Well, time goes on and I still live on the coast and most likely will always live here Here in 2018 I still don’t have the use of my left leg and left arm but I am grateful to still be alive and to finally tell my side of the story of what happened to me and Charles Hickson on October 11, 1973. My one wish would be to have a grandchild to spoil but I don’t think it will ever happen. So we have a dog instead and boy he is spoiled .There is not much I can do myself now but my wife and I have a boat we both like to fish so between her and my friends I still manage to get out and about. They take me fishing on a regular basis. If I had one wish it would be to live closer to my daughter and son-in-law. Considering everything I consider myself a lucky guy to have such a wonderful circle of family and friends around me and to finally get this opportunity to set the record straight.
****** CHAPTER ONE
Meeting Charles Hickson As a child in 1964 my parents built a house in Sandersville, Mississippi. That was the first time I remember meeting Charles (Charlie) Hickson. Charlie and my dad used to fish together. They were fishing nuts. I remember them taking all of us kids on camping trips to the Pearl River. Charlie had two sons that I knew, that was Eddie and Curt along with his daughter Sheila. We used to all play together and even went to vacation bible school together. I still see and talk to his oldest son Eddie every now and then. As a matter of fact we went fishing together last year had a good day but had ended up having to take him to the ER (Emergency Room) to have a fish-fin removed from his hand. There is a fish that has fins called a ‘hard head’ and if you get a fin stuck in you it’s very painful. His daughter Sheila and I still talk to each other via skype on the computer and she is also a good friend of ours. Their younger brother Curt was closer to my brothers age. At one point we spent a lot of time with Charlie's family as our parents would go out and leave the older kids to watch the younger ones. I really never got to know Charlie as a person back then because of the age difference. He was of course much older than me and was of my parents’ generation. The one thing I do remember is that Charlie was a constable in Jones County. People thought a lot of him and he was highly respected.
I remember this one time when we were fishing in the Pearl River and it was running really swiftly. I slipped and fell in and there was no hesitation on his part to jump in the water and pull me out. I might have drowned if it were not for his swift action. My family spent a lot of time with Charlie and his family and we use to all eat at each other’s houses. As I got older I got to know him a lot better on a personal level. He then went to work at a place in Laurel, Mississippi, that built doors for houses. I don’t really remember what year that was but I was around 15 years of age. Then one day Charlie got off work came, by the house and said they were shutting down the door company. He was going to have to find another job. He looked for a job for about two weeks and then found one at a ship yard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. By this time I was welding at a machine shop, ‘Howes Implements’ in Laurel. This is where I learned to read blue prints. I quit Howes and went to work at another shop for more money, Wansley Machine and Welding. Wansley mostly worked on oilfield equipment. This job was just getting me ready for shipyard work .
Over the next couple of years I did get to see Charlie. It was mainly my father, brother and I that would go to the coast and fish with Charlie and he would spend the weekend with us at times. This is when I really got to know him as a friend and a person. We would sit and talk about his time in North Korea, (when he was in the US Army) sometimes he would tell me stories about how cold it was and how hungry our troops would get. Then he would just shut down and not talk about it anymore. There were times I didn’t know how to take him, he would have his own way of pissing me off and then other times I thought the world of him. But you know family is the same way.
There was a other times when we didn’t see each other much. I was on 24 hour call at work and could not leave the house and he didn’t come back to visit for a while. I am guessing he was just busy at work. By this time I was engaged to get married and was sick of being on call I started hunting for another job that wasn’t so demanding and I could make a decent living at. My dad told me to talk to Charlie, they did almost the same kind of work I did at the shipyard where he worked. So, the next weekend I was off work I drove to Gautier, Mississippi to see Charlie. That's just a small town west of Pascagoula, about a five minute drive to the shipyard where he was working. By this time Charlie had moved to Collage Villa apartments that had just recently been built. He had a three-bedroom apartment and a new daughter called Tisha. Charlie said he could get me a job where I would work as a ship fitter at FB Walker's shipyard. It didn’t pay as much as Ingles but it wasn’t that bad. So, the rest of that weekend we got in my car and he showed me around. (It’s important to remember that the car was a 1973 Rambler Hornet it was yellow this comes into play later). Along the Mississippi Gulf Coast that weekend we must have driven over a hundred miles just looking. We ended back up at Charlie's and Blanche, his wife, who was a lady of few words. Then, to my surprise he asked Blanche if they could rent me the other room until I found a place of my own. So, I agreed to go to work for Charlie and pay $50.00 a week for my lodgings with him. I told Charlie to give me two weeks to work out my notice at my other job. He said that would be fine. So it was getting late. We were getting hungry and Charlie said I know a place down the road that has good food and cold beer. I told him lets go and I will buy you dinner this evening. So we went there for dinner at about 7:00 pm. I knew I had to drive home so I ordered a Miller Pony which was popular back then. I can’t for the life of me remember what we ate that night, but Charlie had several beers and I was ready to leave to make the drive home. He wanted me to stay the night but I knew I had to work the next day and had a two hour drive home. I was already regretting the decision to move to the coast. One reason was that I just didn’t like changes or living in the house with someone else. All the way home I thought about it and decided it would be best for me and when I got married I could get my own place. I went home the next day and turned in my notice. I worked things out then called Charlie and told him I would be down October 3, (1973). This was on a Wednesday so I drove down that morning and met Charlie at the gate of the shipyard. He escorted me to the office to fill out the paperwork and attend safety classes. The first day at work was classes, oh boy. We got off work around 5:00 pm that day. I followed him back to the apartment grabbed my bag, went to my room and started unpacking. That’s when Blanche came in and said supper was ready, so we went to the table, blessed the food, gave thanks and ate a good country meal.
The next morning it was Thursday the 4thof October (1973). Charlie and me got up for work at about 6:00am. We got in my car and went to Wayne Lees a grocery store that was close-by that served a great breakfast in the morning. I remember I ate a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich but don’t remember what Charlie had. We went in to work brassed in. (In the ship they give out a brass token with a number on it so you turn it in when getting there pick it up when leaving so that’s how they keep up with your time and know you are there). Charlie came by and handed me a set of plans told me to get to work. I thought this day would never end. Even though it was October, it was hot as hell.
A person working around metal has to wear thick clothes to protect their skin from burns and cuts. Other than being hot they have a bug called a 'no see um’. Many people don’t know what a ‘no see um’ looks like because of its tiny size, but if one bites you it’s hard to miss. The insect is a blood sucker many times smaller than a mosquito, but with a bite much more painful. The sting causes a large welt and skin irritation.
Finally the day was over so we jumped into my car and drove to Charlie's apartment. While driving home we were looking at the water and talking about fishing. Charlie said I have caught a lot of fish out there. That was off highway 90 (the Pascagoula River) it is a lot of marsh land and I now also found out from Charlie that it is known for its good fishing.
After work
on the 5thof October we were going to be off for the weekend. I made the drive home back to Laurel. I got to my dad’s house visiting with my brother for a little while, I took a shower and went to spend time with my fiancé Waynette. So I picked Waynette up in the car and we went to a drive-in movie in Laurel. The movie was called ‘My Name is Nobody’. It was a really good western. Waynette had to be home by 11:00pm and it was 10:30pm so I walked to the pay phone and called her dad to see if I could bring her home after the movie. Of course in 1973 there were no cell phones. He said that I better have her home at 11:00pm like he said. So, I went back to the car and drove like hell to get her home in time. We barely made it and I was thinking all the way what an ass her father was. But I dared not say that to him or I would never get to see her again.
On Saturday the 6thof October (1973) I picked Waynett up and we went out to spend some time with my mother. We stayed there the rest of the day. At around 6:00pm I took Waynett home, said my goodbye’s and told her that I would see her next weekend and that I was going back to the coast early Sunday so I could get some rest before going to work on Monday.
I made it back to the coast around 11:00pm Sunday the 7th of October. Sheila and, Charlie’s daughter was there so I visited with her for around 30 minutes and then went to my room and went to bed in order to get some rest before work Monday morning.
I worked until Thursday the 11
th of October and little did I know then what was going to happen that day after work. The work day was a normal one, still very hot for the time of the year and of course a bunch of bugs still irritating the hell out of us. Charlie came by around lunch time and asked me if I wanted to fish a little while when we got off work that evening. I told him that I really didn’t want to go fishing because of the bugs. He told me he had some Avon `Skin-So-Soft` and that it would keep the bugs away. I was thinking “Why the hell hadn’t he already told me that?”. On the way back to the apartment after work I told Charlie that I didn’t have any fishing equipment and that I would have to stop and buy some. Charlie said he had plenty of fishing tackle that I could use but I really didn’t want to use his equipment. When you live in the south to use someone else’s fishing tackle is like using someone’s wife. But, reluctantly, I agreed to use his equipment. We got home a little early that day at around 5:00pm, loaded his fishing equipment into my car and we were ready. Charlie had fishing bait in the freezer (dead shrimp) so we were all set for an evening’s fishing at the spot Charlie had pointed out to me just off Highway 90 on the Pascagoula River.
****** CHAPTER TWO
The Closest Encounter – Pascagoula River, Thursday October 11th, 1973 Here it is October 11th, 1973. At 5:00pm Charlie and I finished our work for the day at the shipyard and headed back home to his apartment in order to get ready to go fishing. It was around 5:45pm when we walked out the door to leave to go fishing. Charlie had told his wife we would be back in a couple of hours.
On the way to the fishing spot on the Pascagoula River, Charlie told me we would go to a spot where they unloaded grain from the ships and some times they would spill some grain and the fish would get under the elevator to eat it. That was the spot we were heading for. We were bound to catch a lot of fish. I told Charlie that it sounded good to me because I didn’t know anything about this river but he obviously did. However, the first thing we had to do was to stop at the old Schaupeter shipyard and try fishing there for a little while. It normally would take about 30 minutes drive to get there from his apartment but for some reason we made it in about 15 minutes. That put us there at around 6:00pm but neither of us had a watch on so we had no way to tell time. On the way there was a broken-down car with some idiot standing out there raising hell with his wife and really cussing her. I wanted to stop and beat the hell out of him but Charlie said lets not get involved. I don’t believe in abusing a woman or being a bully but that day I just took Charlie’s advice and let it go.
Upon arrival at the river we had to park about one hundred yards from where we were going to fish. The old road looked like everyone would dump their trash there so there was no way to drive up to the water’s edge. On our left was a high rise toll-bridge that was part of Highway 90. The bridge was tall enough to get big ships under it. The highway was about 300 yards from where we were fishing. This Schaupeter shipyard had been out of business for a long time and the marsh grass was very tall around where we had to park. I asked Charlie why would everyone dump their trash out there. He told me that the water level gets high up and washes a lot of the trash from the road and out from under people’s houses. When we moved down here after a couple of floods I found out that was very true. Upon arrival we unloaded some fishing equipment and pushed our way through some heavy brush before finally getting to the river. There was an old steel pier that looked in very poor shape to fish on but on closer inspection it looked okay. I don’t know what time it was because neither Charlie nor myself had a watch on. At this point neither one of us had a drink of anything, not a coke, no beer, nothing.
We found some old timber to sit on and I remember Charlie saying to me that he had caught a lot of Red Fish there. This is a popular game fish and they put up a good fight. I could see why it would be good fishing there. There is an East River and a West River and it’s easy to get them mixed up. We were on the East River. I remember someone once saying that we were on the West River but we weren't it was the East. If we had caught some fish I was thinking about getting them back to the car and having to walk back through that mess.
We started fishing and it was dark but a bright night and I guess it was a full moon as well. While I was fishing I was looking across the water at a big ship and wondering how something that big made out of steel could float. Then I remember telling Charlie “Hell there’s no fish here lets go to the old grain elevator that you was talking about.” He said “Let’s give them a few more minutes.” We finally caught a couple of hard heads which no one eats. I know what it was; Charlie didn’t want to walk back through that mess without some decent fish.
Then I just happened to turn around and look back seeing some blue hazy lights and thinking the Police were looking at my car. At about that point, Charlie also saw the lights, almost I reckon, at the same time as I had. I thought the Police were going to make us move or maybe they thought we were dumping some trash. Looking back now I wish that was true. Then, all of a sudden we both saw it at about the same time. It was an ovalshaped craft about 8 feet high and fairly long, in the shape of a football. It was hovering about 2 feet from the ground and I didn’t see any support under the craft. It looked to be just floating. It was hard to tell the color because of the lights that were hazy-blue and quite bright. All of a sudden the craft just lit up really bright. That was when the door opened allowing light from inside of the craft to spill out. The lights were so bright it was blinding. The best way I can describe it is like someone welding. It just appeared all at one time. The door must have slid open because it didn’t swing and that’s when the bright lights appeared. It made my blood run cold and I looked over at Charlie. He was really pale but not saying a word. I guess even the bravest person can get scared every now and then I know we both were. I started exploring my options on which way to run but there was no time for that. All of a sudden it seemed like the speed of light there were three grey-colored wrinkled-skin creatures, short-ish in size at about 5 feet tall more or less and stocky looking, grey in color with no facial features just floating about two feet off the ground. I guess they were floating because they had to as I didn’t see any feet. And before we knew it they were right there on us. Two of them got hold of Charlie and the third one grabbed my left arm. I don’t know how it happened but I instantly became really relaxed and did not care what happened to me. Afterwards there was a puncture mark on my left arm where they grabbed me. I heard what sounded like a shot of air after which I just became all relaxed. The other thing I noticed was the creature’s hands. They were not like ours with fingers and a thumb; they h
ad instead what looked like a pincerlike appendage rather like the claw of a crab. I did not see any facial features, no eyes, mouth or nose. Later on Charlie said that he had got a good look at their face. This is the last time I saw Charlie until we were set free and let out of the craft. I didn’t see him on board that thing.
I seemed to be weightless and floated to the door of the craft. I was able to see everything but I was just not able to move or to speak. When entering through the door they immediately turned left. Going in to a room the first thing I did was try to see if I could see any sign of Charlie, but as I was not able to turn my head I could not look around too well so I didn’t see him. The creatures took me into a room that didn’t look very big and had no light that I could see but it was very bright. Then it (the creature) floated me over to what looked like the centre of the room and laid me on what I took to be a table. I don’t know that for sure but I was on about a forty five degree angle. I didn’t feel anything solid underneath me. Then the grey-wrinkled thing left the room. (I didn’t see any facial features on it at all). All of a sudden I started hearing a clicking noise when I looked up it was a blue looking square box about the size of a deck of cards with a silver bottom going around me, it just went “click, click, click,” about four times. After the ‘clicks’ a smaller looking being that somehow made me feel safe came in to the room it had a small thin face was also about 5 feet tall with and big brown eyes it was still light grey in colour and was very pleasant looking after seeing the ugly ones. I was thinking I could overpower it but still couldn’t move. It was like I had been drugged. This one seemed to look more human-like and the others were more like a machine and mechanical. I then I heard a ‘hissing’ noise a and the words “don’t be afraid” but the lips of this being didn’t move. I did however understand what it was thinking. How this was possible I had no idea. I think that somehow this being must have been reading my mind and it knew that I was scared so it tried to reassure me that I wouldn’t come to any harm. It was now that something came out of the wall and started circling my body from my head to my toes. All this time I had thought it was just something that the government was experimenting with because the shipyard was so close by. I was just trying to rationalise what the hell was happening to me. Now, this smaller being just left the room and the big ugly one was back. It got hold of my arm and then all of a sudden I floated upwards, turned to the right and was floated back out of the craft, almost to the exact same spot I was originally standing by the river when they first grabbed me expect I was facing the river. I remember I couldn’t put my arms down. Then I heard Charlie’s voice saying “Calvin, Calvin, are you okay?” Then I started coming to my senses and could move a little. As I turned around I looked up hearing what I call a ‘zipping’ noise. It was like the sound of a strong wind blowing and it was really quite loud. Then the craft just went straight up and disappeared out of sight.
PASCAGOULA-THE CLOSEST ENCOUNTER: MY STORY Page 2