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What Was A Pet Rock? A Dirt Nap City Dead End · Dirt Nap City - History's Most Interesting Dead People

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Hey Alex, how you doing?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Hey man, how's it going?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's going great.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's going great.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I want to share with you something that we call a dead end.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: What's that?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: A little something that people used to do or used to be big, used to happen a lot.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Customs, companies, trends, fashions, but don't really happen that much anymore.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: And this is one that kind of kind of fell within our childhood.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: It was in the 70s.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but it was it was it burned bright.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: It burned really bright and then it burned right out.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think I know what it is.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: We don't typically do guessing games on this on dead ends, but I'm jumping out of my seat excited because I think I know what you're gonna do.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Before we started, I told you it was kind of a dumb one.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so maybe that was also a clue.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh maybe it's not so maybe we're not thinking about it.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Frivolous.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Frivolous fad.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: A frivolous fad.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, then no, this this isn't that.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: What's your guess?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: No, I it's not a fad.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: The thing I thought, because I said it might have been something that was only around for a year, and you said, yeah, kind of.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: But um I thought you were gonna talk about the bicentennial.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, oh, that literally is around.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know what?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: This actually took off in uh 1975 and then was over in 1976.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one of these days we're gonna we'll talk about the bicentennial.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a good thing because for that one year, everything was everything was stars and stripes, everything was you couldn't escape it.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: The bicentennial quarter, the bicentennial, um, yeah.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: And we're about to hit the the sesc the bisesquicentennial.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, is that 250 years?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: 250 in 2026.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll probably see like all that stuff again in a couple years, but yeah, we'll talk about the bicentennial another time.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: This one was dreamed up um by a guy named Gary Dahl in August of 1975.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: He was he was with some friends at a bar and they were all talking about um you know having a having a dog, having a cat, how much of a hassle it was to take care of those things.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so Dahl said, you know, what if you had a pet rock?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, pet rocks were so dumb.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think you know, we were we were pretty young at the time.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: You had a pet rock?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: You lined this.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have any other pets.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: You lined this guy's pockets.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't have any other pets.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it was kind of, you know, if you look at that time period, this was right after kind of Vietnam had had slowed down and Watergate was, you know, it just ended, and a lot of trials and tribulation.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I think people just wanted something simple, uh, something that's kind of tongue-in-cheek that they could have some fun with.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: And this guy, uh Gary Dahl, came up with this idea of a of a pet rock.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: And the thing was, the rock was just a rock.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: He got these rocks for one penny in he ordered them from Mexico.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: So he would order these one cent things.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: But what really made it special was um he included a cardboard box with holes that you know that it came in.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a little cage, yeah.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then he also included a 32-page manual on how to how to care for your pet rock.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, how to train it.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean if you are under 50 years old right now, you have no idea.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: You might think we're making this up.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: This was absolutely true.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like five or six, so I was eating this stuff up when this happened.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: So you got an actual pet rock for for uh like a gift.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: He sold uh five million of these things for$3.95 apiece.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that pretty much happened in about six month time period.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: So he made 20 million.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 15, 15, 16 million dollars.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, almost 20 million dollars.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: And his overhead was a penny per I mean, he had shipping, and then material costs were a penny for print print the little book and make the box and come up with all the creative stuff.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I mean the thing was he he hit it at a good time, and you know, it was it was sort of right in time so he could get this thing done and out by Christmas, and everybody liked the tonight show and the late night talk shows and the BBC and all these people wanted to interview him about this pet rock, so he kind of got this big publicity thing.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I was talking to my mom about this, and she said she remembers because she worked at Gulfgate Mall in Houston.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you remember Gulfgate Mall?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, she worked at Casual Corner in Gulfgate Mall.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: No, wow, and she was telling me that she heard first heard about it there.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody, somebody brought one in or something and said, Look, it's a pet rock.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And nobody said that's so dumb.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, maybe some people did, but everyone was like, Oh, that's such a cool idea.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I want one.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, again, this is something my mom just we were just talking about this like right before we got on.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: You and I started recording, and she said, Well, you know, at$3.95, even even in the 70s, you know, let's call that ten dollars today, it was it was enough money that it felt like a thoughtful gift, but it wasn't so much that you felt like it, you know, it's kind of a gag gift, right?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: That you were giving to somebody.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and yeah, yeah.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you what, if you went back in time to 1975 and you told people that that we currently pay seven dollars for a bottle of water, right?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: They would say that's stupid.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: Buy go buy yourself two pet rocks for that amount.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, he so he got them all uh on the shelf and basically sold a whole bunch of them in 75 and early 76, kind of through the Christmas season.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, he had this entire book, uh, like I said, 32-page book about it.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: And he had came up with things like uh naming your pet rock, training your pet rock, uh, making sure that your pet rock felt loved, um, you know, and making sure that your pet rock was uh not not in danger, you know.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: So wholesome though, you know.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I guess so, until you think about all the um capital, you know, the fact that he was basically stealing your money.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, but is that any different than a cabbage patch doll rally?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um this is a rock.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a rock.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, if you you know, it's also I'm maybe I'm thinking about this from a five-year-old's perspective.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't 25 when I had a pet rock, I was five.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's imagination.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's imagination.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's all about your imagination.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, if you take it that seriously to have a 35-page manual and the feeding and care, then you know, I didn't have any other pets.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, yeah, that's right.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: You I mean, it is a pet you can have in your pocket, you can take it with you anywhere you want to go.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, did it have googly eyes on it, or did was it just a rock?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm picturing it mine with like with googly eyes, yeah.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, that is a great question.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: Every time I I uh looked it up while I was doing this, um it it showed the it showed the uh box, like the pet rock box.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Was the box like a Chinese takeout box?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yes, yes, exactly.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: Had a little handle, it was foldable.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: Probably was, right?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: It had been at some point.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh hold on, I'm looking up original pet rock.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh original 70s pet rock.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think uh no, no, it did not have any googly eyes.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: It came in so you can still get them on Amazon right now for$29.99.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: And it comes in the um official carrying case, which has the holes in it so it can breathe.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: It has official stamped all over it, and then the rock is just sort of a gray river stone, um, and it comes in some some shredded paper that kind of looks like a nest, and then um, and then it has uh an instruction manual, 32-page instruction manual.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think you could get cynical about it, or you could just think of it as just a wholesome thing.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: But again, I'm looking at it from a five-year-old's perspective that it was.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm sure I wanted one.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: I probably, you know, we probably couldn't afford it, you know, back then.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: We we we weren't highfalutin' like the Milams.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um so so I was kind of like Googling good names for your for your pet rock.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you got any good names for a pet rock?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the obvious one is Rocky.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: How about Dwayne the Rock Johnson?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, there you go.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: You got you got uh Barack Obama.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, that's a good one.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: You got uh George Washingstone, Pebbles.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: Pebbles, I like that.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then you know they they kind of recommend that you build your rock a place to sleep, like a little bed.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, although they do like to sleep in rocking chairs as well, apparently.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: Stone Phillips.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they they eat pea gravel and and they like quarts of milk, like Q-R-A-T-Z.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um and apparently you only have to feed them like once a year.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're okay.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but they really on a special occasion, like on your pet rock's birthday, you need to take it to the Hard Rock Cafe.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then, of course, their favorite genre of music is what?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you have to listen to our uh episode about uh what is rock and roll dead.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: But there's so many different genres, right?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Is it well but but they're they they're really you know, they're kind of classic rock because they like stuff like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, uh Steppin' Stone by the Monkeys, Sly in the Family Stone.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, uh Loves Me Like a Rock by Paul Simon.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, there's there's a lot of we will rock you, you know.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: Papa was a Rolling Stone.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know where you can get good uh pet rocks?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know where you can get good ones?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Boulder.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Boulder, Colorado.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Now you're into it.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, the pet rock lasted from 75 to 76, made Gary Dahl a uh 15 million dollars at the time.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: Still available on Amazon for$29.99.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: They were less than four bucks before, but if you're if you're looking to to send Alex and I a gift, please don't send us that because we've got plenty of this.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: A marketer's dream.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, 100%.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's that's our dead end for this week.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh pet rocks.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Rock solid and a wall that's so fake.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: No need for kibble, no leaves to take.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Always there, just sitting so still.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: A little pebble ever so chill.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Never marking, never bite, just sitting on a moonlit night.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: No fur, no buttons, no fat build here.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: My rock stone so spent dear.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Little fat is a big door.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Little buddy on every perfectly stand.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Always here, you must bring you.