On November 30, 1954, a woman in Sylacauga, Alabama was hit by a meteorite.
Yes, this is for real. Ann Hodges was sleeping in her home when a meteorite — a 4-kilo fragment of a larger rock — punched through her roof, hit a radio, bounced off, and smacked into her side. It left a huge bruise. she was a guest on the popular TV game show “I’ve Got a Secret”, where celebrity panelists tried to guess the guest’s secret, usually something unusual or embarrassing about them. I think Hodges’ event counts. Watch the video. It’s interesting for a lot of reasons: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JVyi1w4ULug&pp=4gcaEhhiYWRhc3Ryb25vbXkuYmVlaGlpdi5jb20%3D I was amused at how the host had to apologize and give her the money (80 bucks!) because they hadn’t thought that she would be recognized, despite this being a nationally renowned event and the show aired less than a month after the incident. Hodges got into a legal tussle with her landlord for ownership of the meteorite, and while she eventually won she never got much money for it (there’s a fascinating and detailed account of her story on the CBS 42 website). Oddly, a second chunk that fell on a farmer’s property not far from there wound up selling for a goodly amount of money, but it wasn’t subject to all the lawsuit hassles. If this incident happened today, and were verified, that meteorite would fetch a substantial amount of money. A known fall (meaning a witnessed meteor producing the meteorite), plus it being a hammerstone — one that hit a structure — would make it valuable, but also the fact that it hit a person (that’s only been documented to have happened one time since) would ramp up the price easily to six figures. Maybe more. Times have changed. Back then it was a curiosity; now it would set someone for life. And the video itself… wow, does that drive home how times have changed. When was the last time you heard a woman introduced by her husband’s full name (“Mrs. Hewlett Hodges”; her husband was Eugene H. Hodges, and I assume the H was for Hewlett)? And then, at the end, along with the $80 the host gave her a carton of cigarettes as a prize. Holy smokes. I mean, well, you know what I mean.
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