When I was a child, there were colorful ads in the back of comic books advertising Sea Monkeys. “Enter the wonderful world of amazing live Sea-Monkeys!” they crowed. “Just add Sea-Monkey eggs to prepared water, look in the bowl and see LIVE BABY SEA-MONKEYS (Artemia) swimming around! Now simply grow and enjoy the most adorable, entertaining pets you’ve ever owned!
What kid could resist? Certainly not me. I’ve always been easily manipulated by the media. So I clearly remember cutting that little coupon out from the back of my Superman comic book and mailing it and $1.25 of my allowance money to an address on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
It took several weeks for them to arrive. Oh, the sweet ecstasy of waiting for mail when you are a kid. Time seems to drag! Funny how that changes when you grow up and instead of “The Miracle of Instant Life” the mailman is in the nasty habit of delivering, “The Miracle of the End of the Month Credit Card Statements.“
I would rush home from school and check the mailbox first thing. On Saturdays, I’d stare longingly out the window waiting for the mail truck. But, finally the happy day arrived.
That was when I was nine years old. Who knew that all these years later I’d still be reconstituting those darned “instant life” eggs and waiting with bated breath for them to hatch?
In the scheme of things, I realize that they aren't much more than fish food. (They feed them to the Jellyfish at the Newport Aquarium), but I was in awe of them then and still am now.
Even if they are the lowest guys on the food chain; what other pet can you mix with water after they die and they'll come back again?
Now that's the most amazing trick I've ever heard of!
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