The Dog That Turned Into Green Mist, Cows Standing On Hind Legs & Other Cases Of Gibbering Insanity

[GNC]

Well, the Corvid 19 lockdown got me to continue writing the book I never thought I'd finish. Here's a little ditty that might fit in this thread:

It Leaps and Creeps and Glides and Slides

In September 1969, a young man named Maurice Colbert drove the young woman he was dating to the northern outskirts of Nebraska City, Nebraska. They parked near the banks of the Missouri River on what is commonly called a “lover’s lane.”

After a while the young woman complained that she heard strange noises coming from outside the vehicle. Mr. Colbert had apparently heard this one before, because he did not bother to investigate for some time. Eventually, however, he himself heard what he described as “slurping” sounds. He reluctantly climbed out of his car and looked around. It was a brilliant moonlit night, but initially Colbert saw nothing unusual. He realized that the slurping seemed loudest near the rear bumper.

Several yards behind the car the young man found “an amoeba-shaped blob, about six feet across and about 18 inches thick, moving along the ground.” The nightmarish thing traveled (slowly) by extending an arm-like pseudopod out before itself then allowing the entirety of its mass to flow into it until the limb held all its protoplasmic mass. The gelatinous entity was purplish-pink in color and exuded no apparent odor. It crawled six to eight feet (1.9 to 2.4 meters) closer to the car even as Colbert watched, at which point he decided it was time to leave.

Investigators later found a wide, slug-like path from which twigs, leaves and pebbles had apparently been brushed aside, otherwise they found no evidence of this escapee from a 1950s B movie.

Despite all the blobs and slimes of films and role-playing games, a large creature lacking a skeleton – lacking, in fact, any discernible internal structure – should not be able to keep its outer surface from rupturing, let alone crawl, however slowly, across dry land. At least, not in our mundane universe.

Journal of the Fortean Research Center Vol. 1 no. 1 (April 1986), pp. 3-6.

The Blob, the 1958 horror movie, was based on a true story:
Story here

Though the blob in that story didn't move about, or indeed eat people. It happened in 1950, though in 1953 Joseph Payne Brennan published a short story called Slime which seems to have been inspired by the 1950 real life blob, but was also ripped off by the subsequent Blob films.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... It crawled six to eight feet (1.9 to 2.4 meters) closer to the car even as Colbert watched, at which point he decided it was time to leave.
Investigators later found a wide, slug-like path from which twigs, leaves and pebbles had apparently been brushed aside, otherwise they found no evidence of this escapee from a 1950s B movie.
Despite all the blobs and slimes of films and role-playing games, a large creature lacking a skeleton – lacking, in fact, any discernible internal structure – should not be able to keep its outer surface from rupturing, let alone crawl, however slowly, across dry land. At least, not in our mundane universe.

Journal of the Fortean Research Center Vol. 1 no. 1 (April 1986), pp. 3-6.

Just for the record ... The closing paragraphs of the actually published story (as cited) don't match the text above. For one thing, the originally published story never mentions Colbert leaving the scene.

The original publication (cited above) can be downloaded (PDF file) from:

http://files.afu.se/Downloads/Magaz... the Fortean Research Center - Vol 1 No 1.pdf

 

[Mythopoeika]

Well, the Corvid 19 lockdown got me to continue writing the book I never thought I'd finish. Here's a little ditty that might fit in this thread:

It Leaps and Creeps and Glides and Slides

In September 1969, a young man named Maurice Colbert drove the young woman he was dating to the northern outskirts of Nebraska City, Nebraska. They parked near the banks of the Missouri River on what is commonly called a “lover’s lane.”

After a while the young woman complained that she heard strange noises coming from outside the vehicle. Mr. Colbert had apparently heard this one before, because he did not bother to investigate for some time. Eventually, however, he himself heard what he described as “slurping” sounds. He reluctantly climbed out of his car and looked around. It was a brilliant moonlit night, but initially Colbert saw nothing unusual. He realized that the slurping seemed loudest near the rear bumper.

Several yards behind the car the young man found “an amoeba-shaped blob, about six feet across and about 18 inches thick, moving along the ground.” The nightmarish thing traveled (slowly) by extending an arm-like pseudopod out before itself then allowing the entirety of its mass to flow into it until the limb held all its protoplasmic mass. The gelatinous entity was purplish-pink in color and exuded no apparent odor. It crawled six to eight feet (1.9 to 2.4 meters) closer to the car even as Colbert watched, at which point he decided it was time to leave.

Investigators later found a wide, slug-like path from which twigs, leaves and pebbles had apparently been brushed aside, otherwise they found no evidence of this escapee from a 1950s B movie.

Despite all the blobs and slimes of films and role-playing games, a large creature lacking a skeleton – lacking, in fact, any discernible internal structure – should not be able to keep its outer surface from rupturing, let alone crawl, however slowly, across dry land. At least, not in our mundane universe.

Journal of the Fortean Research Center Vol. 1 no. 1 (April 1986), pp. 3-6.

That sounds like a purple people eater!

 

[amarok2005]

Looked up the journal again. I must have just assumed the witness left in a hurry. Sounded like he wanted to.

Oh, well, here's some Pwdre Ser:

The shapeless space monster was probably inspired by an old fortean favorite, “Pwdre Ser.” Charles Fort wrote of various cases of gelatinous “blobs” that fell from the sky. Unlike his precipitations of frogs or fish, these blobs were frequently associated with meteorite strikes.

A typical example comes from Coblenz, Germany, 1844. On the night of October 8, two local men were crossing a field when they “saw a luminous body descend straight down close to them (not 20 yards off), and heard it distinctly strike the ground.” The two marked the spot and returned in the morning. “They found a gelatinous mass of a greyish colour so viscid as ‘to tremble all over’ when poked with a stick.’” [Corliss, p. G1-13]

Poking it with a stick? That’s sure to make it mad! The Report of the British Association mentioned another meteoric jelly: “January 31, 1803. Silesia. A shooting star, got larger and larger until it fell to earth. Between Barsdorf and Freiburg. Seemed to pass close to ground; a whizzing noise was heard, then it seemed to lie burning on the ground; next day a jelly-like mass found on the snow.” [Corliss, p. G1-13]

The definitive article on “star-jelly” appeared in Nature back in 1910, nine years before Charles Fort’s first book on strange phenomena. Author T. McKenny Hughes grew up in Pembrokeshire in western Wales, and on his youthful rambles about the countryside he would come across a strange substance. “I frequently saw a mass of white, translucent jelly lying on the turf, as if it had been dropped there. These masses were about as large as a man’s fist.” [Corliss, p. G2-51] It was not frog spawn because there were no eggs in it. The local fishermen and shepherds did not know what it was, either. “They called it ‘pwdre ser,’ the rot of the stars.” In other areas it was named “star-slough, star shoot, star shot, star-gelly or jelly, star-fall’n.”

Corliss, William R. Strange Phenomena Vol. G-1 (Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 1974).

Ibid. Strange Phenomena Vol. G-2 (Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 1974).

 

[FrKadash]

Found this brilliant fortean account yesterday in the Albert Rosales, Humanoid Sighting Reports - 1976.

 

[Impybat]

Found this brilliant fortean account yesterday in the Albert Rosales, Humanoid Sighting Reports - 1976.

View attachment 27393

This account reminds me of similar sightings I read about in Janet and Colin Bord's Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, which may already have been mentioned elsewhere in this sprawling thread (definitely somewhere on this forum). One was a group of kids who saw tiny men driving tiny cars around a schoolyard.

 

[EnolaGaia]

This account reminds me of similar sightings I read about in Janet and Colin Bord's Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, which may already have been mentioned elsewhere in this sprawling thread (definitely somewhere on this forum). One was a group of kids who saw tiny men driving tiny cars around a schoolyard.

The tiny men in tiny cars would be the Wollaton Park Gnomes incident(s):

Gnomes In Little Red Cars? (Wollaton Park Gnomes; 1979)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...tle-red-cars-wollaton-park-gnomes-1979.51979/

 

[Mythopoeika]

The tiny men in tiny cars would be the Wollaton Park Gnomes incident(s):

Gnomes In Little Red Cars? (Wollaton Park Gnomes; 1979)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...tle-red-cars-wollaton-park-gnomes-1979.51979/

One of my favourite odd happenings.

 

[FrKadash]

The tiny men in tiny cars would be the Wollaton Park Gnomes incident(s):

Gnomes In Little Red Cars? (Wollaton Park Gnomes; 1979)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...tle-red-cars-wollaton-park-gnomes-1979.51979/

Yes another favourite of mine, it was also mentioned in Graham Hancock's 2005 book, Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind.

Here is the illustration of one of the 'gnomes'.

 

[Sgt Girth]

Looks like my old Austin Metro.....I never had a hat like that though.

 

[FrKadash]

Does anyone remember the similar sighting by a little girl of a tiny man flying a plane in her garden?

Just found it referenced in Borderlands by Mike Dash.

 

[Impybat]

Yes another favourite of mine, it was also mentioned in Graham Hancock's 2005 book, Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind.

Here is the illustration of one of the 'gnomes'.

View attachment 27407

I simply have no idea how I react if I saw that.

 

[Impybat]

The tiny men in tiny cars would be the Wollaton Park Gnomes incident(s):

Gnomes In Little Red Cars? (Wollaton Park Gnomes; 1979)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...tle-red-cars-wollaton-park-gnomes-1979.51979/

That's the one! Thanks for including the link EnolaGaia!

 

[EnolaGaia]

Does anyone remember the similar sighting by a little girl of a tiny man flying a plane in her garden?

Yes ... Stu mentioned it in the Wollaton Park Gnomes thread.

 

[FrKadash]

Yes ... Stu mentioned it in the Wollaton Park Gnomes thread.

Thanks, I'm sure there's a third very similar case too, I'll have a look through that thread.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Thanks, I'm sure there's a third very similar case too, I'll have a look through that thread.

The tiny airplane story dates back to 1929. The third one is a story about a single little man in a wee car in 1940.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Thanks, I'm sure there's a third very similar case too, I'll have a look through that thread.

yep two different cases.

 

[Iris]

When my youngest was small she would often wake in the night and come into our bed.
One night she woke me to say that she had seen little men outside flying around in a hat.
I was so tired I fell asleep again.
Reminded me a bit of when I was small in bed with the measles when the little bearded men took me up into their room.
I think I posted about it some time ago on a thread and still can't work out how I managed to think them up as at the time I didn't have any story books.

 

[Impybat]

When my youngest was small she would often wake in the night and come into our bed.
One night she woke me to say that she had seen little men outside flying around in a hat.
I was so tired I fell asleep again.
Reminded me a bit of when I was small in bed with the measles when the little bearded men took me up into their room.
I think I posted about it some time ago on a thread and still can't work out how I managed to think them up as at the time I didn't have any story books.

I think I remember reading your measles story!

 

[EnolaGaia]

I think I posted about it some time ago on a thread ...

IHTM - 2004 ...
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/visited-by-a-fairy.17682/#post-439454

 

[MissViolet]

The "oven's on fire" letter was reprinted in It Happened To Me volume 1, page 110 to be precise. One of my favourites. It walks the fine line between mundanity and the full on Night Gallery.

 

[EnolaGaia]

I've just read up to page 8 and keep seeing the dancing cows story being mentioned but can't find it anywhere and no links work. Does anyone remember what happened or the basic gist of the story?

This was on the Obiwan UFO-Free Paranormal Page. It used to be freely browsable but now it seems you have to log in. ...

The Dancing Cows story (as originally posted on the UFO-Free Paranormal site) can be retrieved from the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/2011102...eparanormal.com/stories/viewstory.php?sid=164

Also:

https://web.archive.org/web/20041204214943/http://www.ghosts.org/stories/tales/dancing-cows.html

NOTE: Although the story has been labeled and cited as "Dancing Cows" for over 20 years, the bovines reported were actually bulls.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The original version of the Muppet Dream story can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20041204220203/http://www.ghosts.org/stories/tales/muppet-dream.html

 

[escargot]

NOTE: Although the story has been labeled and cited as "Dancing Cows" for over 20 years, the bovines reported were actually bulls.

That's always puzzled me. Perhaps the OP meant 'cattle'? In the same sense as some lions are lionesses and some ducks are drakes.

 

[MissViolet]

Looking back over a lot of the cases on that site, many of them sound very much like creative writing to my old and jaded eyes. Not saying that they are, but some of them have clear narrative structures, in exactly the way that normal life doesn't. Dancing Cattle, however, does not, and is horrible to this day, somehow. Though it has the feel that something is being omitted. Whether that's an edited dramatic conclusion, a family secret, or what, I have no idea.

 

[Peripart]

The Dancing Cows story (as originally posted on the UFO-Free Paranormal site) can be retrieved from the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/2011102...eparanormal.com/stories/viewstory.php?sid=164

Thanks for that. Like so many others, I'd heard about that story (and got the gist, to be fair), but never had the chance to read the original.

"Bizarre" doesn't really do it justice! I find cows slightly scary at the best of times, if they are doing anything other than eating or sleeping, and the thought of one walking upright is pretty horrible to contemplate. Two of them (and bulls at that!), dancing towards me in the fog - I can't even think how I'd react!

If it was just imaginative fiction, I say "bravo" to the author, since (s)he wrote credibly, complete with various spelling mistakes. Part of me wants to believe it, but another part wants nothing to do with the idea!

 

[escargot]

a family secret

As I recall, the OP's grandmother seemed to know what the dancing cows/bulls signified and it wasn't pleasant.

 

[Impybat]

Dancing Cows is one of the most inexplicably weird stories I've ever read. Mr. Impybat read it recently and agreed. Every part of it is like WHY?

 

[hunck]

Sure it's a good story but does anyone believe it actually happened?..

 

[escargot]

Sure it's a good story but does anyone believe it actually happened?..

Naah, its made-up. One thing that is a bit creepy though is that the description of the creatures later reminded me of Mooby the Golden Calf.