1983-05-01 - Southwest City, MO - Unknown

On a rural raod with my mother, had a bried tree-level, following-us CE of the 1st kind

I'm not sure of the exact date, but my mother and I were returning home to Joplin, MO from visiting her brother in SW City, MO; we were going north on US 43. Knowing I was interested in being an astronaut with shuttle Columbia being a recent thing, she "joked" that there was a UFO in the distance coming up behind us. I looked out the back window and watched with interest as the light(s) in the sky approached. It got up to us quickly and began pacing our car on the left side at treetop level. It was dark and we do not remember making out a shape, but we both remember it had lights - or rather, a row of lights, one of which would light up in succession in a pattern conforming to the direction it was moving (back to front from our perspective). I remember the lights being yellow; my Ma recalls orange or red. I was excited and started waving (I was about 8 years old); I have some recollection of thinking I discerned figures or forms I could communi! cate with. My Ma began to freak out and started praying. She said she knew there was a church up ahead a bit and knew the pastor that lived next door, and she prayed until we got there. She pulled in to the church parking lot and the UFO began circling us clockwise. My Ma freaked out more and started making excuses for why she couldn't get out of the car, knock on the pastor's door and say "Hey, come out here and look at this UFO". She decided to turn around and go back to her brothers' place. The UFO began following us, but soon just took off with a streak of light -- not away somewhere across the horizon -- but OUT -- through the atmosphere. Within a few minutes, three low-flying aircraft were in the exact vicinity of the UFO. My Ma said "Someone else saw it! I'm sure it will be in all the newspapers tomorrow." She was shocked when it wasn't. <Ha!> Thanks!