JH Reference Library: In Homage to the Pet Rock

However mundane and unprecious — it got us thinking about how, if you can believe it, you can see it.

As history goes, the creator was inspired (while...drinking with friends) by the simplicity of “care” required by a rock, as jokingly compared to its real pet counterparts.

Officially revealed at a gift show in San Francisco in August of 1975, by the following month the $4 gifts were stacked in pyramid displays at Neiman-Marcus and in the Bloomingdale’s catalog.

“And I have to say that I think the country was feeling sorry for itself, ” he said. “What I mean is... the country needed a laugh.”

While this was intended as a joke — and while we’d rather have an actual pet than a lumpy rock — we gotta admit there’s something fun here. Where you see meaning, there is meaning.