(AP) — Calvin Parker Jr. says he met an unidentified flying object and its occupants on the banks of a river in coastal Mississippi 40 years ago.

Today, the 58-year-old man is still grappling with his encounter with what he says were gray, wrinkly-skinned, crab-clawed creatures.

The Oct. 11, 1973, Pascagoula (PASS-kuh-GOO’-luh) incident made headlines, sparked UFO sightings nationwide and became one of the most widely examined cases on record.

Parker’s friend and fishing buddy that night, the late Charles Hickson, never tired of telling the story to anyone who listened until he died in 2011.

But Parker says it turned his life upside down. He tried to dodge the spotlight for decades, moving frequently before returning to Mississippi’s Gulf Coast in recent years.