I'm really not sure if this is a ghost story or not because I don't know what it was that I saw. However, it's one of those experiences that has stayed with me my entire life and I guess I'll just always wonder.

This happened when I was child around 1958 in Rapid City, South Dakota. My parents and I lived in an older, wood frame house and it must have been in the summer or maybe in late spring time because I recall after it happened the next day was sunny and warm and there was no snow on the ground. The fact that there was no snow on the ground seemed very important to me at the time.

My bedroom in the house we lived in was just off of the living room. In the living room was a large picture window that looked out over a vacant lot.

One night I woke up in the middle of the night and I knew something wasn't right, but I soon realized that my room was glowing, a white, blue light that seemed to be emanating from somewhere in the living room. I wasn't really scared, but I did wonder why my parents hadn't noticed this strange light inside the house.

I was wide awake looking around the room, wishing my Mom or Dad would wake up and come and tell what this bright light was. But, as a little kid I didn't want to wake them up myself. For some reason it never seemed to be a good idea to wake up my parents unless I had a darn good reason. I needed to find out what in the heck that light was before I woke them up.

So, still not afraid, just really wondering if this was an emergency situation, I ventured in to the living room. I recall that the living room was glowing just like my bedroom, but now the light seemed to be coming from outside. I walked to the big window and looked out. What I saw seemed pretty darned incredible and I guess that for a few minutes I just stood and stared.

Not far from the window between the vacant field and our house was a vibrant, gold, sparkling, glowing tower of light about as tall as the house and about 10 or 12 feet wide. I guess as big as a large room. Honestly, the only thing I can liken it to is a giant, golden sparkling star that just sat there with sparks shooting out of it. I couldn't really hear anything, except perhaps something like whispering, or vibrations against the eardrums.

I finally thought, boy, this is something to wake up Mom and Dad for, they're not gonna believe this one. I couldn't wait to get them in there. I had not more than made the plan to run for their bedroom, when I swear a voice from somewhere, a very powerful voice - inside my head or from somewhere, told me to go back to bed, don't tell anyone, just go back to bed, now. Right now. I just remember thinking how badly I wanted to go get my folks and now I couldn't, cause this glowing thing was saying I absolutely could not do that, and to go back and go to sleep. I remember turning to head back to my room, and wondering why the sparkling star was gold and yet the color that emanated in the room was blue/white. The last thing I remember was that voice saying to never tell anyone about this, never tell anyone. I never felt afraid or theatened. Just certain that I was not to wake anyone up.

I did go back to sleep. But, the next morning I jumped out of bed, put on my clothes and ran out to the side of the house. I was searching, searching for burn marks in the grass. I was just certain there would be burn marks where that sparkling tower of light had been. I looked up and there was my mother at the window looking quizzically at me. "Honey, what in heavens name are you doing?", she asked me. I felt like I had been caught with my hand in some forbidden cookie jar, as If I had done something I'd been warned not to ever do. I told my mother that I was doing nothing, just fooling around, just nothing. All the while I was rememberng "the voice" telling me to never tell, just go back to sleep.

And I never did tell, at least not until I was about 17 or 18 and then when I began to tell, I told everyone I trusted. I was searching for someone who could tell me what I had seen. And believe me, there have been theories from "It was only a dream" to "Maybe it was a UFO". Well, yes, of course, it could have been dream. But it was so real, and so unlike any dream I've had before or since. A UFO? Well I've given that one long thought through the years. Particularly when UFO sightings seemed to become the rage. But, it didn't look like a spaceship and I didn't see any bald, big eyed folks, friendly or otherwise. Only a voice - or was it voices??

I listen to every story to see if someone else had ever had a similar experience. I recently saw someone's rendition of an angel, and I thought for the first time that perhaps I'd seen an angel. I've also thought of some sort of ghostly apparition, in your face willow the wisp or something like that. I've even told my mother and father about it and they amazingly accept that I must have seen something very strange indeed. It doesn't seem to occur to them to question or ridicule my experience. Sadly, they don't remember any bright lights or glowing bedrooms when we lived in Rapid City. A part of me had always hoped that perhaps they'd seen something while we lived there.

I guess I'll never know what it was, or if it was. As I get older I find myself becoming more cyncial about the experience. When I was young, I was very firm in the belief that it was a very real and very weird thing that had happened. But, over the years I feel doubt creeping in and the Logical part of my brain telling me that what I saw was impossible and had to be some sort of figment of a sleepy imagination.

Perhaps that really is the truth, and somehow it saddens me when I think that it is. But, the bottom line is, down deep inside there is still a part of me that knows beyond certainty that I really, really did see and experience something strange that night in South Dakota.