"Secret School" in the Olmos Basin

[Buffyfan]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

\]

Actually the posts I put up on the GBNF thread regarding the Lost Village of Avoca were kind of related to this thread. In the Secret School book's afterward, it mentions that the school was on the site of an old abandoned mill. I have been trying to figure out which mill it was, when Primo suggested it could have been the mill used by Lost Village of Avoca, which may have been in the same area the school was suppose to be in. That's looking very possible now.

When I was in college at UIW, students lived in the "Avoca Apartments" near the tennis courts. Just, fyi.

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by texas_red_head

responding to this message, after a series of circuitous clicks following a conversation with a friend about the stephenville UFO earlier this year.

i grew up in san antonio..my childhood was all in the 1980s. i'd say the mid 80s is when i rode my bike all around my little section of the city, sometimes into the woods.

i'm responding to this because i grew up no more than 3.5 miles from the Olmos Basin area that is the subject of many of these posts.

I remember the first time i saw the book "Communion" it was at North Star Mall in the B Dalton bookstore, on the rack near the front. I was with my mom and brother, walking around, and i saw that alien picture on it, and it scared the living daylights out of both me and my brother.

over the years, my brother and i would talk about that alien photo alot and even joke about it having visited our house. i suppose i'm rambling a bit here, because after having read these posts, alot of past memories and experiences sort of link together....not claiming anything like Mr. Strieber claims, but i am saying that alot of things are overlapping now, and the coincidences and associations are really pronounced.

i'll outline this is sort of a block form, so it maybe makes a little more sense to me, and anyone who reads this.

1- as a kid, we used to visit the olmos basin alot. i have to say i was so very curious about it and nearly entranced by it. i remember riding in the car along 281 with my grandma nearly every single day in the summer (she had a business downtown she would take me to spend the day at) and always staring out the passenger window at that basin area from the highway, asking her questions about it. it seemed so mystical and alluring, that big expanse of wilderness in the concrete metropolis. on rare occasions we would detour down there, drive along the windy roads, look at the "old money" homes and the picturesque lawns and woods. i was definitely drawn there.

2- i have very fuzzy memories of being taken to a church in that area. i think it was an episcopal church, i was so young i can't remember

3- from the time i was adventurous and semi-independent enough to wander away from home on the weekend days and summer days, i rode my bike all around. i remember trying to convince my friends to ride with me into the woods. i always felt like something very special was in the woods. i dont ever remember seeing anything strange, but i do remember nearly begging my friends to go with me biking in the woods or fishing in the creek down there

4- we ended up getting the book "communion" sometime when i was in high school perhaps. maybe middle school. my brother and i both read it and scared the wits out of us. we also saw the Walken movie. my brother would claim that he remembers a little thing like the creature from the book, in his room, staring at him. i always thought it was a fiction-borne imaginative claim like kids often will do ("monster in the closet") etc.

5- when i first learned to drive, something would really pull me towards driving thru alamo heights then down into the olmos basin area. i always chalked it up to the serene scenery and beautiful homes. perhaps there is something more...just sooo coincidental these other postings on here and Strieber's book.

6- after college, i went to work with a military program. my boss held the highest rank you can get as an enlisted person in the Air Force. he and i got on the subject of the paranormal a few times. once, while alone in his office, just chatting, he closed the door and told me a story. he said while living as a newlywed in Alamo Heights, he and his wife would wake up, paralyzed, unable to move, and see bright, blinding lights in their house. the next morning they would wake in their beds, like nothing happened, but would remember the experience days or weeks later, as if in a dream. he went on to say many people in alamo heights (near olmos basin) had this experience. sent shivers up my spine.

7- obsession with "little people". my mom's family was irish. as a kid i was absolutely obsessed with "little people". i don't know if it was from watching darby o'gill, but i would ask my grandma all about the little people of ireland any chance i would get.

8- mid 1980s. incident in back yard. if you stood at the kitchen sink at my home, you could see out into the backyard. the window at the sink was perhaps 4 feet off the ground. i remember being in the kitchen late at night one weekend night and my mom absolutely freaked out. she said she saw a short man walk past the window and only saw the white of the top of his head. i always thought this was very weird because it had to have been someone very small or someone ducking down under the window. we looked outside and saw nothing and nobody. the backyard was a gated yard with a tall privacy fence.

9- dreams. a friend in high school and i always shared our dreams with eachother. a real common theme was flying thru the air or in space. we both read up on lucid dreaming after this and tried to recreate it, but never could. also i had a recurring dream of entering the upper levels and eventually attic of an old-style house like those found in olmos basin. in the attic, i found a small chest? that when i opened (about 3-4 feet long) contained the skeleton of a small thing/person. i had this dream maybe 1/2 dozen times and it scared the living daylights out of me. i was reminded of it when i watched x-files in high school.

10- i was always concerned with going to a special class or special school when i was little. i had fantasies of belonging to a school that taught mystical things. while in grade school, i was offered to go into a special program, but could not because i was obligated to attend speech therapy which conflicted with the schedule. i have an eidetic memory.

well i felt like i was rambling, so i'm closing this now.

Don't close it so fast, Texas Red Head. I'd like to hear more of your memories.

[texas_red_head]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

Don't close it so fast, Texas Red Head. I'd like to hear more of your memories.

unfortunately i don't have any vivid memories of the paranormal or fantastical, but I do find all these posting very interesting, as well as the many "coincidences" and interwoven stories I've heard over the years.

The idea of UFOs interest me and have for some time. In high school a family member had a house near Bandera, Texas along the river up that way. Of course by this time I had already read a few books about UFOs, etc and X-Files was in its prime. A friend from school and I were fishing along the river for catfish at about 2am. We could see "falling stars"--perhaps a meteor shower and we both saw that night a strange red light, probably a good 10-12 miles out. We initially assumed it had to do with the meteor shower, but it took a horizontal path, much like a jet would, then after a several minutes took off in a near-vertical climb, very quickly like a "falling star" but in reverse.

I suppose that qualified as a UFO sighting, it was definitely unidentified to me, but it was also more than 10 miles+ away.

2 Days Ago marked the 1 yr anniversary of the Stephenville Sighting. I heard from someone that that same night there was a sighting in san antonio. It was "oblong-shaped" and cruised over the area near I-10 and Wurzbach. That's a pretty populated area so I wonder what that was about. Also, yesterday? in England, supposedly a "UFO" hit a Windmill and broke off one of the turbines? Just two notes of interest. Seems that people still see strange things, whether they are military or from Mars!

[GWhopper]

Just want to keep this thread alive, and hear what any newbies to City-Data San Antonio have to add to it.

By the way, My wife dragged me to one of these San Antonio ghost tours last halloween. What a waste of money and time. If you want to scare the Hebbie Jebbies out of yourself, go to the Blue Hole after dark, then try to find the Secret School based upon the clues Streiber puts in his book and his web-site.

Bring a very powerful flashlight....

[texas_red_head]

its funny you mention the Ghost Tour. 4 friends took me on that one that meets by the Alamo about 3 years ago on a birthday. you hit the nail on the head: "waste of money and time". watch Ghost Hunters on Weds. if you want an interesting ghost experience. these guys that do the SA tour run a regular snoozefest.

are you speaking from experience about getting scared at the Blue Hole? that might be an interesting outing!

Originally Posted by GWhopper

Just want to keep this thread alive, and hear what any newbies to City-Data San Antonio have to add to it.

By the way, My wife dragged me to one of these San Antonio ghost tours last halloween. What a waste of money and time. If you want to scare the Hebbie Jebbies out of yourself, go to the Blue Hole after dark, then try to find the Secret School based upon the clues Streiber puts in his book and his web-site.

Bring a very powerful flashlight....