This is a true story told by my Smith side from back when I was a young child. One of the favorite stories always brought out and shared at our Smith Family gatherings. My Dad was born in 1902 and said he was about the age of ten years. He well remembered this event. I have to believe this happening probably took place circa 1910/12 or there about.
Carrie Smith, the oldest Smith child of seven other siblings, was the responsible one that was the so-called leader for the children and usually set the standard for what the others believed and reacted to. In those days of no radio, no newspaper, no public information other than word of mouth shared around the community; before the first automobile passed the roads here, the telling of information was not very dependable. So shared knowledge sometimes was not vetted. Much of the time ignorance was bliss…oftentimes not.
So, Carrie was down in the hillside garden gathering collards into her apron to have for the midday meal. The mid-morning sun was shining down on Carrie. She heard a sound that wasn't known to her. She looked up to see a UFO. Now the moniker UFO wasn't even in the known lexicon of the Smith family back then.
Carrie was a child raised in the household of Minnie Simmons Smith, a very staunch lady of the Baptist faith with leanings towards the Methodist, the Holiness or anything connected to the teachings of the Bible. Catholics were doomed, so there's that. Grandma Minnie even brought in her own teachings for hopefully saving the souls of her children.
"Wash you mouth, you're going to Hell."
A staunch/resolute/unbending/ hellfire & brimstone Bible-thumper comes to mind here in describing Grandma Minnie. Grandma was self-exempt from worldly trappings like, SNUFF and judging ladies that "hiked their coat tails." So, Minnie's warnings about the end times and how hot and everlasting Hell would be had settled on Carrie like cockle burrs on horsetails. There to stay and remind.
"Jesus will come like a thief in the night, we gotta be ready."
"Keep looking up children, Jesus will come in the clouds."
Carrie saw the UFO slowly drifting across the sky with the sun glaring from behind it. The UFO was illuminated to show outlines of what looked like chains and ropes dangling either inside or outside the UFO. The quiet steady rumbling sound caused Carrie to decide the End of Times had come and Jesus was inside that UFO. She decided the outlines of all the dangling ropes and chains were for tying up the sinners to take them to Glory for the JUDGEMENT.
The laughter among my aunts and uncles in the retelling of that story was so impressive with the passing of the years. The story got better each time it was shared. They all had a version of that event which made it more enjoyable as the years passed. The combined stories had Carrie come back uphill from the garden screaming for Grandma Minnie to gather the children because, "Jesus was in the sky and we all need to pray."
The described scene had Carrie praying and begging and calling Grandma Minnie and all her siblings to gather on the front porch of the old double-pen log house to await Jesus. The description was of faded praying and complete confusion among the Smiths as the UFO drifted out of sight. How long that event lasted has never been shared to me, but it is one of my most treasured stories from my people. Ignorance is sometimes bliss…
The Jesus UFO was the first known fly-over of a dirigible at the Barnett Crossroads in Escambia County, Alabama.
