Still Waitin', Aura...
1952 was an eventful year. The United States attempted to obliterate Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean with the first Hydrogen Bomb, archaeologists excavated the ancient city of Jericho where Joshua "fit a battle" as the sun stood still, Elizabeth II and Hussein ibn Talal ascended to the thrones of Great Britain and Jordan, Hank Williams bemoaned his travails because of "Your Cheatin' Heart"...
Perhaps the greatest event of that eventful year took place on the night of July 7th as highway worker Truman Bethurum pulled to the side of the road for a quick nap as he left a job at Mormon Mesa in Clark County, Nevada. We link to a skeptical account of Truman's subsequent adventures with the sexiest interplanetary spaceship captain ever after a group of little space men in bus driver type uniforms cheerfully informed him that "we will take you to our leader." In his defense, we point out that Truman's wife (who initially thought her husband had simply gone nuts) eventually filed for divorce, citing Captain Aura Rhanes of the planet Clarion which is just beyond our Moon as co-respondent in the petition...
Bethurum was one of many "contactees" in the 1950s and 1960s who claimed repeated visits from space brothers who looked entirely human. The alien messages followed common themes... mankind must stop nuclear testing, give peace a chance, end wars, live in harmony with the earth, its creatures, and one another. A handful of contactees impressed doubters with their obvious sincerity and belief in their own bizarre stories. Sociologists studied them and their followers to see what the phenomenon said about these spiritual ancestors of the hippie movement...
Aura Rhanes promised to return to our primitive world one day. Truman lived out his days, waiting faithfully for the return of the drop-dead gorgeous space babe who was clearly more than some bored interplanetary June Cleaver hopping into her death-ray equipped flying saucer to zip down to the Jupiter Mini-Mart for eggs and milk. She was an empowered woman entrusted with the mission of changing the fate of a self-destructive world. Feel free to come back, Aura. Truman may have passed on to a higher plane, but, should I head out Mormon Mesa way, I'll wait for you...
More about Truman and Aura can be found here:
Note: Images this post are taken from the Google Images collections with no copyright information provided. They are presumed to be in the public domain.
Truman Bethurum, circa 1953 |
Captain Aura Rhanes of the Planet Clarion
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