Although 1959 will be a dim memory for most, Masterton local Rick Long clearly recalls it as the year he experienced something “inexplicable”.
Although more than 60 years have elapsed since his encounter, Long’s story remains unchanged and – despite his reputation as a notorious practical joker – he insists it’s entirely sincere.
An article published in the Times-Age during March 1959 detailed the sighting of an unidentified flying object by “three local residents, Mrs WJ Snowsill, her son Wayne, and Richard Long”.
“I still remember it vividly,” said Long, whom the Times-Age contacted about the experience as a way of marking World Space Week [October 4-10].
Long described observing two bright circles in the sky that “seemed to be spinning” as they travelled alongside each other before merging into one and shooting skyward at high speed.
“We couldn’t explain this in any manner or form,” he said.
Long and his friend Wayne Snowsill had just returned from the annual NZ Surf Lifesaving Championships at Ōakura Beach in New Plymouth when they saw the lights at 11.22pm on March 8, 1959.
After their strange encounter, they told their friends all about what had happened, only to become the butt of some jokes.
Long said he and Wayne got “ribbed about it” but that it was all “good-natured”.
A lot of those he spoke to at the time asked what the pair had been drinking that night, but Long confirmed he was completely sober as he’d just driven back from New Plymouth.
“We had no explanation for it at all,” he said.
Whether any other residents saw the same mysterious lights remains unknown. There had been a lot of overseas media coverage about close encounters at the time, and eyewitnesses had received a huge amount of ridicule, Long said, which prompted the two friends to vow to keep quiet if they ever saw anything like it again.
