Tale Of A Tail

My favorite part of Miss Brown's A.M. Kindergarten class was Show & Tell. Even better than that project where you cover a piece of paper with colored crayons and then black crayon and scratch out a colorful design. Absent-minded as I was, I could always remember to bring in my Show & Tell paraphernalia.

I remember sitting on the floor of the classroom in the sun. My little classmates all crowded around in anticipation of what wonders they would be shown. I could hardly wait for my turn.

There was no problem choosing what to bring in. I always brought the same thing: my plastic dinosaurs. Ok, once I brought my plastic astronaut. But all the other times, it was multi-colored sauropods and therapods, all the way.

I opened my paper bag and removed the first dinosaur. This was a grey Allosaurus, a favorite of mine. This one had been through many imaginary battles and sunk its teeth into just about all of my other dinosaurs, especially the pterosaur whose wing had melted on the light bulb, making it look injured.

I went through the small plastic creatures one by one, naming each and telling a little about how they lived. Miss Brown seemed impressed that I knew all of the long complicated names.

At last I came to the final dinosaur, a thin yellow biped.

"....and this is "Ornithomimus"

"Wow. How did you know that?!?!", Miss Brown asked

"It's written on his tail, right here..."

I guess it is typical of little boys (and little girls too) to love dinosaurs. Like the cosmos, they have always filled me with wonder. Even today, I have an actual chunk of petrified Allosaurus bone sitting on my desk at home. I look at it often and try to imagine it alive some 150 million years ago, top of the food chain, walking around the humid late Jurassic looking for stegosaurs to bite into.

I also wonder how they know it was from an Allosaurus.

Oh, I know...It was probably labeled on the tail.