Dinosaurland Fossil Museum, Coombe Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7 3PY
(01297)443541
steve@dinosaurland.co.uk
A young lad was asked if he would like a fossil. “No thanks,” he replied “I’ve got grandad.”
A young lad looked in horror at a photo of our hominid skulls and wanted to know, “have they been eaten?”
A lady looked at her feet in disgust after she tripped on the step and muttered “I’ve obviously not evolved as much as I thought”.
From a slightly confused young lad “look -
A young palaeontologist told us he had been studying dinosaurs all his life. When asked how old he was he reported he was 8 years old,
Four year old boy looking at the fossils said “Mum, can I get an ancient toy?”
Lady to Jenny: “are you Lisa who found all the ammonites?” (I think she mistook Lias).
On a fossil hunting walk I was explaining what the beach was like “when I was a young lad....” We walked a bit further before one member of the party started talking about “when I was a young lad....” He was 7 years old.
A boy was ordered to keep hold of his dads hand in case people thought he was a fossil.
The boy looked horrified and said “I can’t do that -
A 5 year old came out of the museum to tell me this was the best museum he had ever been to. Then he added it was the first museum he had ever been to!
A toddler spotted my prize dinosaur egg. “Wow,” he said. “Look at that boiled egg!”
A very young lad walked into the shop with a beam on his face and announced that he was coming on the fossil hunt. As he came into the shop he caught sight of the fossils for sale and his face dropped. “Oh no,” he groaned, “Look at all those fossils. There can’t possible be any left on the beach for us to find.”
“Keep moving in here or they might put a price sticker on you!”
Woman looking at a fossil fish: “Look at that ugly old fish.” Husband responding quick as a flash: “That’s not a fish, it’s a mirror!”
Young boy looking at the same fish: “I wonder where they got that kipper from.”
I was telling a young boy that I came from Chesterfield (which he mistook for Chester). “Oh yes, we’ve just been doing about Chester in history,” he said. Then he looked suspiciously at me and said, “were the Romans still there when you were there?”
Woman looking suspiciously at coprolite (fossil dung) for sale, “It must be real, it has a fly on it!”
A lady was asked by her children what an arthropod was. After some thought, she told them it was a creature with segmented feet. After more thought she added that cats and dogs have segmented feet.
Jenny, who is Scottish, recorded the message on our answerphone. A message was left by a charming gentleman saying “I **** couldn’t ***** understand a **** word you **** said!”.
In May 2010, a woman leading a group of people marched into our courtyard and started lecturing about our building. When I went outside to find out what they were doing, I was told they were from ‘the museum’ (whichever museum that might be) as though this was justification for not having the courtesy to seek permission first.
One woman spent ages in the museum and then complained about a missing apostrophe.
A man came in to ask if we did any dowsing.
A man took his family round the museum and at the end of the visit gathered his children around him and announced, “have you ever seen such wonderful evidence for Noah’s flood as the fossils in there?”
A lady with a thick Devon accent called to say that her husband regularly shot rabbits and would I like to buy them.
A lady with a Welsh accent called to complain that I had not been open when she came to visit. It turned out she had gone to Tenby in Wales rather than Lyme Regis in England.
A woman called to book spaces on a fossil hunt. She called again to say she was on her way. She called again to say she was stuck in traffic. She called again to say she was in the car park, it had started raining and she was going home.
An old lady came up to the counter and asked if I had any grandchildren. (The museum must have aged me beyond my years.)