Magic Rocks, sea monkeys, and x-ray glasses.

When I was growing up, I used to read comic books. I remember some of my earliest ones were Batman, Spiderman, and Archie. Back then they sold for about 12 cents per issue---some of the more expensive ones were probably a quarter. Those days as we know are long past as comics today are several dollars. I wish I had kept the comics I read, they would be worth more today than my precious bobble head collection. (That’s for another “Snap.Shot.”)

One of the things I enjoyed most about reading the comics was when I went to the back of the issue and looked at all of the advertisements; you had the opportunity to deliver “Grit,” I think it was a newspaper, earn valuable toys selling junk in your neighborhood, and the best of all---and I am being honest here---you could own a real monkey. I saw that ad and I was determined to have a monkey in my room.

It didn’t happen.

But the best of the best, were the magic rocks, sea monkey’s and x-ray glasses that let you look through people’s clothes. There was also a piece of plastic that when held in front of your black and white TV screen, would make it look like it was a color TV; keep in mind, we didn’t have a color TV in our house until I was probably 10, so this was a miracle.

The magic rocks were really cool---they were long and reached upward to the top of the fish tank you would place them in. The sea monkey’s, well I later found out these were actually brine shrimp…I was flabbergasted as these were the same creatures I fed to my fish. Where were the smiles I saw in the ad, and the home they lived in?

The crazy part about these products---they are still available. They have just been re-packaged and the prices are a lot more today than when they were advertised in the back of my favorite Batman comic book.

The photo above was taken at the “Garden of the Gods” in Colorado; when I first heard about this place, and how beautiful it was, I didn’t believe it could live up to its reputation. They were right, it is breath taking. The rocks breaking through the trees reminded me of magic rocks---all that was missing were the sea monkey’s and x-ray glasses and I would have swore I was back reading an Archie comic book with Jughead, Veronica, Betty and the gang.

Thanks for stopping by.