South Dakota Light
I'm really not sureif this is a ghost story or not because I don't know what it wasthat I saw. However, it's one of those experiences that hasstayed with me my entire life and I guess I'll just always wonder.
This happened when I was child around 1958 in Rapid City, SouthDakota. My parents and I lived in an older, wood frame house andit must have been in the summer or maybe in late spring timebecause I recall after it happened the next day was sunny andwarm and there was no snow on the ground. The fact that there wasno snow on the ground seemed very important to me at the time.
My bedroom in the house we lived in was just off of the livingroom. In the living room was a large picture window that lookedout over a vacant lot.
One night I woke up in the middle of the night and I knewsomething wasn't right, but I soon realized that my room wasglowing, a white, blue light that seemed to be emanating fromsomewhere in the living room. I wasn't really scared, but I didwonder why my parents hadn't noticed this strange light insidethe house.
I was wide awake looking around the room, wishing my Mom or Dadwould wake up and come and tell what this bright light was. But,as a little kid I didn't want to wake them up myself. For somereason it never seemed to be a good idea to wake up my parentsunless I had a darn good reason. I needed to find out what in theheck that light was before I woke them up.
So, still not afraid, just really wondering if this was anemergency situation, I ventured in to the living room. I recallthat the living room was glowing just like my bedroom, but nowthe light seemed to be coming from outside. I walked to the bigwindow and looked out. What I saw seemed pretty darned incredibleand I guess that for a few minutes I just stood and stared.
Not far from the window between the vacant field and our housewas a vibrant, gold, sparkling, glowing tower of light about astall as the house and about 10 or 12 feet wide. I guess as big asa large room. Honestly, the only thing I can liken it to is agiant, golden sparkling star that just sat there with sparksshooting out of it. I couldn't really hear anything, exceptperhaps something like whispering, or vibrations against theeardrums.
I finally thought, boy, this is something to wake up Mom and Dadfor, they're not gonna believe this one. I couldn't wait to getthem in there. I had not more than made the plan to run for theirbedroom, when I swear a voice from somewhere, a very powerfulvoice - inside my head or from somewhere, told me to go back tobed, don't tell anyone, just go back to bed, now. Right now. Ijust remember thinking how badly I wanted to go get my folks andnow I couldn't, cause this glowing thing was saying I absolutelycould not do that, and to go back and go to sleep. I rememberturning to head back to my room, and wondering why the sparklingstar was gold and yet the color that emanated in the room wasblue/white. The last thing I remember was that voice saying tonever tell anyone about this, never tell anyone. I never feltafraid or theatened. Just certain that I was not to wake anyoneup.
I did go back to sleep. But, the next morning I jumped out ofbed, put on my clothes and ran out to the side of the house. Iwas searching, searching for burn marks in the grass. I was justcertain there would be burn marks where that sparkling tower oflight had been. I looked up and there was my mother at the windowlooking quizzically at me. "Honey, what in heavens name areyou doing?", she asked me. I felt like I had been caughtwith my hand in some forbidden cookie jar, as If I had donesomething I'd been warned not to ever do. I told my mother that Iwas doing nothing, just fooling around, just nothing. All thewhile I was rememberng "the voice" telling me to nevertell, just go back to sleep.
And I never did tell, at least not until I was about 17 or 18 andthen when I began to tell, I told everyone I trusted. I wassearching for someone who could tell me what I had seen. Andbelieve me, there have been theories from "It was only adream" to "Maybe it was a UFO". Well, yes, ofcourse, it could have been dream. But it was so real, and sounlike any dream I've had before or since. A UFO? Well I've giventhat one long thought through the years. Particularly when UFOsightings seemed to become the rage. But, it didn't look like aspaceship and I didn't see any bald, big eyed folks, friendly orotherwise. Only a voice - or was it voices??
I listen to every story to see if someone else had ever had asimilar experience. I recently saw someone's rendition of anangel, and I thought for the first time that perhaps I'd seen anangel. I've also thought of some sort of ghostly apparition, inyour face willow the wisp or something like that. I've even toldmy mother and father about it and they amazingly accept that Imust have seen something very strange indeed. It doesn't seem tooccur to them to question or ridicule my experience. Sadly, theydon't remember any bright lights or glowing bedrooms when welived in Rapid City. A part of me had always hoped that perhapsthey'd seen something while we lived there.
I guess I'll never know what it was, or if it was. As I get olderI find myself becoming more cyncial about the experience. When Iwas young, I was very firm in the belief that it was a very realand very weird thing that had happened. But, over the years Ifeel doubt creeping in and the Logical part of my brain tellingme that what I saw was impossible and had to be some sort offigment of a sleepy imagination.
Perhaps that really is the truth, and somehow it saddens me whenI think that it is. But, the bottom line is, down deep insidethere is still a part of me that knows beyond certainty that Ireally, really did see and experience something strange thatnight in South Dakota.