There's No Myth, Like An Urban Myth, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   How young and tender I was, darlings, when I first saw "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind."  Yet I can recall the experience, like it was yesterday.

                                    Actually, it was New Year's Eve, December 31, 1977.  Having just graduated from college that May, I was still at home, getting my bearings.  That evening, my father and I had already gone to the obligatory Vigil Service, at--where else???--St. Paul's Church, in Highland Park.  We had time to kill until the countdown with Guy Lombardo--this was back in the day, darlings--so we went to the movies.  I had not seen 'Close Encounters' yet, and it was playing at the then Loews's Theatre, out on Route 18 in East Brunswick.

                                      So, off we went!  Though I have only seen the film once, and not since then, my favorite moment in the film was the opening, when these men, in the desert, dust flowing across the screen, come across a group of airplanes that have seemingly appeared by magic.  The scene is gripping and haunting, but what I was about to discover was there was an element of truth to it.

                                        The planes, as mentioned in the film, were thought to be those of Flight 19, which vanished mysteriously on December 5, 1945. Flight 19 was the name given to the entire group of TBM Avenger Torpedoes, and vanished over water, upon taking off from the Naval Air Station, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Five airplanes and 14 airmen were never heard from again, nor have they been.

                                          All sorts of theories abound, including mechanical failure, which resulted in a massive explosion.  And this might have been what did happen.  But, if so, why was it not noted on the machines on ground following them?  Why has not a single piece of aircraft ever turned up????????

                                            Which brings me to 'Close Encounters.'
 Obviously, the theory they were going for was alien abduction--and the aliens, now choosing to visit the Earth,  wanted to signal their presence by returning these planes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  But two more theories--much more fun, darlings!!!!--are attributed to this. One is the Bermuda Triangle, that mysterious force field that has been downing planes for ages.  My personal favorite is technology from--get this, girls!!!!!--the lost continent of Atlantis, which is something I will deal with another time!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                The rest of the film was spellbinding, with Melinda Dillon and Cary Guffey turning in the best performances. Why Melinda never went farther on film I could never understand; she was a brilliant actress!!!!!!!  And Broadway's original Honey, in "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?," I'll have you know.

                                                   It was a memorable New Years Eve. We got home in time to see Guy And His Royals, and Grace Knox!!!!!!!!!   Now, who was Grace???????  She was a high school classmate of my father's, who ran the Knox Tavern for years, out on Route 27, not far from Metuchen.  I don't know much about Grace, but it looks like home and the tavern were her entire life!!!!!  But New Years Eve was her big blowout; she would peroxide her hair, get dolled up in a fancy gown, and a stunning tiara, so she would be easy to spot on TV, and there she would be!!!!!!!!!!!  Right in the ballroom of New York's famed Waldorf Hotel!!!!!!   The thing about New Years Eve in our house was we always had to watch for Grace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                     Grace and 'Close Encounters' in one evening. It was almost too much to take!  No wonder I recall this, 35 years later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                        And I bet when Flight 19 went missing, it met up with Amelia Earhart!!!!!!!!!!