The long life of Rocky, a painted stone snake, has surprised Wendy Marsden.
“I’m flabbergasted,” said the Sarnia retiree who, with her partner, set 13 painted stones and a hand-written sign back in mid-June next to a sidewalk overlooking the St. Clair River at the Rotary Flag Plaza, not far from the Blue Water Bridge.
The sign invited others to “make people smile” by adding their own painted stones to “Rocky the growing snake.”
“The other night, there was close to 2,100,” she said.
Marsden, who worked for years at the courthouse and then ran a court reporting business before retiring, said she saw something online about a similar project somewhere in Texas and decided to try it at the popular St. Clair riverfront public space next to the Lambton Area Water Supply System treatment plant.
“Our goal, seriously, when we started this was 100 (stones,)” she said. “And look at it.”
This past week, volunteers with the Alzheimer Society of Sarnia-Lambton set up a table, with funding from Bluewater Power, with art supplies so youngsters could paint stones to add to Rocky.
Marsden said they’ve been “doubling” Rocky so they don’t run out of space in the strip covered in pebbles between the sidewalk and newly installed shore protection armor stone.
“The painted stone snake was built entirely by the community, and I expect that it will remain in place as long as the community desires it to remain,” said Clinton Harper, general manager of the water supply system.
But he added the area is checked regularly for tripping hazards and any stones left on the sidewalk are removed.
Marsden said her first thought was to set up Rocky in Canatara Park but decided the space next to the sidewalk at the riverfront might work better since it wouldn’t be in the way of maintenance workers.
“It’s so awesome,” she said.
Marsden said she hoped it could be something simple to bring people in the community together.
“That’s what it’s all about,” she said.
It may be genetic.
Marsden is the daughter of Harvey McMichael, the late Sarnia man who inspired Sarnia’s Celebration of Lights with his annual home Christmas lights display on Oak Street.
“It’s has been more than I ever imagined,” she said.
Marsden said she and her partner visit Rocky daily on walks along the riverfront.
At one point, the painted stone that made up Rocky’s head went missing but returned a few days later, she said.
“I love the seagulls,” she said about stones painted with images of the shorebirds.
“They’re all just so different.”
Her daughter added a collection of stones painted as Russian nesting dolls.
Others have been placed by visitors from places far away, including the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
“I’ve seen so many kids get their picture taken by their rocks, by their parents or their grandparents, Marsden said. “And that’s what it’s all about.”
“Thanks for all you do,” a passerby said to Marsden during one of her recent visits. “No, no, no – it’s the community,” she called back.
“Ya, we put 13 rocks down” but other folks in the community did the rest, she said.
“I can’t take credit for this.”