The Shocking True Tale Of The Mad Genius Who Invented Sea-Monkeys
In a 2002 interview with Erik Lobo of Planet X magazine, Harold von Braunhut comes across as the kind of charming old guy who might detain you in conversation a bit too long if you were volunteering at a home for the aged. An inventor and entrepreneur who brought us legions of wonderfully gimmicky toys before he died, at 77, in 2003, von Braunhut holds forth about times gone by, interrupted only when his cockatoo chews at the wire connecting his hearing aid to the telephone.
Were you ever tempted to own these magnificent creatures. I was. They died of some sort of fungus. So long my bowlfull of happiness!
Read the story at The Awl
Read the story at The Awl
Braunhut taught tens-of-thousands of children, the bitter reality of the real world.
ReplyDeleteLike I've always said, "those sea monkeys will only break your heart."
ReplyDeleteJust like you did, Avery!
ReplyDeleteI have a very traumatic childhood moment involving sea monkeys. I got mine, and of course was disappointed when they did not turn out to look like the picture - however, they were alive, and pretty perky. I had them in a big goldfish bowl. One day, moving them, I knocked the bowl over on the dining room table. All the little sea monkeys were still trying to swim in what was now a giant shallow puddle on the table, dripping over the sides onto the carpet - I was frozen in horror as my mom tried to scoop them up with paper and put them back into the bowl. It was truly awful. I mean, I know they were just brine or something, but I had raised them, they were ALIVE, and I was a sentimental, sensitive little thing. None of them survived, and the guilt I felt was just awful. I was traumatized for weeks - and to this day, the memory still lingers so clearly....like it was yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing you horrific experience, Deanne. If it's any comfort they were not destined to live long lives in any event.
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