Alien Sock Thieves and Outer Space Pancakes

Rosa and the Alien Sock Thieves

Rosa Lotti was going to lay some flowers on a grave that November 1st of 1954. She lived in Cennani, Italy. she was hiking through a small wooded area, and knew the footpaths very well. Nothing seemed amiss, it was a lovely day, and she took off her stockings to avoid getting them snagged in thorns and brambles.

She spied something glistening in the trees. perhaps the sunlight was shining off of it in a most fetching manner. This author couldn't say. However, Rosa suddenly knew that something unusual seemed to be sitting on the ground, just ahead.

It looked to be some sort of strange craft. Like "two bells placed end to end," she tried to explain. Or like a cylinder, perhaps that narrowed at both edges (this is how the famous picture of it depicts it). It rested on legs that were like a tripod, and there was a little door in the side. Inside, she fancied she could see what looked like a cockpit, and controls.

Coming closer, perhaps out of curiosity, but "feeling no fear," she was surprised to see "two little men' emerge, no bigger than "three feet children." They each wore "a kind of doublet," and each had a cloak and a tight fighting helmet or leather cap, with round leather disks over their ears. Each of them smiled, seemed friendly enough, and had strange, nearly filed-down teeth, that protruded, nonetheless, from their mouths. They spoke a language Rosa could not understand, but described as sounding "Chinese."

They pulled one of the stockings from her grasp. Perhaps they wanted a souvenir? The flowers they took from her and sniffed a bit, examing and taking a few examples. They then entered through the doorway of their strange craft, and flew off. Nothing about the encounter frightened her, she later claimed. (There is a widely-circulated painting of this incident that has been repeatedly reprinted in old UFO books. I'm not sure if I can do so out of "fair use," but it depicts a woman with a stocking and a flower pot, a weird, little craft that is bullet-shaped on both top and bottom, and two strange "little men," each looking as if they might have emerged from a fairy tale. The poor woman was left mystified, and so are we.

Space Pancakes

Even stranger is the story of Joe Simonton, a chicken farmer from Eagle River Wisconsin, who in 1961 got a "space pancake" from a little man in a black knit turtleneck. The man emerged from the hatch in a flying object that looked like "two washbowls set one on top of the other." The little man (who wore a cap of the same material), had with him a jug and indicated he was thirsty. Joe went to fetch him some water. Later he would say it was a darn curious sound that forst brought him out to the yard when the craft landed, like, "wet tires on cement."

The little man, who, according to Joe, looked completely normal though only five foot or thereabouts, took the water and saluted. yes, saluted. Joe, almost certainly a veteran himself, but, at the very least, a good patriot and a stand-up guy, saluted back. It was then that Joe Simonton noted that another crewman was cooking something on a "flameless grill" in the interior portion of the craft. Joe indicated he wished to try one and was given something that can only be described as a "space pancake."

He took one, said it tasted like cardboard, and then the little man disappeared back through the hatchway, and the craft took off. Up, up and away!

Most people thought him to be one pancake short of a full breakfast, but good ol' Joe was quite sincere it seemed, wasn't trying to cash in on his space pancakes, and seemed genuinely beffudled. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who was originally skeptical, came to believe in the reality of Simonton's story; at least, he didn't seem to be consciously telling a lie. Jut, what he believed he had actually experienced.

When examined by scientists, the "space pancakes" turned out to be made of common buckwheat. Bon appetit.