Roswell
New Mexico
March 2013
Continuing southwest 164 miles takes us nigh into Roswell, New Mexico. Does that name sound familiar to you? Many people know Roswell for the “incident.” In 1947, there was a report that an airborne whatsis crashed on a ranch somewhere outside of Roswell, New Mexico. Since then there has been a heck of a controversy about what that whatsis was. The United States Armed Forces maintains they recovered debris from an experimental high altitude surveillance balloon, and there is no more mystery to it than that. On the other hand, some non-USAF people are thoroughly convinced that this UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) was an alien spacecraft containing lifeforms. Not just lifeforms, but humanoid beings. They claim the military captured the creatures, conducted some hands-on research on them and covered up the incident. Of all the tens of thousands of reported UFO occurrences, this one has become the most famous, the flagship incident so to speak, and as a result, the city of Roswell — heck, the very name <Roswell> — and the alleged alien ship disaster, became synonymous.
We know this: Something crashed back in 1947, ya ya ya, and things quieted down for a time. But 30 years later, the controversy blew up again. A whole pantload of confessions, interviews, rumors, reports, accounts and congressional hearings commenced about the incident. There is even unintentionally comic film footage of alien autopsies.
What the heck. Go to Roswell yourself. Investigate the information that has emerged about the authenticity of visiting extraterrestrials and their spacecraft, especially involving the 1947 Roswell incident. Lisa and I choose to begin our analysis at the UFO Museum, on the main drag of Roswell.
In all fairness, this is the International UFO Museum and Research Center and research centers are rarely as entertaining as, say, alien landings. Not only will you find goofy alien exhibits here — these are actually fun — but there is an extensive library of thousands of reports, accounts and items concerning space and UFOs — these are semi-boring. I’m not clear what I had hoped to see, maybe a few ETs (extra-terrestrials) in jump suits, or Robbie the Robot, or even Rosie the Riveter. What we do see is a lot of newspaper articles enlarged and hung on the walls. Lots of reading, perfect for sitting in any random armchair. On the other hand, standing around a mock flying saucer are four BEMs (Bug-Eyed Monsters.) You know who I’m talking about. Green skin, large, almond-shaped eyes, ultra-skinny bodies, long bony fingers.
I would love to show you a photograph from the Museum but I’m not going to do that. We visited three high points on this trip, plus more than a half dozen other points of interest. We shot over 700 photographs in seven days. When I got home, upon examination, every photo was in my camera except the four that we took inside the UFO Museum. Seriously. I am not making this up. Let me be clear. It’s not that the pictures were foggy, or black, or faded out, like what would happen in a grade B horror movie or the X-Files. They were simply not in my camera. I offer no explanation for this. I have no explanation for this.
Ahh, the sweet mystery of life. Or even extraterrestrial life.
Perhaps this photo of Lisa communing with some of the… uh… visitors will do.
By now, we are hungry. After making a purchase of some toy alien artifacts for the grandniece and grandnephew, we wander around Roswell looking for a place to dine. We don’t easily find a restaurant, but popping up here and there around town, standing on the sidewalks at the entrances to various businesses, are LGMs (Little Green Men.) They’re just hangin’. No doubt they know the BEMs.
This whole town has been taken over. Many businesses display signs…
ALIENS WELCOME
In the display window of one shop is a tableau of three drunken BEMs playing cards, slouching at a flimsy card table.
BEMs and LGMs are all over town. The place is lousy with ‘em. Lisa banged her hip into an IUO (identified unyielding object) a few weeks ago. She shows me how the bruise on her thigh has taken the shape of a UFO. She points to the disc shape discoloration sporting dots around the perimeter.
We stay the night in Carlsbad where we resupply. The only remotely convenient store that has what we need — fresh fruit, electrolyte drinks, chocolate — is a Walmart store. Talk about aliens!
Let’s revisit the mystery of the missing Roswell UFO Museum pictures. Of all the photographs I took on this trip, as I’ve said, the four from inside the UFO Museum were not in my camera.
Upon returning home, the mystery is revealed, revealed and reduced to less of a mystery. To wit: The major reason the photographs were not in my camera when we returned home is that they were never in my camera to begin with. As Lisa explains to me, doing her best not to sound like she is addressing a grade school child, “Oh. You don’t have any photos of the Museum on your camera because we didn’t take your camera with us. We shot those photos on my phone.”
Oh.
Perhaps the whole UFO thing is just like the four photos supposed to be in my camera, a mystery that resisted explanation, until we, so to speak, came down to Earth. After all, it’s not rocket science.