HORACE SOPHOLOPOLOUS

Horace was a Sopholopolous, a type of dinosaurosus who lived before there was you and me. Horace the lived on land and in the sea. That would make him a sort of amphibious, sort of like a giant frog, would you believe. He was a rather odd but an interesting sort of creature, this Sopholopolous, a kind of dinosaurosus.
What? You’ve never heard of Sopholopolous? I said, I told you, a Sopholopolous is a type of dinosaurosus that lived a long, long time before us near the sea, back when there were dragons and the Earth was new.
I’ve heard that of Sopholopolous there were quite a few that lived among the dunes and marshes near the sea.
They slept in caves or under larches back in the days of yore when there were Sopholopolous and other dinosaurs and dragons living by the sea
but the giant Sopholopolous isn’t anymore. He’s extinct, I think, like all the other dinosaurs, or at least most of them. There are some folks that think dinosaurs still exist and live right here on Earth. I‘m not too sure about that, but maybe, though I‘ve never seen one. I‘ve never seen a Sopholopolous, have you?
Now Horace the Sopholopolous lived down on the bog, a marshy area at the mouth of the river that runs into the sea somewhere near the coast of Oregon. It was a very good place for a Sopholopolous to live.
I guess I might describe him as half duck and half frog. He was very odd. I would say the size of him was that of a giant redwood log. He was very big but not as big as some of the other dinosaurs. Horace liked to play by the sea and when he got hungry he’d find something to eat.
Horace sometimes dined on dragon flies and little lizard saltopus but since the dragon flies and saltopus put up a fuss, he didn’t eat them very often. That was a good thing, at least for dragon flies and the saltopus.
The Sopholopolous ate mostly salad greens; seaweed from the sea and salt grass from the dunes. Horace liked to eat his lunch precisely at noon and then he would take a little nap. When he woke up again he would usually go for a swim.
Horace Sopholopolous, that great big dinosaurosus, liked to spend his days swimming out into the sea and then riding back in on the waves, sort of like we do when we are playing in the ocean on those sunny days when we are at the beach.
We don’t have to worry about or be afraid of the birds we see when we are at the beach. They won’t hurt us. Oh they may sometimes snitch some of our lunch but they won’t hurt people. However, it was different back in the days of dinosaurs.
Horace had to keep an eye out for the giant albatross who might dine on Sopholopolous if he didn’t get away…and that’s nearly what happened
to Horace Sopholopolous one day.
Horace was out there swimming, just bobbing, bouncing, grinning and having lots of fun when a shadow large as clouds darkened the surf.
Horace saw him just in time and quickly dove deep beneath the ocean waves to escape the albatross, a giant of a bird who likes to dine on the Sopholopolous, those tasty dinosaurosus; at least this is the story that I heard.
Anyhow, Horace escaped and lived to be very, very old. What exactly happened to the Sopholopolous I’m not sure but I’m pretty certain there aren’t any of them around anymore. They are extinct, I think.
Now perhaps you don’t believe me, about the Sopholopolous, that ancient dinosaurosus and all that other stuff, but there really once were dinosaurs, dinosaurs here by the score…And do you really think, do
you think I’d make this up?

Annette Bromley
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