Why were two dinosaurs romping around NoDa?
In case you missed it, Valentine’s Day 2018 saw two dinosaurs romping around the NoDa neighborhood. Specifically, two T-Rexes.
They were spotted at one point facing each other on the front porch of Haberdish on North Davidson Street in what looked like a dino fight. Haberdish posted the image on Instagram and wrote, “Only in NoDa.”
But, why?
And, who were they?
Leigh Claiborne, hairstylist and owner at Leigh Claiborne Hair, and her friend Melissa Waring donned the costumes in celebration of Anti-Valentine’s Day. Their friend Michele Ruge acted as paparazzi for the evening.
“They’re my squad,” Claiborne wrote in an email.
Waring already owned the dino suits from Amazon and the women already had plans to grab drinks that Wednesday. Claiborne simply added the twist of suggesting they wear the costumes. Which, she said, she had been dying to wear.
“Valentine’s is hard,” Claiborne said. “If you’re coupled, there is so much pressure, and if you’re single, you have all this lovey-dovey mush in your face. Just think of us as prehistoric cupids running around spreading the love.”
So if it looked like they were savagely fighting in that photo at Haberdish, they were really just caught in the middle of a love tap. More specifically, Claiborne said, a tiny-armed high-five.
The women/dinosaurs found that most people loved the antics, since they got a ton of high-fives and smiles, but one couple they encountered was unamused. And an angsty dog got upset.
#dinodate #happydinotinesday #clt #noda
A post shared by Michele Ruge (@stargazer097) on Feb 14, 2018 at 7:52pm PST
“Best part to me was entertaining the firemen at Old #7,” Claiborne said. “We saw the truck coming home and decided to welcome them! I think they got a real kick out of it.”
The dino women waddled along North Davidson Street, shot some pool at Sanctuary Pub and stopped at Haberdish. But the dinosaur romp was short-lived.
“After the suits got so hot we de-Rexed and met the rest of the gang for dinner and drinks,” she said.
Overall though, she said, “It was really fun to put smiles on people’s faces.”
Photo: Leigh Claiborne
This story was originally published February 18, 2018 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Why were two dinosaurs romping around NoDa?."