You may recall a commerical for the late etailer eToys which involved an instrumental version of the song Somewhere over the Rainbow and a father and son going to the car wash.

This commecial implanted itself in my mind and as a result I somehow feel that it is my fatherly duty to take not-so-wee Oliver to the car wash on a regular basis. Happily, this desire syncs with my obsessive “you have a new car so must wash it regularly” feeling.

In the world of car washes, there are two camps: touch and touchless (although the ‘touch’ camp probably just thinks of themselves as ‘regular’). At the former your car is beaten and brushed by a variety of spinning, flopping, whirling brushes and at the later you car is simply pummelled with water.

The main selling point of the new-style ‘touchless’ car wash is that, as nothing but water touches you car, you are less likely to suffer damage to antennae, side mirrors and other appendages. The old-style regular carwash people appear to maintain that the spinning and whirling results in a better carwash, despite the possibility of maiming.

Oliver and I usually go to the touchless wash, either in Stratford (good wash; poor vacuums) or West Royalty (good wash; never used the vacuums), but tonight we went to the Iriving on St. Peters Road for a bona fide old-style wash and it felt just like the eToys commercial.

If any of my fellow parents want to experience for yourself, this is a good time to do so, as this Irving has the ‘Super’ wash on sale for the same price as the ‘Deluxe,’ a saving of almost two dollars.