When Was Your First Time?

When was your first time hearing about Bigfoot? Not seeing a Sasquatch, but the first time you heard that such a creature existed.

My first time was when I was in my early teens -- roughly 1968. I think it was an episode of You Asked For It, where the program aired some of the Patterson footage. But I can't find a source for that, and it's possible I'm hazy on that memory.  (The dates for that program were: 1950 to 1959, with later incarnations in 1972, 1981, and 2000.) I do have a memory of watching a newsreel of the Patterson footage in the early 1970s when I worked in a movie theater. (Bigfoot on the big screen!)  So, in my teens if not earlier, was when I first became aware of the existence of Bigfoot.

I remember two stories from my teens about Bigfoot. One, from my brother, who insisted close friends of his who were camping in Northern California, were awakened at night and heard a large creature throwing oil drums at them. My brother was convinced, as were his friends, this was not being done by a bear. Both my brother and I were in our teens, so who knows if he was teasing me or not.

The other story I heard, again in my teens, was about Bigfoot living in the Topanga Canyon (California)  area, as I wrote for Tim Binnall's site, also here. As I wrote in those articles, I'm not that sure the people telling the stories actually believed them. They were just passing along a good story; more of a FOAF (folklore term: "friend of a friend")  tale, regardless of belief factor.

For myself, however, I believed back then that Bigfoot exists. And I still believe it.