LATHER RINSE REPEAT

I had just gotten back from grocery shopping and was unloading the bags in the kitchen when my son Alex came in to help me.

I took a bottle of shampoo from a bag and was placing it on the counter when I noticed the shampoo’s directions and started to laugh. “Ah… now it’s massage on wet hair to lather. Rinse. Follow up with conditioner.” I put the bottle down, shaking my head. “When I was little the directions on the bottle were, lather, rinse and repeat.”

Alex opened the refrigerator and tossed a bag of carrots in the vegetable bin. “Why would you put shampoo in your hair twice?”

“Because that’s what the bottle said you had to do!” I opened the bag of avocados and placed them on the butcher block.

“That doesn’t make sense.” He grabbed a box of crackers off the counter top and went over to the cabinet. “Didn’t you think your hair was clean the first time?”

“Obviously not! Everyone rinsed and repeated.” I tossed him a loaf of bread to put in the cabinet next to the crackers. “Nobody realized it was the advertising companies trying to get us to use twice as much shampoo then we really needed.” I shrugged my shoulders. “We were all pretty gullible back then.”

Alex started to laugh. “So, what if they’d told you that you needed to pour some down the drain for extra shampoo luck?”

“I’m sure we would have done it!” I laughed. I pulled out the matching bottle of conditioner and placed it next to the shampoo. “Now we just lather and rinse once with shampoo but don’t forget to make sure to use the matching conditioner right after!” I laughed again.

“You really don’t have to use the same brand for each.” He reminded me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I know. But the matching bottles look better on the shower shelf.”

Alex took the carton of milk and put it on the top shelf in the refrigerator. “Well, that’s what really matters.”

“Exactly.” I handed him a jar of pickles. While he was putting them in the cabinet I took out some onions and yams, placing them next to the avocados on the butcher block.

I was ready to reach in the bag again when I stopped and looked over at Alex. “You know now that I think about it I remember watching commercials for Pop Tarts where they told us they had real fruit filling and were loaded with vitamins and minerals.”

Alex looked surprised. “Pop Tarts?”

I nodded my head. “They told us it was the perfect on-the-go breakfast.”

“And you believed that?”

“Of course! Because that’s what the commercial told us.”

“You know, they’re so bad for you that they’re actually banned in other countries!”

“I know.” I nodded as I scooped up the bottles of shampoo and conditioner. “But they’re still sold here.” I reminded him.

I was headed for my bathroom as I called over my shoulder. “That’s because we were the lather, rinse and repeat generation!”