The Pet Rock

Mark 1975

The year 1975 brought a strange new pet to the scene, a rock. While listening to his friends complain about the cumbersome care of their domesticated animals, advertising executive Gary Dahl came up with the idea of the Pet Rock. The hand sized stones procured from Rosarita Beach in Baja, Mexico came packaged in a cardboard container that resembled a pet carrier, complete with air holes and straw bedding. The accompanying care and training booklet gave tips such as, “How to make your pet rock roll over and play dead,” and “How to house train your pet rock,” along with “sit, stay, and even attack (with a little extra help).” Over a million rocks were sold at $3.95 each, making Mr. Dahl a millionaire in the six months the scheme lasted.

While the Pet Rock was just a fad, rocks play an important part in our American culture and landscape. While on vacation, we have visited Plymouth Rock, the Rocky Mountains, Devil’s Tower, 

Mt. Rushmore, The Grand Canyon, El Capitan, Natural Bridge, The Petrified Forest, and here in our own neighborhood, Garden of the Gods. Each creation has its own unique history, significance, and beauty.

Rocks are also vital to our homestead, being utilized in numerous applications. 

 

Building are supported with strong foundational stones, while others form walkways and steps. 

Flower beds are lined with small stones enhancing the borders, 

with large rocks providing seating near the pond. 

 

 

Even inside the home, rocks from our creek form a decorative protective firewall behind our wood stove. No matter the size, each performs an important function and duty.

 

For children rocks are always fascinating objects, establishing many youngsters’ first collection. I still have a unique rock that I collected as a youth from the hills of eastern Kentucky, that serves as a reminder of my mom’s heritage, prompting memories of ancestors, providing me with my very own Pet Rock. 

 

A hewn stone from a porch step of Rhonda’s great grandmother near Rarden, Ohio in Adams County now serves as a steppingstone on our own property where we can walk on the same path as those who have marched before us. 

 

A rock painted into a cat by my grandmother sits under our wood stove, yet another reminder of those who’ve gone on beforehand, 

while petrified wood from our creek sits on our porch as indications of even earlier times.

Rocks serve an amazing place in our culture and even in the life to come, as Jesus is referred to as The Rock of our salvation. For us, whether travelling and observing rock formations, utilizing rocks around our home, or simply collecting them for fun and special memories, they are always intriguing. Psalm 18:2 says, “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” Above all other rocks, He is the Rock I want to see and have in my life, and in the end, the only One really worth collecting.

~Mark