Do you remember the Pet Rock craze of the 1970s? Some guy
in California conceived the idea to manufacture a small replica of a pet
carrier, placed some straw and a little rock inside it, included a “pet care
manual” and sold it to millions of gullible souls like myself for $3.95. The
craze lasted less than a year but it garnered millions from the lemmings who
just had to have one!
I thought the manual that came with the rock was the best
part of the gimmick with its faux serious instructions on the care and training
of your “pet.” I remember teaching my pet rock to sit and stay, but he never
quite got the hang of the “roll over” command, I always had to help him.
I also remember my mother giving me one of “those looks”
when I came home with the Pet Rock box one afternoon. Her look of disbelief grew when I started
reading the manual to her, and when I took the Pet Rock out of its box and
placed it on the coffee table so it could be entertained watching television
with us, as the owner’s manual suggested.
A few days later I returned home one afternoon and noticed
a tiny pebble on the middle of the coffee table where I usually placed my Pet
Rock. I thought at first it was something that
must have fallen there by accident, carried in on an article of clothing
perhaps. But as I went to pick it up to toss it away, I saw that it had a
little smiling face! I carried it into
the other room where my mother was and asked her, “What’s this?”
“That’s my new Pet Pebble,” she answered. “It’s a stray I
found on the lawn, it needs a good home.”
This statement was made with a totally straight face.
I put the pebble back on the coffee table where it remained
for quite a while. My mother and I had some really humorous exchanges about
that pebble, she insisted it was more intelligent than my Pet Rock because it
had “evolved” with a face and had managed to survive in the wild before she
found it.
When my Mom passed away some years later, I found the
little pebble in the drawer of her coffee table. I don’t know what ever
happened to my Pet Rock, and it really doesn’t matter to me. But I’m glad I
still have this little pebble and the wonderful memories it evokes. And in a
way it has been pretty valuable to me in a monetary sense also—I’ve saved a lot
of money laughing at silly fads since this Pet Pebble appeared in my life.
Stretch thinks we should give the Pet Pebble a place of honor among
his other valued collectibles.
