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Children's Encounter With Odd Humanoid (Isle Of Wight; May 1973)

One thing this exercise makes clear is how easily additions creep into the story. The account I linked to a few posts ago, for example, describes 'Sam's' eyes as blue triangles, but their colour is mentioned nowhere in Norman Oliver's BUFORA report: this must be a later interpolation. Focusing on only the words, and disregarding even the illustration provided by BUFORA, a wide variety of possible visual interpretations present themselves (including both maximus otter's suggestion and my own).
 
BS3 said:
One thing this exercise makes clear is how easily additions creep into the story. The account I linked to a few posts ago, for example, describes 'Sam's' eyes as blue triangles, but their colour is mentioned nowhere in Norman Oliver's BUFORA report: this must be a later interpolation. Focusing on only the words, and disregarding even the illustration provided by BUFORA, a wide variety of possible visual interpretations present themselves (including both maximus otter's suggestion and my own).
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Agree with everything you state.

An article on how smell plays a crucial sensory role in childhood developmen:

https://handsonotrehab.com/the-scent-sory-child-sense-of-smell/

Another:

https://yourkidstable.com/kid-sensitive-to-smell/

Children are acutely aware of smells, yet throughout this incredible encounter no smells are reported for Sam and his hut. I know I’m going on about this, however I think it is a vital clue
 
WeirdExeter said:
Good point.

I was reflecting on the case at work today and realised that the children only reported the encounter through two of their five (six) senses: sight and sound. No smells were reported and it seems they didn’t touch Sam or taste his berries

Of course, in has to be recognised that in dreams we only utilise sight and sound., likewise in films, tv etc. This doesn’t rule out some distortion effect taking place, but it is interesting that Sam wasn’t described in terms of smell.
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I don't want to wander off topic, but I smell and taste things in dreams quite often :dunno:
 
WeirdExeter said:
Children are acutely aware of smells, yet throughout this incredible encounter no smells are reported for Sam and his hut. I know I’m going on about this, however I think it is a vital clue
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We don't respond to smells during sleep - it's why we need smoke alarms. Might be a clue there.
 
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There are several frustrating lacunae in the BUFORA account. "He asked the children about themselves". What did he ask? What did they say? What was the book he dropped and was it the 'notebook'? What did he write with? What did the sketch of 'Sam's' fellow, er, 'Sam' look like? It's this kind of stuff that would give potential clues to understanding the experience (much as it was the phrase "I am in an odd sort of way" suddenly suggested one interpretation to me).
 
WeirdExeter said:
... Children are acutely aware of smells, yet throughout this incredible encounter no smells are reported for Sam and his hut. I know I’m going on about this, however I think it is a vital clue
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Smell is an immediate sensation, but it can be difficult to recall from memory and describe with any specificity.

In any case, it must be borne in mind that the only parties who could have smelled anything were the children, and the children weren't the original / direct informants for the BUFORA article.

The girl didn't tell her father the story until circa 3 weeks later (2 June 1973). Unless a smell had been notable or played some part in the storyline / dialogue it's not surprising a 7-year-old might not mention it after a lapse of 3 weeks.

Oliver's article didn't appear until the beginning of 1978. The editor's (Oliver's?) introduction indicates a Leonard Cramp had encouraged the girls' father to write and submit his and his daughter's experiences.

The article gives no clue as to when the father documented the incidents, nor as to when or how he'd submitted them to BUFORA.

In other words, we are told the story was 3 weeks old when the father first heard it and up to circa 4(?) years old by the time the father submitted it to BUFORA. Absent any mention of the origin and description of the father's "dossier" on the two incidents we can't be sure the story wasn't circa 4 years stale by the time the father first wrote it down.

Perhaps even more frustrating is the absence of any clue as to the origin / source of the two illustrations (the second being the earliest representation of the hut). Were these created by the father? By Oliver?
 
EnolaGaia said:
Smell is an immediate sensation, but it can be difficult to recall from memory and describe with any specificity.

In any case, it must be borne in mind that the only parties who could have smelled anything were the children, and the children weren't the original / direct informants for the BUFORA article.

The girl didn't tell her father the story until circa 3 weeks later (2 June 1973). Unless a smell had been notable or played some part in the storyline / dialogue it's not surprising a 7-year-old might not mention it after a lapse of 3 weeks.

Oliver's article didn't appear until the beginning of 1978. The editor's (Oliver's?) introduction indicates a Leonard Cramp had encouraged the girls' father to write and submit his and his daughter's experiences.

The article gives no clue as to when the father documented the incidents, nor as to when or how he'd submitted them to BUFORA.

In other words, we are told the story was 3 weeks old when the father first heard it and up to circa 4(?) years old by the time the father submitted it to BUFORA. Absent any mention of the origin and description of the father's "dossier" on the two incidents we can't be sure the story wasn't circa 4 years stale by the time the father first wrote it down.

Perhaps even more frustrating is the absence of any clue as to the origin / source of the two illustrations (the second being the earliest representation of the hut). Were these created by the father? By Oliver?
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Re. Cramp, he was an engineer who worked on hovercraft design and lived on the Isle of Wight. He was a fairly central figure in UK ufology in the early years. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a television piece featuring him many years ago.
 
Some interesting points, however I still feel an actual vagrant living in a hut with no running water or washing machine would have smelt sufficiently ‘off’ for the girl to have remembered it all that time later.

Yes, the BUFORA report is frustratingly heavy on some detail and light on others. We know all about Sam’s face, but not how they were able to see Sam at all whilst inside a metal hut with no windows and a flap for a door.

Perhaps even more frustrating is that one or both of the witnesses may still be alive and quite possibly living in the same area, but how to find them…?
 
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Matt said:
The original BUFORA account states "a fringe of red hair fell on his forehead", but also "once inside the hut he removed his hat to reveal round, white ears and sparse brown hair". That's two different descriptions of his hair colour.
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... Or two different sets of "hair" - red artificial hair attached to or associated with his headgear, and sparse brown natural hair underneath the apparel.

The original article's description doesn't seem to indicate the headgear was an ordinary hat. It was a yellow pointed head covering that "interlocked with the red collar of a green tunic." This "interlocking", combined with its covering the upper head and the ears, could explain the reported lack of a visible neck.
 
Another discrepancy is evident in the original article versus later retellings.

It quotes the set of words the mystery figure had written out and then pointed to as combining sequentially into, "Hello and I am all colours, Sam."

After he began verbally interacting with the kids it's stated he claimed he "had no name."

What did the reported word "Sam" mean if it wasn't his name?
 
At a superficial level, this individual sounds like a mime artist. The odd clothing, the painted face, the pointing to words.
I dunno, maybe a mime artist went out to somewhere he hoped would be isolated so he could play with a few ideas - then the kids turned up unexpectedly?
Unless, he actually looked just like the depiction in that comic strip posted earlier? That would make him something else entirely.
 
WeirdExeter said:
... We know all about Sam’s face, but not how they were able to see Sam at all whilst inside a metal hut with no windows and a flap for a door. ...
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This is a big reason why I'd like to know the provenance for the hut illustration in the BUFORA article. That rendering shows both a low / small "flap" and what appear to be two windows affording views of the interior.
 
Fluttermoth said:
I don't want to wander off topic, but I smell and taste things in dreams quite often :dunno:
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Me too. Often bitter, unpleasant tasting substances are what I taste but I have smelled lots of things in dreams.
 
EnolaGaia said:
Another discrepancy is evident in the original article versus later retellings.

It quotes the set of words the mystery figure had written out and then pointed to as combining sequentially into, "Hello and I am all colours, Sam."

After he began verbally interacting with the kids it's stated he claimed he "had no name."

What did the reported word "Sam" mean if it wasn't his name?
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Another point: if the words were written down in an (unstated) 'odd' order and then read out, what does the comma between "colours" and "Sam" signify? Is it an interpolation by Oliver, or the father, or was it in the original?
 
What's clear is that there is no way of making a coherent sentence out of it, unless the message was possibly "Hello, I am Sam and all colours". Given this was the early 70s, maybe they ran into someone who'd just taken some LSD?

I suppose there are several ways of looking at it. You either take "Sam" as accurate, in which case you could suggest the 'correct' word order should have been "Hello, I am Sam and [...]", where the blank is two words the children misread as "all colours", or you can suggest "Sam" might have been some other misread word, in which case the whole syntax is up for discussion.
 
BS3 said:
What's clear is that there is no way of making a coherent sentence out of it, unless the message was possibly "Hello, I am Sam and all colours". Given this was the early 70s, maybe they ran into someone who'd just taken some LSD?

I suppose there are several ways of looking at it. You either take "Sam" as accurate, in which case you could suggest the 'correct' word order should have been "Hello, I am Sam and [...]", where the blank is two words the children misread as "all colours", or you can suggest "Sam" might have been some other misread word, in which case the whole syntax is up for discussion.
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Upthread, I suggested that "Sam" might have been a fireman carrying a clipboard with plans for the day's fire safety exercise at the airport. Assuming that this - or something similar - was the case, he might have been playing along with the children by pointing at any words in the written orders which might be "bolted together" into a reasonably coherent sentence.

Add to the above the difficulty of selecting a suitable word from a limited palette of options, then angling the clipboard so that the kids could read it, while still trying to rest his finger on the correct word, we have plenty of possibilities for confusion.

Imagine, for example, that you were your office's Health & Safety monitor, and were conducting an inspection, ticking off items on your clipboard, when you met a child in one of the corridors. The kid is apparently deaf, so you have to try and pass the time of day with them by pointing at words on your forms to attempt to communicate. You might get "I" and "am", but you probably wouldn't get your own name; "Hello" might be on there, but would you be able to convey "Where are your parents?"

Etc.

maximus otter
 
Workers engaged in rocket tests on the IOW this was closed about 2 years before the sighting
could someone have got hold of his kit and been having a bit of fun.
The first shows a worker with a head set and mike.
Screenshot (254).png

Screenshot (255).png
 
Pathe news. about 3 min in.
you need some protection when messing with high test peroxide.
 
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BS3 said:
Another point: if the words were written down in an (unstated) 'odd' order and then read out, what does the comma between "colours" and "Sam" signify? Is it an interpolation by Oliver, or the father, or was it in the original?
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“Hello all comers, I am Sam”….?
 
RaM said:
Workers engaged in rocket tests on the IOW this was closed about 2 years before the sighting
could someone have got hold of his kit and been having a bit of fun.
The first shows a worker with a head set and mike.
View attachment 55002
View attachment 55003
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Good find, but…. The colours of Sam‘s face, hair etc. and what he was wearing were uppermost in the child’s testimony. Those suits appear to be white…?
 
Maybe his name was 'All-Colours Sam'?
 
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