1965 December - Rocky River, Ohio
I have wondered about his incident ever since being a child in Rocky River , Ohio in the winter
of 1965. I was pumping gas one day (I remember it being close to Christmas, but not any particular
day.) I had a part-time job at a Cities Service station (Roy's Cities Service on Hilliard Bvd.)
I think that Cities Service is now CITGO..., anyway... I don't remember whether this was one of the
days that I skipped school, or one of the regular days that I worked after school, but I certainly
remember what I saw in the sky that day.
I was pumping gas into a shiny new car. It had a gas filler under the licence plate as i
recall ( I think it was a '65 T-bird). While I was putting the nozzle in to the tank, an incredible burst
of light seemed to light up the entire area. Since I was looking directly at the trunk of the car I was
servicing, I could see, like a mirror, a white/green sparkler type image moving across the trunk of the
car. I immediatley looked up in the sky, and was partialy blinded by an object moving overhead.
I watched it for about 5 seconds, and saw it explode, into 3 distinct pieces, but 2 of
them died out ( in luminocity) very quickly, while one of the objects sped off to the South at an
incredible speed. (For at least 10-15 minutes after this incident, the smoke trails were visible in the
sky. )
After seeing this happen, I ran into the garage to tell everbody what I had seen. I kind
of met them half-way, since they were on the way outside to check on the comotion that I was
causing. The customer was outside of his car , so he saw it as well. We got everbody outside so they
could see the three smoke trails that were in the sky. Just as they got outside,there was a series
of explosive sounds, like what you would hear from a fireworks display, or a sonic boom. The ground
shook violently.
My boss immediatly discounted it as a military aircraft. My friend Trib knew that it was
something pretty wierd, and so did I. The customer that I was servicing at the time, never said a
word, and sped off in his car, without it being fully filled. (This is funny, as his nozzle was on
automatic. It must have shut off prematurely when the shock wave hit the station/) He gave my $6 for what
had to be only 10 gallons of gas ($2.80) .
The next day, I saw the front page Headlines of the Plain Dealer... "Tri-State Meteor
seen by Hundred's" .......
All I know is, the third piece of the "Explosion" , took off into the distant horizon,
and headed south of us. (We are near the Lake Erie, and the front of the station faces NE. The bright
piece of the Explosion took off to the South. I would imagine the it wound up in Kecksburg
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