I was checking out what #Holidays happen this month and I found out September 6 is Pet Rock Day, and instead of turning this into another homeschool lesson about rocks or telling you to go out and find a rock to paint, I started thinking about all the things we had when we were growing up that made us happy and kept us busy.
I remembered Pet Rocks and Sea-Monkeys, that little red View-Master you looked through, Lite-Brite, Shrinky Dinks, yo-yos, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Colorforms, Jacks, Pick-Up Sticks, Barrel of Monkeys, Super Elastic Bubble Plastic, Slinkys, Clackers, friendship bracelets, paper dolls, Garbage Pail Kids, coloring books, paint-by-number and Mad Libs.
Can you believe some of these things Charlie and even Suzzane had when they were growing up, too, and I remember showing him Garbage Pail Kids and watching him laugh at them. Others take me right back to sitting on the floor with my mom while we played Jacks and Pick-Up Sticks.
So I thought, why not take a little trip down memory lane? Because Pet Rock Day is the perfect excuse to remember a time when we didn’t need much to have fun. We could take something as ordinary as a rock, give it a name, and suddenly we had a pet
I have a question for you. Do You Remember Pet Rocks? I remember Pet Rocks and I’ve even created them with my niece and nephews. Now though when I think about Pet Rocks I think about how funny that sounds now.
Someone basically convinced people that an ordinary rock could be a pet, and people bought them. But when you were a kid, imagination could turn just about anything into something special. A rock could be a pet.
A cardboard box could be a house. A blanket could become a fort. The backyard could become an entire world. We didn’t need everything to light up, make noise, connect to Wi-Fi, or have batteries. Sometimes we just needed an imagination.
And what about Sea-Monkeys? I remember those, too but I honestly don’t think I ever had them. As for Charlie and Suzzane I don’t think they did either. One thing I can says is the name made them sound like you were about to have a jar full of tiny monkeys swimming around. What did you think?
You ordered them, added the little packet to water, and waited. There was something exciting about watching to see what would happen. Today, a child can watch almost anything they want on a screen in seconds. Back then, sometimes the fun was waiting to see what happened next.
Then there was the View-Master which I can still picture was red. In the view-master you would put the reel inside, hold it up to your eyes and click through the pictures. It was such a simple little thing, but it felt like you were being transported somewhere else.
You could see different places, characters and stories without needing a television or a computer. Just that little red View-Master and a reel. Click. Next picture. Click. Next picture. And you were entertained until the slide finished and you changed it out.
Do you remember Lite-Brite and Shrinky Dinks With a Lite-Brite you would take those little colored pegs and push them into the picture. Turn on the light, and suddenly your artwork was glowing. It was simple, but it was fun.
And then there were Shrinky Dinks and you colored the pictures, put them in the oven and watched them shrink. There was something almost magical about watching them curl up and then become these tiny little creations.
Of course, today we have all kinds of technology that can create things we couldn’t have imagined when we were kids. But I still think there was something special about watching something you made yourself come to life.
There were Dunkin Yo-Yos and you could spend forever trying to learn tricks. You’d get frustrated. Try again. Maybe finally get one trick right. And then you thought you were pretty darn good. Although, here is a tip about me I could never make a yo-yo work or even a kite. Could you?
There were Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys, too. Suzzane and Charlie actually had Lincoln Logs. I think they also have Tinker Toys when they were growing up, and I love that some of those toys made their way into another generation.
You could sit down and build something. Maybe it looked like the picture on the box. Maybe it didn’t. It didn’t really matter. You were building. If you got tired of building with these toys you could switch to Lego’s.
I remember Colorforms, too. How about you? You could move those pieces around and create different scenes. But Jacks were metal and like Lego’s you didn’t want to step on them because they sure hurt our feert. Then there was Pick-Up Sticks and no, these were not sticks you picked up in the yard.
Did you know Jacks take me back to my mom because I can still remember my mom sitting in the middle of the floor playing Jacks with Suzzane. Those memories are worth more to me than the toy itself. Because that’s the thing about looking back at childhood.
Sometimes you don’t remember the game. You remember who was sitting beside you playing it. Pick-Up Sticks was another one. You had to carefully pick up one stick without moving the others. It didn’t take a television or a computer and it didn’t even take much space. Just a handful of sticks and somebody willing to play.
And how could I forget Barrel of Monkeys? You tried to hook the monkeys together one after another without dropping them. It was simple and it was silly. And it was fun. We had a lot of toys like that. Things that were really just an excuse to sit down and play.
And then there was the Slinky. Now, I’m going to say something that might get me in trouble. The metal Slinky was better. That metal Slinky would go down the stairs. One step. Then another and another. It was fascinating.
The plastic versions just don’t have the same feeling. Maybe it’s because the metal Slinky is what I remember. Maybe that’s how nostalgia works. Sometimes you don’t want the newer version. You want the thing you remember.
Does anyone remember Super Elastic Bubble Plastic? You put the stuff on the end of the little straw and blew. You tried to make a bubble. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. And yet we thought it was fun. Or did we?
There are probably adults reading this right now thinking, “Oh my goodness, I remember that!” And that’s exactly why I love these kinds of memories. Not only does it take us back to our childhood but it lets us share our childhood toys with our children.
And then we had Clackers. Oh, those things. Those things could drive me up the wall. Click. Clack. Click. Clack. And somehow we kept playing with them. I don’t know who decided that making two hard balls bang together over and over again was a great toy idea, but apparently we agreed.
Some things have never really gone away. Friendship bracelets are one of them. They’re still huge. My niece makes them. We made them when we were growing up. The styles and patterns may change, but kids still like making something for their friends. And I love that. There’s something special about giving someone something you actually made yourself.
Paper dolls were another part of childhood. You’d cut them out, find their clothes and change their outfits. You had to be careful with those little tabs because if you weren’t, you could tear the clothes. It was a whole little world made out of paper. No batteries required.
I thought I would share a fun fact about me with you all you might not know. I used to make my paper dolls out of brown papar lunch bags and color them. Or I would cut outfits for them out of my Grandmother’s magazines like the Sears Wish book.
And then there were Garbage Pail Kids. Oh, I remember those. I remember showing them to Charlie and Bradley when they were little and they thought they were absolutely hilarious. But that didn’t stop them from wanting them.
They were gross and they were weird. They were ridiculous. And that was exactly what made them so funny. It’s funny how something from your childhood can come back years later because you shared it with your own child.
I wasn’t just remembering Garbage Pail Kids. I was remembering Charlie and Bradley laughing at Garbage Pail Kids. And now that memory is part of my childhood story, too. Along with the Garbage Pail kids Charlie has.
There were coloring books and there was paint-by-number books. There were Mad Libs. You could sit at the kitchen table or on the floor and spend time doing something with your hands. Mad Libs were especially fun because you didn’t even know what the story was going to say until everyone started giving you words.
Noun. Verb and adjective. You’d give them the first ridiculous word that came to mind. Then you’d read the finished story and laugh. Again, it didn’t take much. Just people, paper and a little imagination and a whole lot of laughter.
And music was different, too. We listened to records and we listened to cassette tapes. We listened to the radio. And if you wanted to hear your favorite song, sometimes you had to wait for it to come on. You couldn’t just open an app and play it immediately.
And if you were trying to record something from the radio onto a cassette? You had to be ready. You didn’t want the DJ talking over the beginning of your song. And you certainly didn’t have a magic little button that let you go back and fix it.
We also had telephones. Real telephones. You had to dial the number. And before cell phones became something everyone carried around, there were telephone booths. And no, the telephone booth wasn’t just for Superman to change clothes in. You actually used it when you needed to make a call. Can you imagine telling a child today that there was once a little booth you could walk into just to use a telephone and to call someone as long as you had a quarter..
Television was another experience entirely. If your favorite show came on at a certain time, you watched it at that time. You couldn’t say, “I’ll watch it later.” There wasn’t a streaming service waiting for you. You waited all week.
And when the show finally came on, you watched it. Some of us even watched television in black and white. And let’s talk about the remote control. We were the remote control. If you wanted to change the channel, somebody had to get up.
You might have been sitting comfortably on the floor, and suddenly Mom would say, “Change the channel.” And you got up not in a minute but right then. Because that’s how it worked and no, one wanted to miss there show.
And then there were TV dinners. “Dinner tonight is a TV dinner.” And there it was. A meal in an aluminum tray. You’d heat it up, and if you were lucky you would sit in front of the television and eat. And yes, kids, we ate out of aluminum trays. And no, it didn’t kill us.
We also drank from the water hose outside. Not bottled water and no, fancy water bottle. The hose. You turned it on, let the hot water run out and took a drink. And then you went right back to playing until the next time you got thristy.
We played outside and we rode bikes. We ran around the neighborhood and we found things to do. And we stayed outside until the streetlights came on. That was the signal. It was time to go home. And if your mom yelled your name and you didn’t answer?
Oh, you better have had a damn good reason not to answer. Because if you heard your mother calling and decided to pretend you didn’t hear her, you already knew tomorrow might not be your best day or the next.
Some of us also rode in the back of pickup trucks with the tailgate hanging down. Looking back, there are plenty of things about childhood that would make parents today raise an eyebrow. But that was part of our childhood experience.
We didn’t have car seats for every possible age and activity or seat belts. We didn’t have helmets for every activity and we certainly didn’t have parents tracking our location on a phone. When we left the house, our parents expected us to come home. And somehow, most of us managed to do exactly that.
Eventually, technology started changing childhood. There was Pong and there were arcade games. Then came more video game systems, and eventually gaming became something you could do right in your own home.
Technology has continued changing ever since. And Charlie and Suzzane grew up with things I never had as a child. That’s one of the interesting things about being a parent. You get to watch childhood change from one generation to the next. Some things disappear. Some things come back. Some things never really leave.
That’s what Pet Rock Day made me think about. Not just a rock and not just Sea-Monkeys. Not just an old toy sitting in a box somewhere. But childhood. The people. The games. The toys. The music. The television shows. The things we did because there simply wasn’t a screen waiting to entertain us.
I remember my mom sitting on the floor playing Jacks with us and I remember Pick-Up Sticks. I remember Pet Rocks and Sea-Monkeys. I remember that little red View-Master, Lite-Brite and Shrinky Dinks. Clackers and Garbage Pail Kids. And so many other little pieces of growing up.
Some of those things Charlie and Suzzane had, too, which gave me the chance to introduce them to pieces of my childhood back when the Dinosaurs roamed the face of Earth as Charlie likes to say because according to him I’m older than dirt.
And now, when I think about them, I’m not just remembering what I played with. I’m remembering who I was with. That’s the part I don’t want us to forget. So let’s make Pet Rock Day a Memory Day with our frfiends and family.
You could still paint a pet rock if you want and you could even give it a name. But maybe this year, do something else, too. Ask your parents and your grandparents. Or an older family member: “What did you play with when you were a kid?” Then let them tell you.
Maybe they’ll remember a Pet Rock or they might remember Sea-Monkeys. Maybe Jacks or a Slinky going down the stairs. Maybe they’ll tell you about watching television in black and white, drinking from the water hose or being called home when the streetlights came on.
And if you’re the person who remembers those things? Tell the stories. Because someday, those ordinary little things that seemed so unimportant at the time may be the very memories someone wishes they could hear again.
Pet Rock Day may be about a silly little rock. But for me, it turned into something much better. It reminded me that childhood doesn’t have to be complicated to be memorable. Sometimes all you need is a rock, a game of Jacks, a friend, your mom sitting on the floor beside you, and a whole afternoon before the streetlights come on.
And those are the moments I’m Greatful, Thankful and Blessed to be a part of.
GreatfulMoments.com
Thank you,
Glenda, Charie and David Cates
What Do You Remember?
Tell me in the comments: What was something you had as a child that kids today might not understand?
Did you have Pet Rocks or Sea-Monkeys?
Did you play Jacks, Pick-Up Sticks or Barrel of Monkeys?
Did you have a View-Master, Lite-Brite or Shrinky Dinks?
Or do you remember something completely different?
I’d love to hear about it.
Grateful, Thankful, Blessed.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
