Yes, We Have No Yellow Fruit

Are aliens really coming to Earth?

By Mark Wheeler
Nov 1, 1996 6:00 AMNov 12, 2019 5:37 AM

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My first experience with extraterrestrials occurred one boring summer in the mid-1960s with my friend Tommy Hamilton. We were 12 or 13 and had built ourselves a cabin of sorts, deep within the Pine Barrens of central New Jersey.

And I mean deep. No beaten trails for us. Each trip meant forging a swamp, crossing a small stream or two, and pushing through a thick tangle of annoying undergrowth, all the while swatting at ufo-size mosquitoes. One day we planned our first overnight camp-out. And that’s when it happened.

Sometime during that moonless night, after we’d both fallen into a junk-food-satiated sleep, we were awakened by a harsh, blazing white light that filled our little room. The ensuing conversation went something like this:

Tommy, you jerk, turn off your flashlight!

That’s not my flashlight, you idiot. Turn off the lantern.

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