circular object with lights around perimeter hovering over witness 500 Lights On Object0: Yes

My Friend was riding me home on her bicycle at night when I was approximately 10 years old.  When we arrived at my home , but still were in the street, I looked up and saw a round UFO with lights circling the perimeter of it, I seem to think they were colored lights.I would consider it to be a crude UFO more like a Lost in Space variety.  It was hovering above us, Actually very close. I would say about only 4 stories above us. It made no noise. I looked for a minute  until it hit me that it was a UFO and with that, I jumped off my friend's bicycle , ran to my front door , and started pounding on the door screaming for my parents to come out . No one else saw it. The next day my father told me he read in the paper that a weather balloon was out on Long Island , and that is what I must have seen. I believed he was lying to me, and still know that it was a UFO, Government or otherwise.  I also feel that if I did not look up and see it , some possible harm may h! ave come to us.
Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate.  PD