On this All Hallow's Eve, I have a treat for you!!!
Published at: Oct. 30, 2000, 3:09 p.m. CST by staff
Sixty Two Years ago on All Hallow's Eve, a young naval sea man by the name of Jay Winford Knowles, was just off of San Diego Bay. He was relaxing in his bunk playing Spades with his bunkmates. A warehouse of bunkbeds of mates in their whites.
The game was going wonderful... good times.... Suddenly the emergency horn signals action. Everyone aboard the ship drops what they were doing and began running up or down their various deck stairwells. The siren was signaling an immediate ship out to sea. There was an attack. Some sort of emergency. Pulses raced and tensed.
There was an announcement. They were told that the United States was under hostile attack by forces from the planet Mars. For the next 20 minutes, young Jay W Knowles did his job. Below deck in the cauldron hot engine room, shoveling coal into the beastly machine to power his shipt to sea. Leaving San Diego, his thoughts upon a young Mildred Catrett in Beaumont, Texas. Would she be safe... would he see any of his old pals. His eyes cast up into the night's sky... the twinkling of the stars... Suddenly he began wondering about the peril from up above. This shrank the concept of possible horrors that the war in Europe held... or the activities they had heard about in Manchuria. The UNITED STATES was under attack... and they were running... retreating to the safety of sea. Would they be safe. His crewmates had that scared uncertain feeling. Doubting God, how could we be his chosen people if, creatures from another planet are wiping out us Americans. Is it just the United States? Could it be happening everywhere?
Suddenly there was an order to cease the... ahem.... mobilization. They were told that it was a hoax... a name.... ORSON WELLES, pulled it. These fears, thoughts and conceptions of mass horrors upon loved ones... the work of a degenerate eVILE mind.... A showman. A barker with a microphone... and the whole world was his unsuspecting audience without their regular bag of roasted peanuts.
Never again has a hoax at this sort of scale really worked (other than the Year 2000 Bug) It was not Welles' attention, most believe... As you'll find in the below broadcast, it was announced as being a 'program', if only... well, you know that part of the story.
I may not be able to hand you candy, or grab you from out of a bush today or tomorrow... but I can give you this broadcast and the story of my grandfather... age 19... on the deck of the USS DORSEY. Enjoy. Shut your eyes. Imagine you were your grandparents... or great-grandparents... and for just a while... Martians were attacking the Earth. Oh what a world to leave behind....
