Bigfoot stomps into the new age

The "Patterson Bigfoot," the infamous video from 1967 that started it all. The video was later "inconclusively" proven to have been faked.

Last month’s newest “Bigfoot” video has people talking about the mythical monstrosity all over again.

Thomas Byers of North Carolina claimed to have captured the legendary creature, also known as “Sasquatch” and the “Yeti,” on video a few weeks ago, crossing a desolate highway. Once it hit the web, the video was examined and scrutinized on news programs, talk shows, and discussion panels, and the debate on the existence of Bigfoot has reared its ugly head once again.

The creature was etched into the pop culture consciousness in the 1960s and 1970s, along with the Loch Ness Monster. Some of the creepiest documentary reenactments and “In Search Of…” episodes were devoted to the mysterious legend. As movies and shows about Bigfoot began popping up all over, the issue of whether he was real became almost moot. People loved to BELIEVE he was real, so he could scare them out of their wits at night.

Thanks to my friend Dave O’Brien, I FINALLY saw 1972’s “The Legend of Boggy Creek” a couple of weeks ago. The “dramatized documentary” about Bigfoot was ahead of its time and actually made me jump a couple of times (check out the bathroom scene).

I also remember seeing a documentary on the subject when I was little, and it scared the yeti out of me. The scene that sticks out in my mind is of an elderly mountain woman who lived alone and looked out of her kitchen window to see a hideous-faced Bigfoot staring back at her. For the life of me, I cannot find a movie or show with that scene ANYWHERE. (Can anyone help?)

Just like Robert DeNiro and Cher, it seems that every time the mania has died down, something thrusts the celebrity back into the spotlight again.

It looks as if Bigfoot will be with us until the last acre of forest has been destroyed by man and there is nowhere left for him to hide.

So was Bigfoot a fad of the 60s and 70s, or is he real? Is it possible for a living creature to have hidden from man this long?