UFO Sighting in Willowick, Ohio on July 15th 1974 – Disc-shaped UFO observed hovering over suburban street intersection

This is my UFO close encounter that happened in the summer of 1974 in the city of Willowick, Ohio which is an eastern suburb of Cleveland located in Lake County(we were right on the Lake Erie shoreline).It was approximately 10:30PM(ET) in the evening when this incident occured. Myself and my three friends were walking down the street(E.324th st.) going north towards Lake Erie heading to the beach at the end of the street where we would often hang out(we were all 17 years old and in between 11th and 12th grade at High School). My house was at the end of the street on the corner. When we were about halfway down the road(Parkland crossroads-about 300 yards from the lake)we noticed some strange lights at the end of the street just above the intersection of Lakeshore Blvd.and E.324th st. We continued walking towards the lights and as we got closer we could see that it was a disc-shaped craft with white round lights going around the middle. It was hovering silently in the same spot at treetop level over the intersection. We continued to walk towards it until we were standing directly underneath the object which was still hovering right above us(it was black in appearance and somewhat larger in diameter than the intersection).We all looked up at it in amazement wondering what it was and why it was there. We stood under the craft observing it for about 10 minutes; then it started slowly drifting horizontally north towards the lake. We followed it across the street to the cliff and down the steps to the beach until we were right under it again. It continued to drift at the same level until it was just over the water when it stopped and suddenly shot straight up vertically into the night sky (no sound) till it was at cloud level in about 2-3 seconds. It then stopped and the lights changed from a circular pattern to a triangle pattern(3 white lights). It then took off at a high rate of speed north towards Canada till it was out of sight(there was only like a one second pause in between the two directional changes). After it left we were feeling totally confused and could hardly believe what we had just witnessed. We talked about it for awhile trying to understand what we had just seen, and then we eventually made our separate ways home, still in a state of shock. We told some people about it the next day but no one believed us. We went on with our lives after awhile but the encounter was always in the back of my mind over the years. I wished I would have asked some of the neighbors in the area if they had seen it and I wished I would have had a camera. I don't have photos but the images of the sighting were recorded vividly in my mind(memory). Some things that I thought were odd about the incident: 1)No traffic(vehicles)came through the intersection or down the road the whole time of the encounter(about 30 min.) 2)The craft waited till it got over the water to take off(when we weren't under it). 3)The craft transformed from a circular light pattern to a triangle pattern when it got up high in the sky. 4)When I was first standing under the UFO I suddenly got this feeling that a blue light was going to come out of the craft and beam us up to it.I had a momentary feeling of fear about that, but most of the encounter was exciting and fascinating(could the occupants possibly have had a device like that?). Sorry it took so long to report this sighting but we didn't have the internet and camera cellphones back then, and we didn't know about MUFON or NUFORC. I thought for a long time that it was to late to report it but I recently saw a TV show about people who have had similar experiences that didn't report it for 30 years or so but when they got older they needed to get their story out to the world.It gave me hope that my story might be taken seriously. I'm hoping that someone that lived in that area at the time and saw it might read this and come forward also to report it(or try to contact me)so my story could be verifyed. This happened in a dense suburb so I know someone else had to have seen it.