystery. But I was just 29 years old in a strange place and trying to be the perfect preacher's wife and model mom. I just installed a scanner and tomorrow am going to e-mail a drawing of what we saw. I'm 50 now,my ex is 53 and my mom is 76. I don't know what we saw. Neither does my ex. My mom to this day still believes it was drug-runners as she calls them. Me,my ex,who lives in Memphis and my Mom would have no trouble answereing any questions about this. Don't take my sense of humor relating this as this is some kind of joke, its just that it was just that way. Since then I've seen a "few" strange things and have no reason to mislead anyone. I just think by reporting what we see only helps us get a grasp on this thing. I would like to add that my mom is a very fine lady and pillar of her church. My ex is a man who I don't think would even know how to fabricate something and me.... I just tell it like it is. We are educated,sound minded people. By the way,I did post a sighting for Ripley for 1999. It was 1990,large rectangular craft. My typo. All the Best




NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. PD


Posted 2006-02-14

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