From Out West #39, July, 1997
By Chuck Woodbury
RACHEL -- Jim and Mary Greenen are the world's largest suppliers of UFO products. Last year, they drove 97,000 miles from one UFO gathering to another, hawking UFO tee-shirts, mugs and other alien-related products they design and make in a school bus transformed into a silver-colored motorhome.
In an earlier life, they were both employed in the aerospace industry. Then, one day, their companies down-sized, and they were aerospace has-beens.
And so they hit the road, where they have been ever since, criss-crossing the country making and selling gift and gags for UFO believers at UFO gatherings from Florida to Washington and everywhere in between.
They were paused in Rachel for a month, manufacturing a summer's worth of products for the Little A'Le' Inn. In a few days, though, they would head off to Wyoming for a few days, then down to Roswell, N.M., and then back up to Michigan, and then to points beyond. On this evening, Mary was sitting at the bar at the Little A'Le' Inn while Jim played pool and pulled one of the five slots.
They are middle-aged manufacturers on the move -- picking up their raw materials along the road -- blank tee-shirts here, blank coffee mugs there -- then pulling over long enough to crank up the presses.
The business was Jim's idea. He's been fascinated with UFOs since he spotted some back in his Air Force days.
Both he and Mary are believers, and their business lets them keep up on the latest news. They say they love their work, and the travel, too.
But even the world of UFO merchandising is not without problems.
"We used to get a booth for $25, but now they are as high as $300," said Jim, shaking his head to illustrate his disgust. Then Mary added, "Every Tom, Dick and Harry is trying to get into the business," adding that most have come and gone.
But for now, everything is A-Okay. As you read this, Jim and Mary are likely out there somewhere in America, motoring to yet another UFO gathering -- to sell their mugs, to sell their tee-shirts, to sell whatever the UFO crowd wants to buy -- at the top of the heap in the world of UFO merchandising.
©1998 by Out West Newspaper
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