“The Sightings Take Place Only in Their Minds”: Bob Rickard’s ‘UFOs’, 1979

By Richard McKenna / May 14, 2026 Object Name: UFOs Maker and Year: Originally published by Archon, 1978. This edition Nutmeg Press, 1979 Object Type: Book Image Source: archive.org Description: (Richard McKenna) I’m not sure if it’s possible from the standpoint of the present day to grasp just how deeply enmeshed in everyday life the paranormal was throughout the 1970s and ‘80s. And not just as an abstraction or some fad the kids were obsessing over; it’s more like the way that today things like crypto or AI are simply part of the weave and weft of the fabric of daily existence, reified into reality even for people who aren’t interested in them and don’t believe they’re a real thing. I don’t know if the sainted Socialist paradise of South Yorkshire where I grew up was a particularly paranormal-credulous part of the world, but I certainly wasn’t the only kid who thought it was entirely normal to hear the builders I passed on the way to school discussing the Yeti, or who was nearly…