Or: Another one of life’s simple pleasures

I’ve learnt a lot of things from Sesame Street over the years, ranging from the alphabet (and how we say the letter “z” differently around the world), to cooperation and sharing.

I’ve also learnt that bathtimes can be more fun with a rubber duckie.

While I’ve never owned a rubber duckie and had a bath at the same time, I can’t verify this. What I can say, is that the back scrubber than is in the bath with Ernie too and which he also sings about, does significantly contribute to washing enjoyment.

I found this out only a few days ago.

For years watching Ernie scrubbing his back in my youth, to my Barbies receiving the Barbie Dream Bath one Christmas (it even made bubbles), I’ve watched various icons using one and wanted the same.

Not necessarily pink, in case you were wondering.

Consumerism starts young though without any money of my own at that point, there wasn’t one to be had in my life.

As I grew up and started earning money, it was spent on various things. Never a back scrubber. Or a rubber duck for that matter.

Even through my teenage years, from time to time I saw back scrubbers and thought that it would be great to have one but I couldn’t quite justify it and other purchases won out due to my limited income.

Fast forward to my time in Hong Kong and around 2013, there was a giant rubber duck in Victoria Harbour as part of an art installation by a Dutch artist. Suddenly there were rubber ducks everywhere and I came to be the owner of one. I think it was a corporate gift.

I didn’t have a bath so couldn’t say whether this would have helped make my “bathtime so much fun” and a rubber duck in the shower just doesn’t seem to have the same impact on me as what it seemed to have on Ernie in the bath.

I was still seeing back scratchers on occasion and continued to resist purchasing one even though the designs seemed to have improved. I particularly liked the look of the long wooden ones with the soft bristles that seemed hard at the bottom yet flexible on the top. We had some very nice bathing stores in HK. Also, they were expensive.

Still I couldn’t justify buying one. It seemed a little unnecessary.

Fast forward again to five days ago.

I was shopping for a new loofah sponge as my last one had all but disintegrated when I saw a back scrubber with one attached rather than the brush.

While it was a plastic model rather than my preferred (and probably significantly more expensive if the ones I’d seen in HK were anything to go by) wooden model, I bought it. “Just to try,” I told myself. If I liked it, then I could buy a better quality one once this wore out.

While I can be the Queen of Putting Off Purchases for an Incredibly Long Time (QPOPILT), approximately forty-five years of my life is a bit extreme, even for me. I think it’s probably even longer given when I’m likely to have started watching Ernie though my spending power wouldn’t have been great at that time.

So I’m not sure if it’s because it’s taken me this long or it really is an awesome invention, but that thing is fantastic!

No longer do I have to contort my body into a pretzel to scrub my back, the sensation from the sponge is so satisfying as it scrubs away whatever has settled there, plus the bliss of actually owning this piece of bathing equipment have combined to make that shower and every one that I’ve had since, amazing.

Now, I really like showers anyway, but this is next level.

I may end up losing a few layers of skin, I’m enjoying it that much.

If I’m not careful, I could spend more time washing my back than on cleaning and conditioning my hair.

I have never felt so clean except when in a Korean bathhouse and having my layers of skin scrubbed away after a lengthy soak in three different tubs, but this is the subject for another post. That’s also very satisfying.

I scrub and I smile.

Ernie was part right.

It wasn’t about the rubber duck. Or the bath.

It’s a shower OR bath.

And a back scrubber.

🎶“Oh back scrubber, you’re the one. You make getting clean, so much fun. Back scrubber I’m awfully fond of you”🎶

*Thanks to Ernie and his rubber ducky song. Turns out the song came out in 1970!

As another piece of trivia, the rubber duck in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, made a return visit in 2023 with a friend as another art show.