We were talking to mom this morning about pet month on AT and she reminded us of her favorite pet of ours growing up. Since she was the one who ended up walking the dogs, cleaning the hamster cage and changing the water in the fish bowl, her recollection of our Pet Rock was that it was nice and quiet, and didn't shed or scratch the sofa...
The Pet Rock was a fad for a little over 6 months in the mid 1970's. They came packaged inside a cardboard box designed like a pet carrier (complete with air holes!). The training manual contained instructions on how to properly care for your pet rock, including how to house-train a pet rock by placing it on a piece of newspaper and other commands including sit, stay, roll over, and play dead.
Like many of our friends the year they were popular, we got our pet rock for a Christmas present. As responsible young pet rock owners, we named ours ("Rocky") and took good moderately care of it. A bunch of friends had them as well and we would sort of have rock band parties for them and make hats for them. Are we dating ourselves here — did anyone else have a pet rock?
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possibly the smartest marketing ploy the world has ever seen. it's like bottled water, or canned air!
for every product, there's a consumer.
view indiasoup's profile
I don't actually remember this fad as it originally occurred, but as someone who attended public school in the 1970s, pet rocks became something of a craft you design in art class. Googly eyes and felt ears, etc., I somewhat vividly (ok, I guess the word is 'vaguely') recall making at least one white dog with green floppy ears. A recent trip at my parents' house where I needed to borrow some tools had me down in the basement trying to find anything in my dad's clutter, and seeing on his shelf a rock, with googly eyes, and felt glued to it, and thinking I must have made that for him. It really wasn't until much later that I understood the pet rock was just a rock and didn't come with a face and some sort of ascribed personality (like a Cabbage Patch kid, which reminds me, I never sent in the certificates to get mine her birthday cards - FADS!).
view K T G's profile
We had the Furby. Along with many legends of demonic furbies that would talk of violent things in the middle of the night. 0.o
Much better than pet rocks was just finding really pretty rocks. We have quarts around here. ^_^
view Avinony's profile
*quartz
view Avinony's profile
I read about it and never understood what my Mom was talking about. It always seemed silly to me.
view Snugglitas's profile