From: Jim Allen, Jacksonville, Arkansas (Ekko47 [at] aol.com)
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 01:25:31 EST
Subject:

I was a student at Henderson State College in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. I and a
friend of mine, Hays Turner, were on our way into the Caddo River bottoms in
the early morning hours of November 17, 1966, on a hunting trip.

Suddenly, while speeding along the lonely country road, I saw what appeared to
be a bird in the headlights and an instant later heard a small impact! The
radio antenna of my '57 Chevy was now thrashing back and forth. I stopped the
car investigated. A bat had flown into the path of my car and amazingly had
gotten hung (sort of wrapped) around the antenna! After offering competing
odds that something like this could happen, Hays and I decided  on a figure of
several millions to one. As we contemplated the wonderful serendipity of
observing such an oddity, we glanced at another "miracle"; the sky was
falling!
It was a clear, cool night, and the sky was very dark.We were miles from any
lights. Meteors  were everywhere. I didn't realize the rare significance  of
the spectacle we had so fortuitously happened upon. We gazed in amazement and
must have seen many hundred "shooting stars" in the hour or so that we stood
there. It was one of those times that that etches out a permanent and special
place in ones memory. A very unlikely and fortunate priviledge of witnessing a
wonder of the universe; just two guys on a deer hunt, and a blind Bat that
caused us to see a little bit of heaven!

Jim Allen
Jacksonville, Arkansas