“Woke up this morning with light in my eyes
And then realized it was still dark outside
It was a light coming down from the sky
I don’t know who or why.”

The opening lines from The Byrds’ 1966 record “Hey Mr. Spaceman” may have been the reaction of many people in Warren County and other areas of the Southeast early Wednesday morning when they saw a bright-colored object flash across the sky and causing, according to some accounts, “A loud boom.”

Unfortunately, I did not see the object; I was struggling to get myself ready for work but from the accounts I’ve seen, it was spectacular.

But what was the fiery object? Was it, like NASA said, a meteor or something else?

“Must be those strangers that come every night
Those saucer-shaped lights put people uptight
Leave blue-green footprints that glow in the dark
I hope they get home alright

“Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won’t you please take me along
I won’t do anything wrong
Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won’t you please take me along for a ride?”

Reports of unidentified flying saucers have been around for years and are the subject of countless stories and movies.

H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” has been made into two movies and a 1938 radio adaptation by Orson Wells that created widespread panic across the country. The story of the Mercury Theatre on the Air’s broadcast was the subject of a great book, “The Panic Broadcast.”

Was the object that flashed across the sky a Martian spacecraft that landed somewhere, and the Martians are even now planning to take over? Probably not. With all that’s going on on this earth, I don’t think the Martians or any other aliens would come here on a bet unless Klaatu and his robot came to take out Vladimir Putin.

A more recent and popular alien visitation story was “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” where benevolent aliens return people who were abducted over the years and take Richard Dreyfus with them. Come to think of it, one of the curious things about the movie was this red light that kept appearing ahead of the spacecraft and that leads to my family’s secret.

Many years ago, when we lived on the Coast, we saw a green light move rapidly across the sky one night over an area near Kiln and disappear. I told my daughter if we saw a space ship the accelerator was going through the floor.

Regardless of our educational level, we all have a fascination with outer space whether we want to admit it or not. There’s that natural curiosity in us that wants to know, “What’s out there?” Are there other civilizations or maybe that ginormous asteroid that’s going to hit the earth and eliminate us like one did the dinosaurs?

Many times our fascination is mute until something like Wednesday’s event occurs and awakens our curiosity. Thank goodness for nature.

“Woke up this morning, I was feeling quite weird
Had flies in my beard, my toothpaste was smeared
Over my window, they’d written my name
Said, ‘So long, we’ll see you again.’”