This is an interesting tale from the days of yonder, that's for sure.



Let me take you back about 15 years; to when I was but a wee little lad who was still in Elementary School. It was Fall of 1998, Saturday morning, and my friend and I were trying to get some of that "last-minute outdoors time" in. The day began with trying to bounce pennies off of a trampoline. The goal was to jump enough so that it would fly off without touching it; it was fun at the time, don't judge me! So yeah, we were playing this incredibly well-crafted gem of a game, when my COOL TOTALLY RADICAL teenage brother walked out. He told us that he'd be having some friends over today and that I shouldn't act stupid. I, of course, obliged. My friend responded by taking off his shirt and throwing it in my mom's garden. Classy, I know.


"I looked up 'trampoline' and got immediately hyped."

So, the day progresses, and my friend (who will be referred to as Jimmy for the rest of this article) and I continue with some delightful outdoor journeys. My brother's friends came over at about 2 in the afternoon, and we, as told, stayed out of his way. Jimmy and I continued playing outside, trying a lot of games involving the large hose outside (which was so cold we used it as a version of Samus' ice beam), and trying to shoot each other with it. Good times right there. However, the day got interesting at about 5 PM, as that's where we were met with an unfamiliar figure. This "unfamiliar figure" was none other than...

THE DINOSAUR KID.

The Dinosaur Kid, also commonly known by the name of Kyle, was just some random dude. I remember my sister saying that he may have been in one of her freshman high school classes, but other than that, there was no previous encounters with The Dinosaur Kid before that day, and there hasn't been one since. So, what happened was that Jimmy and I were on the patio, and we saw him in the backyard, which was pretty large (1.5+ acres, I don't remember for sure though), just sitting next to a tree. He had tan shorts and a white t-shirt on. I figured it was one of my brother's friends, so I ran inside with Jimmy and told him.

"Hey Danny, is that one of your friends out there?"

Danny and his friends Matt and Nick ran over to the window and saw him; still sitting next to that tree. My brother grabbed some binoculars and took a look. From what we saw, he looked about 15, he had glasses with him, and he was still sitting next to the tree.


"You ever see this movie, 'cuz let me tell yah; I haven't."

During our peepin' session, he stared straight at us, frightening us pretty badly. We decided that we should go out there and talk to him instead of this creeper thing we had going, so we walked across the yard in our giant pack. Jimmy still had no t-shirt on, and Matt and Nick grabbed a bunch of dead apples from our neighbor's yard for ammunition to toss at The Dinosaur Kid. We slowly inched closer as he began to make eye contact. We tried communication with hand motions first. Nick waved at him, and The Dinosaur Kid did nothing else but continuously stare at us. "Alright, let's try words now, OK?", Danny asked Nick. Nick nodded, and he threw out some interrogatives or whatever.

"Hey, what're you doing over here?"
~Nothing was said~
"Could you like, not sit here?"
~Nothing was said~
"What's your name?"
~Nothing was said~

After that, we all decided to just get me and Danny's dad. We walked away, and to our surprise, The Dinosaur Kid stood up and inched towards us. We all gave each other a collective nod, and ran out of there screaming. The Dinosaur Kid let out a boisterous roar, akin to a T-Rex (hence the nickname), and chased us down the yard. Nick and Matt threw apples backward as they ran, missing with every toss, and Jimmy ran to the front of the house.


"Artist's rendition of The Dinosaur Kid".

Nick and Matt busted through the patio door to get Dad, and my brother went into the house as well. I stopped for a second near the patio whilst running (I was REALLY out of shape as a kid), and as I stopped to catch my breath, I felt two hands grab my shoulders. I turned and saw The Dinosaur Kid laughing like he'd just sucked up some of the Joker's laughing gas. As I stood in horror, I heard the patio door open, and I saw my father...standing in nothing but his underwear. He yelled "HEY!" at the kid and The Dinosaur Kid made a break for it, running into the woods in the back of our yard. My dad told me to take a shower immediately, Jimmy went home to finish his homework, and I only now just realized how weird of an event this was in my life.

Man, teenagers were weird in the 90's.