Lately every time I tell Sir Monkeypants that we need to go and get something, he says, “We need more Calgon!” It makes me giggle. But as expected, it also makes me feel really, really old, as it references a famous commercial that our kids have never heard of. Hell, I bet FameThrowa and Sinnick haven’t even heard of it.

Did you know that the youngest contestant on American Idol was born in 1992? I bet he doesn’t even know what “Where’s the beef?” means.

At Easter when I saw Easter Creme Eggs at the Superstore — LOVE them, by the way, but even I, with my monster sweet tooth, can no longer justify the crazy amount of sugar they contain — I couldn’t help but hum the theme song from my youth. You know…”Oooh, oh, oh, Easter Creme Eggs!” And the commercial lives long in my memory — a lovely young girl with super straight 70s hair roller skating at the local rink with her beau, and he buys and egg and is skating with it, and takes her hand and she takes advantage of his affection to nab a bite of his egg. There’s about a hundred hours of 12-year-old fantasy right there.

One time when I was a little kid my mom was letting me watch The Carol Burnett Show. It was family-friendly in that there was no swearing or violence but I only got maybe a tenth of the humour involved. Someone on the show was playing a character called “Loyola” and when she entered the scene she sang, “You ask for it, you got it, Loyola,” sung to the tune of the famous Toyota jingle. I laughed and laughed. Commercial references are really funny to an 8-year-old.

I can’t believe I’m actually getting a little nostalgic for commercials. These days I’m always watching Treehouse, which is completely commercial-free programming for kids, or shows on the PVR, where any and all commercials can be easily skipped. Other than the Mac ads, I can’t even tell you what major ad campaigns are out there right now. Good and bad, I guess.

At least Captain Jelly Belly can sing the “You’re Watching Treehouse!” jingle. He can be all nostalgic about that when he’s 37.