I often run across funny stories in the news that catch my attention. Sometimes, it’s about a topic of interest, like libraries or space food or mushroom leather, for instance. And sometimes it’s about a dinosaur named Claire.
I was only two when my mother’s father died, so I never got a chance to know him. Now, I’m very much a green economy “let’s figure out how to live without needing several more planets” kind of person, but my grandfather’s work involved resource exploration for Sinclair Oil.
He was also by all accounts a wonderful person.
The fact that he was gone only made me more interested in what little I did know about him, including the fact that he worked for a company whose mascot was a friendly green dinosaur.* To a kid, that’s pretty cool, and I always kept my eye out for Sinclair stations when we traveled.
Sinclair’s advertising writers first had the idea to use dinosaurs in Sinclair marketing back in 1930. They were promoting lubricants refined from crude oil believed to have formed when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
This all came to mind because recently, someone in California stole the mascot from a Sinclair station in Brentwood. The stations often have a large (but not life sized, let’s not get crazy) representation of their dinosaur near the pumps. Very cool. So cool, in fact, that someone decided they wanted to take it home.
The dinosaur’s name, it turns out, is Claire.
Stolen California gas station dinosaur returned with apology note
The 4-foot-tall prehistoric mascot was stolen last week from a Sinclair gas station on San Vicente Boulevard in the Brentwood neighborhood. Video showed the person using power tools to remove Claire, loading her into the bed of a pickup truck that pulled up alongside the fuel pumps and driving away.
The good news is that a hue and cry was raised, and the thief, who must have at least one decent bone in their body, returned Claire to her rightful home.
More than once, I’ve wondered what my grandfather would think about the green energy transition and the push to move away from fossil fuels. While I don’t know what he would have said, it would have been a fascinating conversation.
He was a kind, thoughtful man who wanted only good things for his family and the future. I like to think that he would be happy to see humanity finding new ways to innovate, expand, and explore.
And I’m sure Claire and her family of Apatosauruses would approve.
* Although there’s a certain irony to making your company symbol a happy representation of the creature whose liquified remains power your product, but that’s a topic for another time!
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J.R. Johnson 
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