orange flash and missing time

This is my old neighborhood as seen in a google-earth image. The yellow X marks the exact location of the event.

  This story requires reading this other story first.  

It was a pleasant and clear autumn night in Michigan, I was a boy living in a quiet suburb of Detroit. I was 12 years old and in 7th grade, it was 1974. It was Friday night after the local high school football game, and I was walking home after the game ended. It was normal for me to walk the half-mile back to my house. I was with my friend (also named Mike), who was walking the same way. We were close to my home in a neighborhood of small suburban houses on a well lit but quiet street. The scene was completely normal and calm. We were in front of a house where an elementary school pal named Cindy Gail's used to live.

A recent photo with the spot marked with a yellow "X"

I know exactly the spot on the sidewalk where we were when suddenly there was a bold and jarring flash that took up most of the sky. It was a giant blur, and everything up above us was lit bright orange. It felt like someone just flipped a switch and the sky lit up, and then went back to normal. As soon as it happened, it was gone. It was completely silent. We were surprised and both responded with, "What just happened?"

There was nothing to see, since the event was over instantly, but something unsettling had happened. Was it a meteor? Was it lightning? Why was it silent? I know that I saw something, but there's an odd skip in my memory.

The color seemed utterly bizarre, it was a very bright and very saturated orange. To this day, whenever I see a campfire, and look at that the way the coals can glow as a warm radiant orange, I say to myself, "That's how the sky looked above Cindy Gail's house."

We continued to my house, I said goodbye and Mike walked home. I was excited to get home and watch a television show I really loved (KOLCHAK, The Night Stalker) that started at ten o'clock. I remember leaving the football game in order to get home in plenty of time so I could watch this show. But when I walked in the door, my parents were angry that I was out so late. I was surprised because I had made certain to be home at about 9:30, but instead it was well after 11 o'clock. It seemed odd, but I was genuinely disappointed because I missed that cool TV show.

The next Monday a group of friends were all in the cafeteria at my junior high school, along with Mike, and I told everyone that we had seen a bizarre light on Friday night. Mike added, "Yeah, a UFO with lights and everything!" What? I hadn't seen anything with lights. Did he see something I didn't? Mike and I never mentioned that night again.

That was over 34 years ago, and I have no idea what has happened to him.

I've always had a memory of this event, but the pieces were disjointed. I clearly remember the orange light in the night sky. And, I’ve always had a definite memory of missing that TV show, and my parents being angry about me being out so late. I had no explanation for that missing time. It wasn't until the mid-1990's that I remembered both of these events together. It happened while watching an interview with Chris Carter, creator of the X-Files, he talked excitedly about how he loved the same TV show (KOLCHAK, The Night Stalker) when he was a kid. Instantly the memories resurfaced with an almost electric jolt, like somebody just flipped a switch in my head. These two events slammed together in my head.

I suddenly realized that this all happened on the same night, I jumped off the couch and paced around my cabin in anxious circles. I’ve read a lot of UFO books, and the implications of this story unnerved me to my core.

Note: I easily googled the TV show KOLCHAK and it was only on for one season. So, I can pinpoint this event to the fall of 1974. The show was on Friday nights at 10 o’clock, exactly as I remembered.
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A little more about the orange flash.

Now remember, this is over 35 years ago, so I can only say so much. I remember that it was a very pleasant night in autumn, there was nothing stormy about weather.

The actual color was a hot orange. Exactly the color of glowing coals when they "illuminate" as that deep rich orange. Quite a vivid color. Radiant.

The flash was abrupt. Normal night sky - ORANGE - normal night sky. Lasting maybe 1 second. Extremely jarring. Perfectly silent.

Imagine you took movie footage of a night-time street, a normal suburban street on a clear night. The film runs thru the projector at 24 frames per second. You take this film, and using some sort of post production computer effect you change the sky to a hot radiant orange, all of it, one uniform color. But only for 24 frames, meaning just one second. No fading up and no fading out. Just ON - and then OFF.

If I was to watch this film on a projector, with the effect inserted for one abrupt second, this would match (as much as I can remember) what I saw in Michigan in 1974.

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I've added this on Aug. 6th 2009.
If you've read this far, you simply must read about the curious reemergence (again, at an intensely synchronistic moment via facefook) of my friend from that night, Mike.

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And - I've added this on Sept 2nd 2009.

I just got off the phone with Cindy Gail. She still visits her old next door neighbors (the couple are now in their mid-80's). She said they told her a story that they saw a glowing green UFO over her house! This would have been before 1977 (when they moved).

I begged Cindy to play the role of investigative reporter and dig up more on this very curious puzzle piece.

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