Northern lights, southern style

When I interviewed Blanton Redding, of Lizella, last week about the “night the sky was on fire,’’ he joked that he “wasn’t a drinking man.’’

But he just couldn’t get something that happened some 60 years ago out of his head. When he was a young boy, he remembers watching a brilliant display of what he believes was the aurora borealis, sometimes known as the northern lights. The famous atmospheric illumination is usually seen in the Northern states and Canada, but is rarely visible this far south.

I told him we would try to find others who might have seen the same display and remembered it just as vividly. The column ran last Friday, July 21, and the ink had no sooner dried on the page before Redding’s phone started ringing.

That day, he reported getting calls from people who had viewed the lights from places like Tennessee, Swainsboro and Lilly, Ga. Redding wasn’t sure about the year and the time of year, but a man from Monticello told him he believed it was in the fall of 1947.

Redding updated me again a few days ago and said he had received 18 calls. He was overwhelmed.

“Fifteen of these folks viewed it and, almost without exception, all describe it clearly,’’ he said. “They cite where they were and details of the occasion, much as one would remember where they were and what they were doing when President Kennedy was assassinated.’’

He said he also heard from four more people Lizella that had seen it that night.

“These were all intelligent folks who, without exception, had great interest in sharing their memories and about an event that they had thought about many times over the years, but like me, could find practically nobody that remembered,’’ he said. “One lady here in Lizella, said she had called the Macon newspaper that night and was told they hadn't seen it. But the next day, she says there was an article in the paper that reported the sighting and also referenced the ‘lady from Lizella’ who called in.’’

Redding is still interested in hearing from others. His number is (478) 935-2217.

(Photo courtesy of Craig M. Groshek, Wikipedia Encyclopedia)