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| George Buster Singleton |
(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator
George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere
in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Fire ball in the night” was originally
published in the May 27, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville,
Ala.)
I have on several occasions, been told by various people of
the Franklin community, about a mysterious ball of fire that has been seen in
and around the area across Flat Creek on the right of Highway 41.
On Thursday, the 6th of May, 1971, I was
returning from above Franklin shortly after dark. I decided that now was the
time to try and see the strange light that I had heard about.
Parking my motorcycle, a safe distance from the highway, I
proceeded to walk across the pavement to higher ground to where I might get a
better view of the countryside. Upon ascending the high bank, there before my
eyes, almost at treetop level, floating southward at a lazy pace was a glowing
ball of reddish blue flame. About 12 inches in diameter, this ball of fire had
the appearance of a clear plastic balloon with some type of light inside.
I watched as the strange flaming ball then returned
northward along the same flight path it had previously moved south on. Then it
swung slowly to the east, dropping toward the ground as it turned. Disappearing
from sight behind the timber, this strange phenomenon was gone as quickly as it
had appeared. I waited awhile in hopes that it might reappear but to no avail.
What had I seen? Was it some type of phosphorous gases
mixing into the atmosphere and igniting, thus causing the reddish blue flame to
glow in the dark, or was it the light of a wandering spirit seeking the unknown
across the rolling hills? Somewhere in the mysteries of our universe the answer
can probably be found. But the goose bumps and the hair standing straight along
the back of my neck needed no explanation, for I knew without a doubt that I
was seeing the real something a thousand times more stranger than fiction.
As I rode home, I kept one eye on the road and one to the
rear, just in case.
(This column was also accompanied by a photo, and the
caption beneath that photo read as follows: Scene at Flat Creek where George
Singleton says he sighted a phenomenal ball of reddish blue flame floating at
treetop level.)
(Singleton, the author
of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of
79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born during a late-night
thunderstorm on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water
High School in 1946, served in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand, lived
for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964 and
served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from 1964 to
1987. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe County history – Did you
know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a
lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life
magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared in the March 25, 1971
edition of The Monroe Journal. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in
Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are
available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County
Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week
for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work
and memory alive.)
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