Due to the crashing of the stock market in the year 1929,
America had hit an economic depression and downfall. The Great Depression is
what we called it. People were scurrying around, looking for any job that they
could get their needy hands on to help pay for their food and living
facilities, even if there wasn’t much to pay for. Not much was affordable at
that time, it was a simpler life. However, up in New York City, something they
called The Empire State Building was underway. Luckily for the people up in New
York, many workers were needed to build this monstrous tower. A little over a
year and coming in on time and under budget, the building was now open to use
for businesses to rent out space. The building was officially open on May 1,
1931 at 350 Fifth Avenue, between 33rd and 34th street,
New York City. It really was a wonder at the time. People were hoping that it
would bring in tourists and help lift the economy a bit, allowing people’s
profits to increase. But you see, the real wonder was what happened a year
after the tower was built. No, not because of the money that the tourist trap
would rake in, but it was something a little more supernatural.
In the
year of 1932, people all over the country were trying to get their hands on a
newspaper. You see, something really interesting happened up at The Empire
State Building. And yes, I do mean up. I’ll never forget it. It was a slow day
until insanity broke out. People were scrambling to get a newspaper.I remember
my brother riding back home on his bike and throwing it down in the front yard
before running straight into the kitchen where my mother and I were at. “Look
here, look here! Look what I got!” he yelled, waving the paper around
frantically. He hurried over to us and dropped the newspaper on the
kitchen table.
“Well ,
I’ll be..” my mother said. The newspaper article read, “Mass Hysteria Hits New York
City In 1932 After A Report Of A Martian Spotted Atop The Empire State Building.”
Below the headline was a blurry black and white picture of what did indeed
appear to be some type of person on the roof. Some type of alien. “Gregory,
where did you get this?” My mother asked my brother. Very enthusiastically, he
told us that they were selling them all over the city. I was too shocked to
even say anything. There was no way that this could be true. It was just some
hoax made to get more money, right? Being the sharp woman that my mother was,
she denied the “proof” ,as what my
brother liked to call it, as well.
“No,
no! It is real, I swear it! Look here,” he pointed to the image of the person
on top of the building. “It’s a little man! Don’t you see? It’s Martian it just
has to be! Just read the article, it will explain it all!” Now our curiosities
at their peaks, we all sat down and read the paper. According to the workers of
The Empire State Building, the cameras had been acting up all day. No one was
seen going on the roof or coming back down. Nobody knew who that person was,
where it went, or where it came from. Some eyewitnesses said that they saw
someone on the roof. Others described it in better detail, claiming that there
was a white light and some strange flying ship on the air. Honestly, none of us
really knew what to think. Our father came home from work later that evening
and we showed him Gregory’s finding. He told us that some workers at his
factory had been carrying on about the news as well. We asked him what he
thought, but all he did was shake his head. We never did get an answer out of
him.
The
news was there and then was gone after about a week. It was replaced by other
things going on in the country. It seemed like the excitement left not long
after the so-called Martian did. My brother and I didn’t forget about it though.
The news still sticks in my head. Maybe it was a Martian, maybe it wasn’t?
Maybe we’re just not ready to know.
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