Ah, thank you, Steve. "How long" have I been looking into odd phenomena? Well, in the photograph below I am about 10 years old, seated in the back garden of my grandparents (that's gran, Rose Hooper) home in Sevier Street, St. Werburgh's, Bristol. I have mentioned events there in Some Things Strange & Sinister.
The window to my rear is 6-7 feet from the wall to my gran's right. You can see the kitchen door and the dark door of the coal shed. Beyond that photo crease is the door to the outside privvy! It was on this white painted wall that I saw the 6 inches (15cms) long, fluffy, fawn coloured caterpillar move up toward the roof. To this day I have still not identified what it was. But at this age I had also solved the "glowing eyes at the bedroom window" (which would be above the kitchen door: a owl from Mina Road park, just over the back wall.
So, it was at this age that I started questioning things and picking up on the odd and unusual. When I went to live with my parents in Southmead in 1969 I had the, uh, "honour" of going to Greenway Boy's School. It was here that I got very into science and often helped the Science teacher Mr Sloper work on class experiments. It was around 1972 that odd, mass "browny spots" began appearing on staff cars in the parking area. The headmaster felt it might be vandalism or "pollution" so Mr Sloper was told to take time and identify the spots that took car paint off. I was one of two boys helping out. It turned out that the spots were "waste" from bees....bees kept in hives in the school Rural Sciences garden. Mystery solved.
Okay, we never got to unmasked the school caretaker and declare -"It was old man Smithers!" but we still solved it.
Then I discovered public libraries with "supernatural" books -Elliott O'Donnell and others. I then made the mistake of accidentally picking up and checking out (I was in a rush) The Flying Saucer Story by Brinsley Le Poer Trench (Lord Clancarty) and one thing led to another.....
So, I got interested in the odd and unusual and how to check for explanations when I was around 10 years old. I now shiver as I realise that this was very nearly 50 years ago! I've climbed a lot of rooves, industrial conveyor belts at quarries, been in cars chasing UFOs and...well, done quite a bit in that time.
Both in the UK and Germany!
And my boot size is 10 if you are interested!
The window to my rear is 6-7 feet from the wall to my gran's right. You can see the kitchen door and the dark door of the coal shed. Beyond that photo crease is the door to the outside privvy! It was on this white painted wall that I saw the 6 inches (15cms) long, fluffy, fawn coloured caterpillar move up toward the roof. To this day I have still not identified what it was. But at this age I had also solved the "glowing eyes at the bedroom window" (which would be above the kitchen door: a owl from Mina Road park, just over the back wall.
So, it was at this age that I started questioning things and picking up on the odd and unusual. When I went to live with my parents in Southmead in 1969 I had the, uh, "honour" of going to Greenway Boy's School. It was here that I got very into science and often helped the Science teacher Mr Sloper work on class experiments. It was around 1972 that odd, mass "browny spots" began appearing on staff cars in the parking area. The headmaster felt it might be vandalism or "pollution" so Mr Sloper was told to take time and identify the spots that took car paint off. I was one of two boys helping out. It turned out that the spots were "waste" from bees....bees kept in hives in the school Rural Sciences garden. Mystery solved.
Okay, we never got to unmasked the school caretaker and declare -"It was old man Smithers!" but we still solved it.
Then I discovered public libraries with "supernatural" books -Elliott O'Donnell and others. I then made the mistake of accidentally picking up and checking out (I was in a rush) The Flying Saucer Story by Brinsley Le Poer Trench (Lord Clancarty) and one thing led to another.....
So, I got interested in the odd and unusual and how to check for explanations when I was around 10 years old. I now shiver as I realise that this was very nearly 50 years ago! I've climbed a lot of rooves, industrial conveyor belts at quarries, been in cars chasing UFOs and...well, done quite a bit in that time.
Both in the UK and Germany!
And my boot size is 10 if you are interested!
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