The Sky Is Not the Limit

This week, nine students from our high school had the privilege of attending a talk which Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield gave at SCITS in Sarnia. The following day, one of the students told me that Hadfield took questions from the audience and that someone asked a “neat question” about whether aliens existed. Since I wasn’t in the audience to hear Hadfield’s response firsthand, I won’t attempt to paraphrase it here, but from what I can gather, he didn’t discount the possibility. 

Don Haylett

When I heard about this, it reminded me of a conversation which I had with the late Don Haylett. Born in England, Don immigrated to Canada by himself at the tender age of fourteen. As a new immigrant, he lived and worked on my grandfather’s farm; at night, he would study aviation by the light of an oil lamp. Eventually, he got his pilot’s license and became a commercial pilot; when WWII broke out, he signed up as an officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force.  

Although he moved on from his early stint as a farmhand, he maintained his friendship with our family throughout the course of his life. I can remember his visits to our house and how one day, as a curious teenager, I quizzed him about the existence of UFOs. As I recall, he got a funny look on his face and said he couldn’t talk about it. In retrospect, I wish I’d been able to break through his reticence and tap into whatever insight he might have had in regard to this subject.  

When I was working as a local historian, I made a point of saving any stories about “the unexplained” that I happened to stumble across in the newspapers. One of my favourites is an article which appeared in the Watford Guide-Advocate on July 21, 1939. The headline read, “Had A Preview of Meteor.”  I believe this refers to the eighty-eight pound meteorite which landed near Dresden, Ontario on July 11^th of that same year.  

According to the article, two women in West Adelaide, Ontario (near Strathroy) were standing on the side of the road, chatting. All at once, a huge mass of rough rock came over the trees and came to rest about six to ten feet from them. The interesting part of the story is that the article reports that “it came down within two feet of the ground and then, all at once, the bottom part broke into sparks like striking flint. Slowly it rose almost straight up and gathering speed swiftly went off in the direction of Detroit. It was brilliantly lighted, so that it lit up the yards around like buildings afire.”  The news report goes on to say that the women were so frightened that they could not recall any colour or noise, but that they said it “was at least six feet high and round at the top like a balloon.” 

To the modern eye, this reads more like a UFO sighting than a “preview” of a meteor which hadn’t yet landed. I’m not much of a scientist, but I’m pretty sure meteors don’t hover above the ground and then, take off in the direction of Detroit! 

Another Watford Guide-Advocate article dating back to February 15, 1889 includes a small news item about a man who was returning home “perfectly sober” one night when he spotted a light a short distance ahead. The article stated that its size attracted his attention and that “he soon discovered by its foolish antics that it belonged to another world.”  It went on to state that the “ghostship followed him home” and then, “sat down on a neighboring hill and watched him all night long.” 

The June 30, 1954 edition of the Alvinston Free Press features a small report about a UFO sighting by Mr. and Mrs. Percy Brown of Aberfeldy which is south of Alvinston. Returning home about midnight one night, they “saw an object, said to be half the size of the moon, with a circular ‘bite’ out of the rear side.”  The object threw a light of various colours and “when first observed, it was high in the sky, then took a dive, seemingly to collide with the earth. About to collide, it swerved upward to a high point, then to the downward way again. It continued these undulations until passing from view.”  The couple stated that the object was travelling at speeds faster than any jet plane they had ever seen. The following month, the Dresden Times reported that groups of “saucers” had been sighted near Florence, Ontario and in nearby Kent County. 

Alvinston Free Press
March 8, 1950

Back in March, 1950, the Alvinston Free Press published a statement by Wing Com. H.D. Haylett, A.F.C., London. He predicted that within the lifetime of those children of “today,” flights to the moon would be achieved. When people living in this small farming community read that statement back in 1950, it must have seemed too fantastic to believe and yet, sixteen years later, this seemingly far-fetched idea became a reality. It is said that at the age of nine, Sarnia-born native Chris Hadfield saw this Apollo moon landing on television and in that moment, decided to be an astronaut; this week, he returned to Sarnia to inspire our next generation of young people.  

We may not fully understand how the universe works, but here on earth, the stories of people like Don Haylett and Chris Hadfield,who gazed up at the sky as young men and dreamed of what could be, have the power to uplift and inspire us. As to speculating on the existence of alien life on other planets or those secret dreams harboured within the individual human heart, I’d like to think that poet Emily Dickinson said it best when she penned the words, “I dwell in possibility.”