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80 Vallee, the Physicist, became my mentor during the next few years. I really didn’t know that our farewells in New York would be our last time to see each other. An interesting sidelight during that time was a discovery I made about my mother and about something that had happened in my childhood. In 1980 after I’d said goodbye to Vallee, I came off the plane in Tulsa and drove to my Mother’s house. I’d invited my mother, and some of her friends to have lunch with me at a local tearoom. At the luncheon table I said, “Well, Mother, we’ve just been on another investigative case. One of those ‘crazy chases,’ as you call them.” Mother smiled at the others at the table before she spoke. What she said knocked me back in my chair. My Mother had always made sure I understood that she thought I was chasing a will-o-the-wisp, in other words, just wasting my time. “You know, Barbara, I never did tell you about the time that big UFO was right above our house.” “For God’s sake, Mother. I’ve been investigating UFOs for years now. Why on earth didn’t you ever tell me about this?” I must have looked as s agitated as she’ d ever seen me 1 1 ee ee oT because she made a calming motion with her hand. The type of signal Mother’s use to keep one quiet in public. “Well, honey, I just never thought to tell you about what I saw. It wasn’t much.” She smiled an apologetic 1 smile. “Can you describe the vessel?” I asked the question but if Vallee had been there, the always on-the-job scientist would at this point, have taken out his notebook and pen. “Well, yes.” She looked up into the air above the luncheon table as if once again seeing what had appeared in the Missouri sky that day. “It was some silvery metal, something like aluminum, I guess, but not quite as shiny. A kind of a big saucer shaped metal disc. Really big. From so Barbara Bartholic as told to Peggy Fielding