2000-01-17

Scrubbing Bubbles

I used to get this recurring nightmare throughout much of my grade school career (circa '75 through '81), the precise storyline of which I am unable to recall; I just know that it usually incorporated the Jolly Green Giant, those "Scrubbing Bubbles," and the spiral tunnel from the "Kooky Kastle" ride at Paragon Park (R.I.P.), which was down the street from our house. I wouldn't wake up exactly petrified, just with a vaguely unsettling feeling that I'd just been witness to something unpleasant. I would literally have this "nightmare" about once every couple of months. I'd lie there in bed and ponder the dream, try to piece it all together, and again come up empty-handed, with the exception of the memory of those kind-of-cute-but-kind-of-disturbing Scrubbing Bubbles, which within the earlier part of the aforementioned parameters, prompted nightly drain checks come bath-time. Small wonder that my mother, while certainly of a creative mindset herself, was at a complete loss as to how to handle a perpetually-hallucinating 5-year-old: "Lisa, there are no Scrubbing Bubbles in that goddamn tub. Now take your bath, please."

Small wonder, too, that today, I am perversely fascinated by 70's marketing icons. I have a complete collection of "Funny Faces" drink cups lined along the top of my stove, greeting me each morning with their lurid 70's grimaces. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Ebay to try and score that Scrubbing Bubble nightlight...

lisamcc at 10:22:09

previous | next