Every sunday evening, my parents and i would be driving home westbound along u.S. highway 30, between 8:30 and 9:00 p.M. as seat belts were a new thing, we did not use them. i would frequently lie down in the back seat and look up into the sky out the side window. there were no lights in the area, and so it was easy to observe a multitude of stars and occasionally a shooting star. suddenly, i saw an extremely bright yellowish light, almost like a beam coming straight toward me. i rolled over while keeping my eyes on the light, so i could get closer to the window to see it. i had no idea what the light was, but it was so outside the normal experience that i was fascinated. there seemed to be a solid core to the light, with a slightly less intense aura surrounding it. the most intriguing part was three seemingly incompatible facts. first, the light source was intensely bright and apparently very close. the second unusual thing was that there was absolutely no sound. the third was that the light orb, at about 40 degrees of elevation to the left of the car, was exactly keeping pace with our 55-60 miles per hour. and as i have thought back about the experience, there was a fourth significant oddity: my parents in the front seat seemed to be completely oblivious to what was happening. they were keeping their eyes on the road ahead and were either quiet or were having trivial conversation. i kept on paying attention to the light for at least a minute, perhaps as long as four minutes. then suddenly, the light orb was gone without a trace. i never did discuss this with my parents. if they witnessed the event, they were trying to be calm for my sake. but there were no glances to the left side and into the sky, to evidence that they were even aware of what was happening. so because i was apparently the only witness, i never brought up the subject. my basic feeling was that the experience was very cool. i did not try to analyze it or to figure out what it was. i was content to have witnessed something unusual which was just for me. i was not considering the possibilities of ufos or anything like that. it was only as time passed, and as i had more scientific education, that i began to realize the possible significance of what i saw. i cannot say that i definitely saw a ufo. what i can say is that i saw something airborne which defies conventional aeronautics – extremely bright and close, extremely slow (until it vanished), and entirely silent.