Dropped Into A Disney Cartoon

Dropped Into A Disney Cartoon
Between 1967 and 1968, I was stationed on an Air Force base in the middle of Alaska. Most of the time during the winter months, the northern lights were just pale green streaks slanting down out of the night sky—not very spectacular. But one night, as I stepped from the NCO club to head for my room in the barracks, I felt as if I had been dropped into a Walt Disney cartoon. For slowly weaving back and forth in a snake-like fashion across the dark winter sky, was a very vivid, bright band of rainbow colors.
As I watched, my mind refused to believe what I was seeing. I mean, there in the sky was this swash of bright colors as if someone had just painted them there, only instead of being stationary, they were moving!
So, here I was standing with my jaw down to my chest and my eyes as big as beer bottles, all the while expecting to hear some kind of noise, like maybe a jet flying off in the distance but nothing. The frigid night air was totally still. Not even a hint of a breeze. The only noise was my own slow breathing, and the crunch of the frozen snow under my boots as I shifted my weight from one foot to the other.
What added to the eerie effect was the fact that I was totally alone. No one else seemed to be anywhere around. I must have stood there for a good three to four minutes, staring at this bizarre phenomenon. That’s how long it took for this cartoon-like strip of colors to snake its way across the sky until finally, it went too far for me to see it any longer.
After shaking myself back to reality, I started once again for the barracks. About halfway there, I met two guys heading toward the NCO club. Wouldn’t you know it, when I tried to describe what I had seen, they wouldn’t believe me. They even asked what I had been drinking. When I told them only coffee, (Because of a moment of over-indulgence, I had cut back on my consumption of alcoholic drinks.) one of them remarked to the other, “He gets this way on coffee? Maybe we should start drinking more ourselves.” The next day, I couldn’t get anyone else to believe me either.
Years later is when I learned about the affect sun spot activity can have on our atmosphere. When extra-large solar flares shoot out storms of charged particles that crash into our Ionosphere, the brightness and colors of the northern lights can be really intensified. Now, here in May of 2024, a portion of the U.S. is experiencing a sort of renaissance when it comes to the intensity of the northern lights.