By BOB SCOTT

By BOB SCOTT

Rappahannock New* Contributing Writer

It seems like part of some greater pattern, as if it were all meant to be. We’d received a notice in the mail, a flyer from RAAC that announced an event being held at Blackwater Homestead, Boston, Va. It was September of 1990.

We were relatively new in Rappahannock County. We’d made a few friends among our closest neighbors but we weren’t at all sure where Boston was. We were yet to discover that we had been invited to share a unique experience at the Gottlieb’s beautiful home.

How could we have imagined that we were about to have our “consciousness expanded.” Isn’t that something that only happens in the cities, those “centers of knowledge, culture and infinite opportunity?” But to come out to the “boonies,” to learn something new, at our age? Highly unlikely!

Being new members of RAAC, anxious to get acquainted with the community, we read the mailed flyer with additional interest. The title was intriguing, hinting at secrets to be revealed: “The mystery of the Grop Circles in England.” Everything about the subject was a mystery to us. “Crop Circles.”

Glancing briefly at the enlarged photo of the scheduled speaker we thought “nice looking guy, intelligent eyes,” maybe we’ll go, only $4 a ticket, good cause. So I turned the flyer over and continued to read: “Astronomer Gerald Hawkins is the author of ten books, including ‘Stonehenge Decoded,’ and the recipient of numerous awards from the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Information Agency”—U.S.I.A.?!?

Turning back to the flyer front again, the “nice looking guy,” Dr. Gerald Hawkins, was “Gerry,” one of my closest associates from the years when I served as USIA’s director of motion pictures and television. Gerry Hawkins was the agency’s highly respected science advisor. We had spent scores of stimulating hours together reviewing science-related programs for technical accuracy prior to their distribution to the global audience.

What would Dr. Gerald Hawkins be doing in Boston, Va.? Almost everyone knew but me. The Hawkins’ have a farm called “Hawkridge.” It’s in Rappahannock County. They get their mail in Woodville — and I live in Castleton, only 15 minutes away by the short cut. In other words, we’re “next-door neighbors” and we hadn’t known it. And what’s more, my friend Gerry had gone and gotten married and his wonderful wife is the former Julia Dobson (also from USIA) and now the Scotts and Hawkins are even closer friends than when I last saw Gerry, over 13 years before. Yes, I do believe it was part of a “greater pattern.” It was magical. Things like that really do happen in Rappahannock County.

The story didn’t end in September 1990. That was only the beginning. So much has happened since then to Dr. Hawkins as he continued his scientific quest to solve the “mystery of the Crop Circles in England” and elsewhere. I can only touch on some of the highlights. First of all Dr. Hawkins is a real scientist. In my long career of working professionally with “scientists” in the atomic energy, ballistic missile and space programs I have learned the difference between the real and unreal. In today’s world it seems that the unreal kind get more notice, more recognition, fame, fortune and media power than the real scientists do.

Just as he was devoted to discovering the truth in the “decoding of Stonehenge,” Dr. Hawkins is interested in learning what is real about the crop circle-pattern phenomena. He is careful not to say or write anything that he cannot prove, at least to his own satisfaction.

Since 1990 Dr. Hawkins has discovered some intriguing things about these unprecedented phenomena and he has shared his findings with many other scientists. As a result he has attracted much national and international attention and has considerably increased the mail being directed to him in care of the Woodville Post Office.

It is to be expected, as it has been many times before, that it is so much easier to doubt than to discover. It was not surprising that Time magazine listed the following item among “the best scientific achievements of 1991” in a January 1992 issue under the headline “crop circles demystified” -