I was trolling the net, looking at what’s trending this week in the U.K. when it occurred to me – whatever happened to all of those ‘Pet Rocks’. No, I don’t mean your pet rocking out on some YouTube clip, I’m referring to the 1970 something craze of having your own Pet Rock to take care of.
In case you don’t have a clue as to what I’m referring to, here’s some more info, ‘In April 1975, Gary Dahl (founder of the pet rock) was in a bar listening to his friends complain about their pets. This gave him the idea for the perfect ‘pet’: a rock. A rock would not need to be fed, walked, bathed, or groomed; and would not die, become sick, or be disobedient. He said they were to be the perfect pets, and joked about it with his friends. Dahl took the idea seriously, and drafted an ‘instruction manual’ for a pet rock. It was full of puns, gags and plays on words that referred to the rock as an actual pet’ – Wiki
Now you know. If you missed this trend or craze, for whatever reason, bet you’re pleased round about now! But what about other crazes or trends in the last few decades that we look back at and can apply the oft used expression, ‘I’m so glad there wasn’t any social media when I was growing up’? Here are a few examples that may have you groaning into your water bottle:
Tamagotchi’s; Mr Motivator; Sega Mega Drives and Tetris.
Yo-yos; jelly aliens in plastic eggs; Pokémon cards and glow-in-the-dark jewellery.
Banana and butterfly hair clips.
Big hair; leggings and, of course, the ubiquitous Shell Suit. In case you were wondering what a shell suit was, this was big, fashion wise, in the eighties. The shell suit was a pretty bizarre fashion statement, jumping on the leisure wear trend à la Flashdance. It was a trend that allowed people who blatantly never did any form of exercise to look like they did, and it came in the form of nylon waterproof trousers and a matching jacket. It was during this time that fluorescent materials were at the very peak of their popularity. This meant that all manner of different garish colours and fluorescent strips were thrown together and it really didn’t matter if it clashed or not – in fact, if it did clash that was all the better.
While I was writing this and chuckling meanly to myself about how awful some of the trends i.e. the shell suit, were back then, and congratulating myself about how we truly have come a long way, baby, a thought occurred to me. In a word – the Onesie.
‘nuff said. Trolling trend water cooler critiquer out.
