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ETS THAT COME from a powder?
Susan Barclay's mother wasn't buying it. Not for one second.
So 6-year-old Susan was forced to live vicariously through her best friend, Michelle--at least when it came to Sea-Monkeys.
Susan was mesmerized by the tiny swimmers that swarmed through the water in her friend's plastic tank. And as soon as she collected some cash, she bought her own paper envelope filled with Sea-Monkey eggs.
"I went to a toy store, and there they were, calling to me," she said about the living product billed as "the world's only instant pets."
Since then, the now-34-year-old Barclay, who lives in Chilliwack, in Canada's British Columbia, has gone bananas over Sea-Monkeys.
She has a Web site dedicated to describing the monkeys' mating habits, growth patterns and the hype that surrounds them. And she's the author of "The Ultimate Guide to Sea-Monkeys."
Her love for the quirky creatures led her to write to Chase's Calendar of Events--a comprehensive publication of serious and not-so-serious holidays--asking for a special day to celebrate them. She got it.
Today is National Sea-Monkey Day. So pull those colorful plastic tanks--the ones with the magnifying bubble-shaped windows--out of the attic and mix up an instant-pet potion of your own.
In addition to the calming effects aquatic animals are said to have on their owners, Sea-Monkeys have held a place in American pop culture since they first were marketed in 1960.
"Talk about nostalgia," said Courtney Lemus, sales and marketing assistant for The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys, the product's California-based distributor.
Generations of kids have marveled at the magical beings, which, in fact, are nothing more than a species of genetically altered brine shrimp.
Like other trendy trinkets that live and breathe--hermit crabs, Chia Pets, ant farms--Sea-Monkeys call for minimal care and a heaping helping of imagination.
"They're real," Lemus insists. "They're so real."
But if you're lucky enough to get your packet of preserved eggs to hatch, the beings that survive look nothing like the humanlike figures the package promises.
Thanks to over-the-top marketing by the late Sea-Monkey inventor, Harold von Braunhut, legions of kids imagined their lady Sea-Monkeys smearing on lipstick.
Whimsical images showed the water-bound creatures walking tiny dogs, reading tiny newspapers and batting tiny volleyballs over tiny nets.
"When Michelle got hers, I wanted to know where the little castle was, and the pearls and the barbecue apron," Barclay said. "I wanted that mystical kingdom I was promised."
Spotsylvania Middle School science teacher Su Monroe, who uses Sea-Monkeys to illustrate the stages of development, recalls a student who peered into the water in search of real primates.
"He actually thought they were going to be little monkeys that swam," she said.
He's not the only one mystified by the misunderstood Sea-Monkey.
"The first question I get asked anywhere is, 'What the heck are they?'" Barclay said. "Very few people know."
The crossbred brine shrimp live longer, have higher hatch rates, and are more active, Lemus said, than their cousins found in nature. Sea-Monkeys are designed to exist inside their tiny eggs for years, in a state of suspended animation, then spring to life when sprinkled in water.
Braunhut introduced the enchanting creatures as "Instant Life" more than four decades ago, and began offering them via mail order in comic-book ads.
Since then, Sea-Monkeys have been hawked in toy and specialty stores and now are offered online and sold internationally.
Less than $10 buys a kit with a plastic tank, water purifier, live eggs and Sea-Monkey food--everything you need to start growing the cute crustaceans.
A host of Sea-Monkey accessories are available online, including Cupid's Arrow mating powder, which claims to make shy Sea-Monkeys fris-ky.
Sea-Diamonds are touted as toys the maritime monkeys will "'learn' to climb up and rideas if they were surfboards."
Quite a feat for brine shrimp!
The creatures also have caused a little political commotion.
A member of the Greek parliament moved to ban sales of the instant pets when the morality of marketing them as toys was questioned, according to a 2000 article in "Insight on the News," a national biweekly magazine. As a result, the story said, the Greek chapter of Greenpeace pledged to support the rights of the subjugated Sea-Monkeys.
On a loftier note, millions of them joined astronaut John Glenn on the shuttle Discovery in 1998 in order to test the effects of space travel on small creatures.
Barclay boasts about the educational value of the instant pets. But that's just one reason she's determined to celebrate them.
"The world is a magical place," she said. "I want to live my life always being surprised and thrilled. That's what I'm trying to share with people."
To learn more about Sea-Monkeys, visit the official Web site at sea-monkeys.com, or log on to Susan Barclay's Sea-Monkey Worship Web site at seamonkeyworship.com.
To reach LISA CHINN: 540/374-5424 lchinn@freelancestar.com