#29 Going through the carwash with little kids

Neil Pasricha

It’s the suburban amusement park.

When I was a kid there was nothing as exciting as driving through the car wash with my dad. My sister Nina and I would jump up and down screaming as huge cloth rollers smacked the side of our station wagon like zombies. Jet streams of water splashed and smeared across the windows as we blindly defended our invisible fortress of soapy suds. Yes, everything was attacking us – colorful blobs of soap, flashing lights, and twisting brushes – but even with the radio fuzzed out and daylight dimmed down we just kept fighting through the alien world at one mile an hour until we eventually emerged victorious into the sun.

AWESOME!

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Photo from: Michael

32 thoughts to “#29 Going through the carwash with little kids”

  1. Pingback: #29 Going through the carwash with little kids | xalyzax

  2. This definitely makes me feel nostalgic because I can’t even recall a recent memory of going to the car wash! It’s so much cheaper to wash my car myself but this reminded me of what a fun event the car wash was when I was younger.

    1. Stick with this video to see a fun “Happy Wash” car wash at the Nocturne Art Festival in Halifax, NS in October.It’s a ‘human’ car wash!

  3. I thought it was the scariest thing ever! I always started crying! But overcoming that fear, that was awesome for me!

    1. My 83 year old mom is still scared! In fact, I just drove her car through the car wash last week because it scares her so much. I remember when i was a kid I found it a bit frightening, too! Good for you overcoming your car wash fear!

  4. What’s with the “little kids” amendment? Going through the carwash, FULL STOP! Awesome stuff! :)

    (I do hope I’m not the only one with that song stuck in my head now…)

    1. my thoughts exactly… what little kids? I *still* do that! Aieeee Bubble Monster!!!!

    3. Definitely not the only one! Gosh, long time since I saw that movie. One of the first harder rated movies I saw in the theater.

      1. Just looked it up…so it was my very first PG movie without my parents. I just remember feeling very grown up walking to the movies with my friends and seeing a PG movie!

  5. My daughter used to be afraid of car washes, so I avoided them for the longest time. About a month ago, I couldnt’ avoid them any more. I was visiting with my mom and her cat walked all over my car. So, here I was with a dark blue car… and muddy paw prints all over. I had to go wash my car. I was excited to see how my son would do in a car wash, but he was asleep. I made sure I got a wax too, for all the pretty colors. Well………. about halfway through the wash I noticed the arm to my coat was wet. My sunroof was leaking!!! My daughter, if she wasn’t buckled in, I swear she would have been rolling on the floor, she was laughing at me so hard.

  7. My brother and I used to have names for each of the different phases of the wash. I still find myself saying them over in my head when I go through the wash even though that was 30 years ago… GREAT childhood memory.

  8. I’m sure my mother would disagree with this one. I was terrified by the car wash! I used to think a giant monster was eating us in our car!
    My daughter has yet to go through one, I think she’d be scared too. But I did take her to one where you watch at the window as your car goes through. She thought that was awesome!

  9. We always washed our own cars but I do recollect once for sure, at the Oasis, it was exactly like the original Car Wash movie- as cool it was- *Detailing~the music, dancing, singing, big smiles and laughter from all~ glistening! More on topic…I went through a car wash a few years ago with a group of kids ages 5-7. I never asked for it, but SURPRISE! It was the first time any of us had seen rainbow coloured soapy suds and we were squealing with excitement…Like being inside a rainbow, SO AWESOME:)

  11. My goddaughter and nieces used to squeal with delight and laugh and say that the car was getting tickled. Thank you for the reminder!

  12. My daughter thinks it’s a giant octopus, and we do battle with it! She LOVES being victorious!

  14. Ah very nostalgic. I LOVE car washes. Near our home we have a car wash and it is only $4 for the cheapest one plus free vacuum use. We took our then 4 year old daughters there a while ago. They loved it of course. Something I like about summer time….less rain which means more dirty cars….gotta go through that car wash.

  15. LOL! My mom used to bring us to the car wash for something to do in the summer. The great part about it was we would go to the local deli, before hand and get a “treat”, usually a corn dog or fried chicken, and drive through the car wash munching in awe. My brother and I still laugh about how such a simple thing brought so much fun!

  16. I just did that with my daughter 2 days ago for the first time….she was amazed & scared & giggled the whole time. It was really fun!

  17. I was absolutely terrified of the car wash when I was younger. We had a childminder, who wore leggings and baggy tops, and she used to take the car through about once a week (I think just to see my reaction).

    My reaction was to jump into the front of the car and crawl under her top and leggings. I don’t *think* I’d be scared of the car wash now but I still refuse be in the car when my parents go. I think when I get a car that’ll be my first challenge to myself.

  18. And just as good as kids? Going through a carwash when you’re about 17 and on an early date with a boy (or girl) you are crazy about. You know, back when everything about relationships and doing grown up things was so new and exciting? I remember the pseudo darkness created as the foam covered the windshield was just about the most romantic thing ever at the time, lol.

  19. When I was little going through the automatice car wash used to scare me heaps, think about it, it’s noisy and big moving things and pressing down on the car and covering it with liquid stuff. We didn’t see any like it for about 9 years and then we got one in our city (but you have to pay like $12!! Rip off!!) and I absolutely love it :D

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