Originally published at: The Pet Rock really was a fad and people did buy them | Boing Boing
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My brother bought one when we were kids. I remember the “instructions for care” were a lot like what you might see on best-of-craigslist nowadays: mildly funny creative writing. That and the cheap cost of manufacturing (make the boxes, put in one rock in each) were probably the key to its success.
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i had one. no idea what happened – it must’ve gotten lost at some point. imagine how big it’d be if i had kept it! we’d have a nice boulder roaming the front yard.
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I actually owned one along with green slime. My rock was named Christopher and the slime Mertle. I was a lonely kid in high school then. Probably explains why.
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One of my relatives bought one for my Grandma and I remember taking it for walks. My cousin made me one of my own 
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Think of it as a pre-battery tamagotchi (“stone watch, rather than ‘egg watch’”).
[shrug] probably banks on genetic human directive to nurture something small
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It was, they did, but I got mine for free by the river. Just as nice a pet as theirs and a lot less expensive. Forgot to feed it, though, had to toss it back.
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You monster. This is why we have so many abandoned rocks clogging up our creeks.
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Help end the rock overpopulation problem. Have your rock spayed or neutered.
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But think of all the irresponsible pet owners who didn’t put enough time into behavioral training!
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Proto-FOMO
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And then a couple of years later came the Chia-Pet. Which is at least alive (well, the plant part anyway)
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Had one, it died.
In the late 90s the Pet Rock of that era was the Tamagotchi. I remember me and my 11 year old daughter were driving in the work van when a radio station said the xx caller (can’t remember the number) wins a Tamagotchi. Dad you gotta call. Sure enough we hit the lottery but I had to drive 40 miles to the radio station to pick it up. She got to see a real live major market (Detroit) radio station and DJ.
She’s 36, her Christmas present this year if the Star Wars R2-D2 Tamagotchi coming out in November.
Her and her husband are Comic Con Marvel Star Wars Disney nut jobs. Gift shopping is easy.
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I still have an easier time understanding why people would pay good money for a pet rock in the 70s than why people are willing to pay good money for NFTs in 2021.
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My grandmother (b. 1913) had one – I think one of my cousins gave it to her – and she thought it was the funniest damned thing.
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Request for purchase was quickly and definitively denied.
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My ex worked for an accounting firm that had him as a client. Dude made BANK. Those things cost like 22 cents to make in Mexico. (for those not following thread-wise, this is wrt chia pets, not pet rocks)
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My best friend in second grade had one. I was so jealous until I went out in my parents’ yard and found an equally cool stone. I also cut out a piece of faux fur into a mohawk that sat on it and turned it into a punk rock.
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