This post documents my experience on August 21, 2017.
On August 21, 1955, five adults and seven children drove to the police station in Hopkinsville, Kentucky to report an unbelievable incident.
They claimed that a spaceship with small alien creatures had come to their farmhouse in nearby Kelly, only to peer through windows and pop up in doorways.
Later known as Hopkinsville Goblins, these extraterrestrial peeping Toms weren’t particularly liked by some of the adults in the farmhouse, who greeted them with shotgun fire for almost four hours.
Interestingly enough, no alien carcasses or blood were discovered when local and military police later visited the property to investigate.
There was, however, plenty of bullet holes.
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We decided to visit Kelly and celebrate this strange event in their town’s history…
…through an annual festival called “Little Green Men” Days…
…especially since this year’s Total Solar Eclipse coincided with the anniversary and seemed a good enough excuse for the space critters to return.
Located at Kelley Station Park, the festival had plenty of family activities…
…including a dunk tank…
…jump houses…
…water walking balls…
…train rides, bungee jumping…
…face painting…
…some good ole mechanical bull riding…
…and toe-tapping musical entertainment.
There were also plenty of vendors selling everything from handcrafted jewelry…
…homemade wreaths…
…and wood-turning crafts…
…to jarred food items…
…painted wood decor…
…trinkets galore…
…and Falun Dafa instruction.
Along with refreshing shaved ice (it was a hot day), food vendors offered funnel cakes, kettle korn…
…and plenty of BBQ…
…where I had one of the best pork chop sandwiches ever (Doug’s Rolling Smoke BBQ).
But let’s not forget why festival goers came!
Festival goers intrigued by the 1955 event could get insight from Alien Legacy author Geraldine Sutton Stith (her father, grandmother and uncle were at the farmhouse)…
…author Rob Dollar (Monkey’s Don’t Wear Silver Suits)…
…and director Joseph Aguon Drake (The Invasion of Kelly).
They could also take pictures with aliens..
…dress up like aliens…
…put their kids with and interview a variety of aliens…
…and purchase various alien decor.
Of course, there was also the Total Solar Eclipse.
Tons of visitors put their glasses on as the light began to dim, the temperature dropped and some stars were visible.
Then, as dusk descended upon the earth…
…the moon shone like a majestic glowing orb in the sky (special thanks to Stacks Studios for this photo)…
…and, after all was said and done, I was thankful that the only alien we saw was this tall green dude on the left.