The tips of trees a silhouette in teals and navy blues. Fence posts made from thick old tree branches a blur as my Jeep dips into the cool valleys of the back roads. The road patches that snake the tar pressed roads begin to fade into darkness as the sun disappears under the horizon. Frogs and insects hum at each stop sign as I drive dow…
The tips of trees a silhouette in teals and navy blues. Fence posts made from thick old tree branches a blur as my Jeep dips into the cool valleys of the back roads. The road patches that snake the tar pressed roads begin to fade into darkness as the sun disappears under the horizon. Frogs and insects hum at each stop sign as I drive down the empty pavement.
This road my regular route home to Peculiar. A small town with a few stop lights and gas stations. Sometimes folks make comments about the town name. The local lore is that someone got tired of requesting names for the town that had already been selected. After multiple name submissions they finally asked to be given a peculiar town name, so they got what they asked for.
The headlights illuminate the fading striped lines and over grown grasses along the fence lines. Everything else is darkness. Suddenly the night sky lights up a strange shade of blue. Similar to the lighting of a lighting strike, but it lingers for a few seconds. Then the light recedes like a giant squeegee pulling it across the sky. Then darkness. I instinctively hit the brakes and hunker down in my seat a little. Peeking over the steering wheel I scan the night sky. Are we getting shelled by an attack? Was it a boulder burning through the atmosphere? There is no sound. No more lights. The gravel cracks under the tires as I start to head home once more.
I talk to my room mate about weird light that filled the entire night sky. They said their work mates saw it too in the town south of the area. Folks wondered if it was the military doing testing or UFOs. Maybe it was some big government experiment.
To this day, I still have no idea what lit up the sky that night out in the middle of no where. Never seen anything like it since. About a decade later, while watching Elon's space trash lighting up the night sky, I saw a video with a large meteor landing that did something similar to the night sky, so maybe it was a big space rock making its final landing after a long journey through space?
The tips of trees a silhouette in teals and navy blues. Fence posts made from thick old tree branches a blur as my Jeep dips into the cool valleys of the back roads. The road patches that snake the tar pressed roads begin to fade into darkness as the sun disappears under the horizon. Frogs and insects hum at each stop sign as I drive down the empty pavement.
This road my regular route home to Peculiar. A small town with a few stop lights and gas stations. Sometimes folks make comments about the town name. The local lore is that someone got tired of requesting names for the town that had already been selected. After multiple name submissions they finally asked to be given a peculiar town name, so they got what they asked for.
The headlights illuminate the fading striped lines and over grown grasses along the fence lines. Everything else is darkness. Suddenly the night sky lights up a strange shade of blue. Similar to the lighting of a lighting strike, but it lingers for a few seconds. Then the light recedes like a giant squeegee pulling it across the sky. Then darkness. I instinctively hit the brakes and hunker down in my seat a little. Peeking over the steering wheel I scan the night sky. Are we getting shelled by an attack? Was it a boulder burning through the atmosphere? There is no sound. No more lights. The gravel cracks under the tires as I start to head home once more.
I talk to my room mate about weird light that filled the entire night sky. They said their work mates saw it too in the town south of the area. Folks wondered if it was the military doing testing or UFOs. Maybe it was some big government experiment.
To this day, I still have no idea what lit up the sky that night out in the middle of no where. Never seen anything like it since. About a decade later, while watching Elon's space trash lighting up the night sky, I saw a video with a large meteor landing that did something similar to the night sky, so maybe it was a big space rock making its final landing after a long journey through space?
I so much love the name Peculiar for a town. Thank you.
Odd, WV and Odds, KY. Hell for Certain, Beaverlick, and Big Bone Lick, KY. Appalachia is a strange and wondrous place.