Fear of Dinosaurs

So, I have a friend whose young son developed a fear of dinosaurs.  Most children love them, but not 4-year old Jackson as evidenced by his nightmares. So she told him, don’t worry they lived a long, long time ago way before humans were ever on the planet.  You'll never see a dinosaur walking down the street or in the supermarket.  Jackson thought for a bit and asked, how do we know what they look like then? A good question, because scientists are smart, Jackson.  Jackson then developed a fear of crocodiles.  Don’t worry, my friend said, you won't see a crocodile on our street, in the neighborhood or in the supermarket.

True for a suburb of New York.  Just don’t go to Florida.  My father lived on a golf course.  He was playing a round of golf and he kicked a rock out of the way.  It didn’t move, so he kicked it again.  Still didn’t move so this time he gave it a harder kick.  Again this rock was not budging.  He looked down to discover he’d been kicking an alligator.

Suddenly I remembered an incident that happened to a friend.  He lived in a very nice doorman apartment on the Upper West Side.  He had a long day at work and came home. His kitchen was off to the side of his door, he was hungry so he went in and started to prepare dinner.  He went into his living room turned on the light and there right in the center of the floor was a snake. A large snake. He backed out of the room trying not to spook the snake, ran out of the door and out of the building.  He called 911 and the Department of Animal Care and Control arrived to capture the snake.  Probably someone’s pet snake had escaped. 

My friend cleaned his apartment and that was that.  Me, I’d have to move.  I certainly would not be able to stay there that night or any night.

65.5 million years ago dinosaurs went extinct.  An asteroid hit the earth causing an ice age.  Fear of a dinosaur is a little unfounded.  Another asteroid?  That could happen.  And fear of snakes, well, that is quite common.  Just ask Indiana Jones.