Dino Dig

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I have a few very distinct memories from my early childhood and in some way they have all shaped part of who I am today and my beliefs about how I function in the world.  There is one memory in particular that really made me feel like I was important and in many ways was bound for glory.

The year was 1988 or 1989 and I was 4 years old.  I was in preschool at the time and I was busy learning the fine art of flirting with a young man named Sean.  Our romance was epic in the preschool and we even played Mary and Joseph in the Christmas play.  I will always think of him as"the one that got away."

However, this story has nothing to do with Sean. Instead it is about one of the most momentous moments of my entire life.  The moment came on a crisp fall day in Southern California and I woke up with the anticipation and excitement usually saved for a day at Disneyland.  Although we were not going to Disneyland my class was going to go on an adventure, a Dinosaur Bone Excavation, or Dino Dig to the preschooler.

I woke up ready to work in my best excavation outfit I could find, I think it was jeans and a red top and I headed to school with my blue and yellow plastic beach shovel.

My teacher lead the class to the playground at the school and explained to us that the school had just found a dinosaur bone that week and the Smithsonian Museum asked them to keep looking for more bones to complete the skeleton of a Brontosaurus.  Challenge accepted.  We ran around the playground digging to our heart's content.

I noticed that no one was digging near the swing set and I knew that was my place.  I sat down right under a swing and sank my shovel into the sand.  I do not know how long I spend digging there because all concept of time was lost when my shovel hit something hard.  I looked down into my hole and saw the top of a bone.  I feverishly continued to dig until the bone was free.  In triumph I held it up in the air and yelled for my teacher to come see my discover and tell me if it was a valuable find.

My teacher ran over in excited joy.  She examined the bone and quickly pronounced it to be the missing bone from the rib cage of the Brontosaurus in the Smithsonian.  They were going to send the bone to Washington DC that afternoon with a note telling the curators that a 4 year old from Southern California found the missing bone that archeologists had been looking for for years.

I was so proud of myself and secretly kept this great moment in my heart as I grew up.  I didn't brag about my great discovery to my peers, it wouldn't have been fair.  I did not want them to feel like they were losers because they did not find a bone that ended up being the greatest discover of 1988.

When I was in 8th grade and then again in 12th grade I went to the Smithsonian and both times I looked at the rib cage of the Brontosaurus and wondered which one was the one I found at least 10 years before.  I also remember thinking that bones looked much bigger now that they were with the skeleton and that they should have a list of archeologists and the bones they found next to the exhibit so I could show my greatness to others.

Time continued on and I went to college and became great friends with a girl named Laura.  Laura and I actually ended up going to the same preschool and talked about all the fun we had there.  We figured out that we were in different classes, but thought it was cool that we were at the same school.

[caption id="attachment_986" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Last month at Laura's bridal shower.[/caption]

The night we discovered our shared schooling Laura asked me if I remembered the Dino Dig.  Did I remember the Dino Dig?  It was only the single most important event in my early childhood that led me to believe that I was special in this world and that I would one day be a household name for whatever I decided to do in the future.

I told Laura that I was the kid who found the rib cage bone for the Brontosaurus and that it was in the Smithsonian Institute even as we spoke.  Laura just looked at me.  I thought it was out of wonder, maybe there was a soft light behind me making it look like I was glowing?

She then started to laugh uncontrollably.  I asked her what was so funny and she explained that the teacher went to the grocery store that morning and asked for bones from the butchers.  Our teachers then buried the bones in the playground and told us to dig for them, like an Easter Egg hunt.

I still did not believe her and said, maybe, but my discovery was authentic, my teacher told me so.  Laura said her teacher told her class the same thing and my belief system unraveled.  I asked my mom if it was true and she confirmed what Laura said.   I started to laugh at myself and the belief that I held so dear to my heart.  At 20 my paradigm of the world and my significance in it was changed forever and now my family and friends have a funny story to tell about the time 20 year old Erica still thought the Dino Dig in preschool was for real.

Perhaps I did not make the greatest natural science find in 1988, but I did make a lot of people laugh about my misconceptions that a Brontosaurus bone was found by a 4 year old under a swing set at a Southern California school.