A dinosaur once walked through Glen Rose, Texas, though I'm sure it wasn't called Glen Rose or Texas at the time. We know this happened because there are footprints in the hardened mud to betray the great reptile's ancient perambulatory activities. During the gap in time between the cataclysm that killed all the dinosaurs that didn't live in Loch Ness and the time when scientists found and put together the evidence of dinosaurs, except the ones in Loch Ness, I wonder what the primitive people of what would eventually come to be called Glen Rose, Texas thought about these huge footprints in the rock. I wonder what sort of monsters they imagined. Had they ever seen dinosaur skeletons embedded in the rocks? What a mystery this must have been for them.
Many years later, I am in the fifth grade and my Royal Ranger troop is on a camping trip to Dinosaur Valley National Park in Glen Rose, Texas. We stare up at the huge statue of the allosaurus and the brontosaurus that mill around outside the visitor center. Then we hike down trough the low, scrubby evergreens and mesquite trees to the river, where a guide takes us to see the footprints. The ones I would remember later look like the footprints of a giant, three-toed bird. They look like chicken prints. I become convinced that it was not a dinosaur at all, but a giant chicken that walked through here so many years before. I bet the primitive people knew this too. It's quite obvious when you're standing there.
Sometimes things are not as they seem. Sometimes you're the only one who knows the truth. Sometimes you tell others, but they don't believe you. Sometimes you keep it to yourself. I learned this a long time ago, in Giant Chicken Valley in Glen Rose, Texas.
Hello, friends. How are you today? Talk to me.
Later. Love.
P.S. - I posted a short piece on my cogito writing site. It's called Whimsy. Don't let the title fool you, it's a little sad. Check it out, or not, with this in mind. Thanks for stopping by.
