Barry Kopecky and I were going to ride our bikes to Burns Field a couple of blocks from where I lived. It was 1957 and I was 7 years old. It was Summer. Hinsdale was a quiet sleepy little suburb back then. Muffin, the old Saint Bernard liked to sleep on the warm North Street cement pavement a block East of where I lived.

As Barry and I rode past Muffin, he awoke from his slumber in the middle of the street and bumped the front wheel of my Schwin bike causing me to fall. That’s the last thing I remembered about our ride to Burns Field that day.

The next thing I knew was that I was down by Morris Florists two blocks North on Monroe Street at Ogden Avenue. I was alone and walking East toward Varga’s tavern. There was an open area between the florist’s greenhouses and the tavern.

Hinsdale was a dry town. Varga’s and Bellomanie’s were the only establishments in town that served liquor having been grandfathered in to the laws prohibiting the serving of alcohol in our town. I had been to Varga’s with my dad a few times before where he would give me nickels to play the bowling game. That’s all I new about Varga’s back then.

Today was much different. Rather than go to Varga’s, I encountered something very strange. Hovering a couple of feet from the ground on the South side of Ogden Avenue just East of Morris Florists was a silver colored spherical object about 12’ in diameter.

These were the days when flying saucers were much ballyhooed and fervent speculation about extraterrestrial life was eagerly embraced by young and old thirsting for new answers to old questions. To my mind this “thing”, though otherworldly did not fit the mold of the classic flying saucer phenomenon. My intrigue with this sight was far more personal rather than evidence in support of the popular convention regarding flying saucers and such.

I was quite amazed by its appearance. This was familiar territory to me and I’d never seen such a sight there or anywhere else for that matter. All I could think was that this was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.

No sooner had I thought this “thing” cool than I found myself inside of it. I have no recollection of how I entered it. What I do remember is that the inside seemed to be larger than it appeared outside. It was comfortable inside with colors and textures as if deliberately “decorated” to appeal to the eye and give the occupant peace.
The floor was flat and the circular wall displayed a dozen or so vertical apertures about 2’ X 3' with rounded corners. Each of the apertures was a window displaying a diorama similar to what one would find in a museum and each window depicted major events of my future. I stood before each window for a moment and observed each of the “events” that I would later actually experience in life.

After viewing each of these “windows” in sequence, I stood before the last and larger window where I beheld the head and shoulders of a “being” that perfectly resembled the classic description of an “alien being”.

The “being” had no hair, eyes larger than human, and it spoke to me without lips moving. It was as if its thoughts were transmitted to me telepathically  without articulate speech or language.  It repeated over and over in a reassuring and compassionate manner “don’t worry, you will understand everything”.

After beholding this “being” for several minutes I found myself outside of the sphere and inside of Morris Florist’s greenhouses holding drumsticks in my hands, dancing up and down the aisles drumming on flower pots. Five years later I would become a drummer.

The next thing I remember is waking up in my bed with my mother at my side and I was telling her about the experience. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz when she was trying to tell her mother about the land of Oz after the tornado. It frustrated me to have experienced something very real to me and have no one believe me.  I swear this is true.

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