PararealitySaint
An Open Minded Skeptic
This true story, witnessed by 4 people, can be related as either a story about Angels or Ghosts, whichever suits you fancy.
In the mid 1960’s, my wife as a child, her Sister, Mother and Father, decided to take a trip across the country, returning from California back to Illinois. They wanted to return along the famous Route 66, mainly for the scenery and various tourist stops, so picking up the highway in Southern California, they traveled East, North East without incident, until they reached a pretty desolate area of Texas. At the time my wife’s Father was driving a late 1950’s Nomad, one of those extremely large station wagons of the post World War Two era. The vehicle was a gas guzzler, and my then Father-in-Law misjudged just how badly, as they began the long sojourn through the sweltering desert.
It became so alarming that he later told me he began to sweat, not just from the heat of his open window, but nervously so, peering down at the fuel gage and praying there would be enough gasoline to take them across this no man’s land to the next fill up station.
As the car began to sputter, he knew he was in for it….
But not the way he thought.
For up ahead in the distance he could make out what he insisted (yet my wife did not see) was a small shack and old fashioned pump (which she did see), the kind which had a globe on the top of its classic glass and metal body. Laughing to himself for being so worried, he gladly drove the final 100 or so yards to the small station, the kids jumping around in the trunk area, happily waiting to get out and stretch their legs. Approaching the old dirt road which led off to the place he began to sweat once again.
The entire area looked completely abandoned, with not even a car to show anyone had been there in many years.
Thinking perhaps it would be best if he at least checked out the shack for sheltering the family, he told the kids to stay put, smiled at his overtly anxious wife, and got out of the Nomad to check the place out.
As he walked toward the old run down shack he was surprised to hear something, or someone inside, hooping it up and speaking amongst what seemed to be others replying in kind.
He couldn’t believe his luck!
There were no cars within visual site of the desert; the place looked like it wasn’t in use since before the Great War, and now he heard what sounded like a party going on inside.
Noticing the door was split open as he mounted the little porch, he happily walked inside to find 5 men sitting around this old oak table playing cards. In what must have been a relief beyond any reckoning, Dad asked one of the men if it was possible to get some fuel, and the answer was simply, “sure, help yourself”…..
10 minutes later as the gas gage was now showing over filled, my Father-in-Law returned to the shack to pay the cost of the gas, and to his surprise, found no one at the table. Thinking perhaps they went out back, he walked out and searched everywhere for the men, but to no avail!
Pulling out of the old place and settling in for the long drive out of the desert and into Oklahoma, he turned his head back just once to see if he could find the man, or men, who gave him the chance to get his family safely out of the desert…..
There wasn’t a soul to be found anywhere….
In fact, There was just an old beat up pump sitting in the middle of a dried up station…..
And according to everyone else in the car, sworn to this day, no shack was EVER in sight.
In the mid 1960’s, my wife as a child, her Sister, Mother and Father, decided to take a trip across the country, returning from California back to Illinois. They wanted to return along the famous Route 66, mainly for the scenery and various tourist stops, so picking up the highway in Southern California, they traveled East, North East without incident, until they reached a pretty desolate area of Texas. At the time my wife’s Father was driving a late 1950’s Nomad, one of those extremely large station wagons of the post World War Two era. The vehicle was a gas guzzler, and my then Father-in-Law misjudged just how badly, as they began the long sojourn through the sweltering desert.
It became so alarming that he later told me he began to sweat, not just from the heat of his open window, but nervously so, peering down at the fuel gage and praying there would be enough gasoline to take them across this no man’s land to the next fill up station.
As the car began to sputter, he knew he was in for it….
But not the way he thought.
For up ahead in the distance he could make out what he insisted (yet my wife did not see) was a small shack and old fashioned pump (which she did see), the kind which had a globe on the top of its classic glass and metal body. Laughing to himself for being so worried, he gladly drove the final 100 or so yards to the small station, the kids jumping around in the trunk area, happily waiting to get out and stretch their legs. Approaching the old dirt road which led off to the place he began to sweat once again.
The entire area looked completely abandoned, with not even a car to show anyone had been there in many years.
Thinking perhaps it would be best if he at least checked out the shack for sheltering the family, he told the kids to stay put, smiled at his overtly anxious wife, and got out of the Nomad to check the place out.
As he walked toward the old run down shack he was surprised to hear something, or someone inside, hooping it up and speaking amongst what seemed to be others replying in kind.
He couldn’t believe his luck!
There were no cars within visual site of the desert; the place looked like it wasn’t in use since before the Great War, and now he heard what sounded like a party going on inside.
Noticing the door was split open as he mounted the little porch, he happily walked inside to find 5 men sitting around this old oak table playing cards. In what must have been a relief beyond any reckoning, Dad asked one of the men if it was possible to get some fuel, and the answer was simply, “sure, help yourself”…..
10 minutes later as the gas gage was now showing over filled, my Father-in-Law returned to the shack to pay the cost of the gas, and to his surprise, found no one at the table. Thinking perhaps they went out back, he walked out and searched everywhere for the men, but to no avail!
Pulling out of the old place and settling in for the long drive out of the desert and into Oklahoma, he turned his head back just once to see if he could find the man, or men, who gave him the chance to get his family safely out of the desert…..
There wasn’t a soul to be found anywhere….
In fact, There was just an old beat up pump sitting in the middle of a dried up station…..
And according to everyone else in the car, sworn to this day, no shack was EVER in sight.