Sinclair Dino!!!!
My grandfather was a geologist for Sinclair Oil from the 1920s-1960s. One of my favorite things as a five year old little kid was a life size inflatable green Sinclair Brontosaurus that my grandfather gave me. I absolutely adored it - and who wouldn’t???? Today, Mom and I were trying to figure out what happened to it. I can’t remember, but Mom remembered that whatever happened, I was very upset.
Now I do remember a tragedy involving another inflatable animal: of all things, I had an inflatable basset hound that I brought everywhere. One day, we were pulling our bright red Howard airplane out of a hanger at Strother Field in Winfield, Ks. I was five years old and of course had my inflatable basset hound with me. Unfortunately, I set down my inflatable basset hound right in path of the Howard. Dad pulled the Howard right over my basset hound. I heard a big “boop” and then saw a very deflated basset hound. Needless to say I cried and cried and cried. I still sniff a little bit over that one. I mean, it was an inflatable basset hound! Beyond fantastic!
Anyhoo, for my birthday this year (#51), Mom gave me a little box with a tag that read “a gift from the past”. I opened it up and there was a desktop sized inflatable Sinclair Dinosaur!!!!!!!! Oh Boy!!!!!!! I was so excited! Mom picked up it on ebay - which is doubly exciting since this only the second time Mom has ever done the ebay thing. She had thought about a full sized Dino. But those had been used and there was no guarantee of good condition. Plus, there is no telling what Echo would do to a life sized inflatable brontosaurus! I’m very happy with my little green dino!
Dino checking out my desk:
Hello. I am 
What a great mom you have!
Cool blast form the past. I think I had one of those.
Youve got a great mom, I hope you still have Dino,
I have been looking for one since I told my wife we were going to the beach when we got married in 1989 and she told me about how her Dad wouldnt buy her one back in 1965, So every time we go to Fla I keep looking for one to shut her up.
stumbled over this site when I was researching Dino on Google. I loved your story about your Mom buying you one, but your inflatable Bassett hound almost made me cry! You must have been crushed!
I have an inflatable Dino (well, he’s been deflated and in a bag for years ) from the N.Y. World’s Fair….my Dad got it for me. I remember the big deal in NY when the BIG Dino was making it’s way by truck to the fair…I just fell in love with it and my Dad HAD to get me a little one…
Now I am going to put it on Ebay….I am a whole lot older now, and don’t have a large enough place to keep all this stuff anymore…
Remember , when you have kids of your own, just how big of a deal toys can be to you. And take good care of your Mom, she’s a winner !
Carrie
I wanted to thank-you for the great story on the Dino from sinclair. back in the 1980’s me and my college friends went to the local sinclair station to buy 3 of them (1 each). The station attendant thought we were nuts since nobody had been buying them for years.
We loved them and had them hanging in our dorm rooms and they were greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the memories,
Bob