SID PADRICK, MY FRIEND

Sid Padrick was my friend. I met him in 1965 when he came to Seattle to speak at a lecture sponsored by the National Investigations Commission on Aerial Phenomena, headed by Robert J. Gribble. Later it would become the UFO Reporting Center.

When Sid came to Seattle he stayed at our house. He drew several pictures for my daughters of the craft he was taken into, where he met the crew of the ship.

I also was with him after his lecture traveling in his friend Mike's big white Cadillac. Sid said they are above us and telling me not to talk about them anymore because people here are not ready to understand. We stopped the car and got out and there was the ship above our heads. That was the last time he talked about his contact to the public.

The following is what happened to him.

Sid loved to go the beach and sleep down there taking his dog along. La Selva beach is located approximately 75 miles south of San Francisco. About 3:00 in the morning on March 7, 1965 he heard a whistling sound. He looked up above him and there was a huge space ship. It was shaped like two rounded soup bowls put together. It scared him so bad that he started running, tearing the ligament in his knee as he tried to climb the bank to get away.

A loud voice said "Don't be afraid, we are not hostile. We don't wish you any harm." In spite of his fear his curiosity got the best of him. He approached the ship to a small door in the bottom. It opened and he found himself in a small room where a brilliant white light came on. He figured it was to kill the bacteria or germs on himself. Then another door opened and a "man" was standing there inviting him in.

The man was no different than Sid in his appearance, he had clean-cut features, and wore a two piece suit, light bluish-white in color, that covered his body resulting in boots on the bottom half. It had soles and heels. He could hear him walking on the rubbery-like floor.

On board were another seven men, similar in appearance, and one woman, described as extremely pretty. They were all about 5 feet 8 inches tall to 5 feet 9. The girl had her long hair pushed down the back of her suit. All the men's hair looked like it grew to a certain length and stopped - it looked like a natural growth. All of them had auburn colored hair.

By our own standards I would say they all looked between 20 and 25 years old, very young, pert, energetic and intelligent looking. Their features were similar to ours. There was only one feature he noticed that would differ from us greatly, and that was their faces came to a point, much more than ours. They had sharp chins and noses. Their skin was somewhat of an "Armenian" color. Their eyes were all very dark. Their fingers were a little longer than ours. The hands were very clean - the fingernails looked as if somebody had just given them a manicure.

All of them were wearing two-piece suits - slip on type - light bluish-white in color. They had no buttons or zippers that he could see. There was a large band in the middle, and large cuffs, and a large collar that came down with a "V" neck. The collar had a very pretty design on it and the neck piece had a braid of some kind on it.

The first man Sid met as he came through the door acted as a guide. He spoke perfect English. When Sid asked what to call him he replied ,"you may call me Xeno". Later we looked up the word in the dictionary. It meant wayfaring stranger. How apropos. Later when Sid lectured here in Seattle he received a huge bouquet of flowers. The card read "from Xeno."

As he showed Sid through the craft he always held his arm in front of Sid directing him where he wanted him to go.

Sid asked where they came from. Xeno replied from a planet behind a planet that you observe. Sid had a small clipping in his wallet that he showed us. It said that scientists had discovered a planet that is hidden behind the sun. It did not say how far away it was. The clipping verified what he had been told. He did not say we couldn't observe them- he merely said we didn't observe them.

Padrick asked the purpose of their visit to our planet. Xeno replied, "observation only." Sid said I don't think it meant for them to observe us, I think it was for me to observe them, because he did not ask me at any time my name, my age, how many teeth I had, how many members of my family; he didn't ask me one thing about myself, and this leads me to believe that they know about us already, and he came for us to observe them. He did say they would come for further observations. I think they are observing people, mostly. There was no mention of earthquakes, fault-lines, or of anything government-wise, or political-wise, or anything that would affect our future (except that) they gave me the impression that they will pick up more people in the future.

The floor, walls and ceiling looked much the same, pale blue. The rooms had no corners. Everything was round and indirect lighting seemed to emanate from the walls. There were no lamps, it seemed everything was illuminated.

Each of the rooms that was occupied had instrument panels on the walls, with the crew members concentrating on the instruments. They merely glanced around at him when he entered their room, then turned back to their work, as if they were unconcerned.

Some rooms had four or five instruments, others had 10 or 20, but they were of a similar type in each room. They were nothing like ours. I didn't get close to any of the walls that had the movable instruments on them, because when I started to advance in the first room he held out his hand for me not to advance and I didn't, either! He didn't say why and I didn't ask. There were no screens, such as our oscilloscopes. They had meters, but I could not see dials on them. He said they lit up only when in use.

He was placed in front of an enormous lens which must have constituted only one part of an optical observation system. The image reproduction had a 3D effect. The one my guide showed me was the image of what he called the navigation craft. This was 2:45 or 3:00 in the morning, and the object was in sunlight, so it had to be pretty far out - I imagine 1,000 miles out or better. I didn't see any markings or portholes in it. He told me that the power source (of the craft he was in) was transferred to them from the other craft, and that it did all the navigation and manipulation through space. The huge craft was shaped something like a cigar or a blimp. It was surrounded by a sort of haze or halo in spite of the clarity of the atmosphere. I was told this navigation craft measured over a mile long.

Xeno told Sid they don't measure time and distance as we know it but rather in terms of light. When Sid asked him how fast they travelled through space, he answered that their speed was limited only by the speed at thich they could transfer their energy source.

After a while Xeno told Sid that they had travelled some distance and were now parked in a deserted area, which on subsequent investigation turned out to be near Leggett, California, 175 miles north-west of Watsonville. Some time later Sid was able to find the very spot where he was let out.

After they landed on the hillside, Xeno told him to step out so that he could come back to the place later - to know this was real and not dreamed. He stepped out alone and walked around the outside of the ship. It was a large camping site for trailers which was not being used. He touched the ship and it was very smooth, like plastic. He felt the hull. It seemed very hard but not metallic. He had never felt anything like it before. The closest thing he ever felt on Earth would be a windshield - plexiglass. Looking under the craft he could see its leg-like landing gear. Xeno didn't tell Sid that touching the craft would do him harm, and he had no bad effects from it - none whatever. He tried to find markings on the ship but he didn't find a mark any place.

Xeno showed Sid a picture and said "this is where we live." The photo showed buildings in the background, in the shape of a crescent. Windows could be seen but he said he had never seen such a strange photograph. The layout of the buildings had nothing in common with our own. They were quite far from each other. It looked like they put one about 50 feet from another and the next one 150 feet. There appeared to be roads in the distance and there was foliage in the foreground - trees and bushes too.

Sid was also shown a photo of a city on the visitor's planet. Every building in that picture was rounded off, half moon shaped. Xeno described his Utopian society to Padrick. "As you know it, we have no sickness, we have no crimes, we have no police force. We have no schools - our young are taught at an early age to do a job, which they do very well. Because of our long life expectancy we have a very strict birth control. We have no money. We live as one."
Sid was taken into a room that Xeno called the "Consultation Room." He told Sid that before they do anything they consult with Deity and get His direction. The color of the room defied description. Xeno asked him if he would like to pay his respects to the Supreme Deity?
When he said that Sid almost fainted. He didn't even know how to accept it. He said to Xeno, "We have one, but we call it God. Are we talking about the same thing?" He replied, "There is only one" So I knelt and the only prayer he could think of to utter was his childhood prayer. He had tears running down his face because he was so touched by the feeling in the room. Until that night he had never felt the presence of the Supreme Being - but he did feel Him that night.
It was obvious that they are on a very high scientific level, but their relationship with the Supreme Being means a lot more to them than their technical and scientific ability and knowledge. Sid would say that their religon and their science are all in one.

After Sid said his prayer he was so emotional that he sat in a chair and recovered. He said the chair was covered in a silver blue metallic material and was so beautiful, something he had never seen before.

After two hours Sid was taken back to where he had been picked up. He stepped out of the craft and walked home. His life would never be the same again.

After that he had many more contacts by Xeno and his crew. They gave him scientific knowledge to where he started inventing things.

He was our friend and a very nice person. I will always remember the time we spent with him and that I got to see their craft.
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In the next article I will tell you what happened when Sid reported this encounter to the Air force.