The Origins of a Dinobsession

Dinovember might change your life.

The newspaper-thin, almost translucent, paper crinkled between my fingers. The few pages full of seemingly endless possibilities of information and excitement. Four times a year, the day that our teachers passed out the flimsy catalogue and order form for Scholastic books remain some of the brightest school moments in my memory. In these pre-internet days, searching for books in the library could be a grueling and time-restricted task. How many books were out there? What books was I missing by choosing the four that I held in my hands? How many times could I read them before their due date?

Although money wasn't abundant, my mother, a teacher, was always supportive of my overzealous book ordering. I began building the collection that dominates my current home very early. By 3rd or 4th grade, I gravitated toward science topics, and started obsessively collecting trading cards. Coinciding with the baseball rush of the late 80's and early 90's, Scholastic advertised cat and dinosaur trading cards (which I never once traded, but kept in a binder or plastic sleeves intended for card-collecting so that I could admire them often.)

When I think about it now, I wonder what it was about dinosaurs that intrigued me then. I don't think I had any dinosaur toys and I don't remember my siblings being interested either.  I certainly didn't understand how long ago 65 million years was, or how an Asteroid could wipe out an entire ecosystem. I just loved them. A lot of kids do. My niece and nephew always squeal with excitement when I gift them dino-themed birthday and Christmas presents.  They don't love them with the complexity and awe that nerdy adults might, but they love them because they've never seen one, because they were huge (and probably because they think they all RAWWWRRed and stomped the hell out of things).  Happy to once again witness that children are filled with with magic and adventure few real, actual things can give them, I found this beautiful story of some creative parents who strive to bring dinosaurs to life in their own home. If nothing makes you desire parenthood, this post might change that.