The Soaking Man

When I was a pocket-size child, I idea at that spot was a human being who lived inwards a flooded house, alongside the H2O coming upwards to his chest. But he was real neat in addition to then he ever dressed up, although he also got his shirt badly stained.

This human being was known equally l’uomo inwards ammollo, the soaking man. The soaking human being was ever going on virtually this bet he made alongside his wife. His shirt was real dirty. Wine, love apple tree sauce, grease. Such stains were i time impossible to remove. But non anymore, thank y'all to a laundry detergent called Bio Presto.

Soon the master copy soaking human being was replaced past times a novel soaking human being whose holler was Franco Cerri. He featured non merely on the boob tube ads but also inwards total coloring inwards magazines.

The soaking human being entered hr homes every nighttime during Carosello (literally ‘Carousel’), a pop prime number fourth dimension exhibit consisting exclusively of advertisements, generally inwards the shape of skits of varying duration. Some of these recurring skits are classics of Italian entertainment, including the wonderful La Linea, a grapheme that starred inwards a serial of stand-alone cartoons but was generally known for his business office inwards advertising Lagostina pots.

The comedy of Carosello was oftentimes of the surreal variety. But nada was quite in addition to then foreign – to me at to the lowest degree – than the soaking man.

Why was this human being submerged? Where did all the H2O come upwards from? What did soaking human being produce all day?

Bio Presto was a detergent for your hand-washing. But subsequently they introduced a diversity for washing machines.

There was a big generational gap inwards Italy when it came to washing machines, in addition to I caught the tail terminate of it. Older women didn’t trust them. My woman raise bought my grandmother a washing machine. But my grandmother merely used the washing machine when my woman raise came to visit, every 2nd weekend. Otherwise, she washed everything past times paw inwards the big rock laundry basin at the dorsum of the house. I know because sometimes I spent the calendar week there, specially inwards summer, in-between parental visits.

The sloping front end of the rock laundry basin featured a sculpted surface alongside dents that acted similar a washboard. My grandmother didn’t travel Bio Presto though. She used big foursquare blocs of Marseilles soap. She trusted Marseilles soap.

The soaking human being was trying to sell to Italian housewives a to a greater extent than technologically advanced shape of handwashing. Bio Presto isn’t a laundry detergent, he explained. It’s a bio-detergent. It washes clothes biologically.

The boob tube ads included an animation showing how the enzymes of Bio Presto lifted the stains off the material, which greatly fascinated me.

The slogan of the advertising receive inwards all its iterations was non esiste lo sporco impossibile, at that spot is no such affair equally a stain that won’t come upwards clean.

When they introduced the version of Bio Presto for washing machines, inwards the belatedly 1970s, the ads became fifty-fifty stranger. The soaking human being lived within the washing machine now. But I was older in addition to then I was less fazed. Good on the soaking man, I may convey thought.

The most famous soaking human being was Franco Cerri who – this is also quite foreign – was i of the premier Italian jazz guitarists of the terminal century. He’s even in addition to then alive, actually. He’s 92 years old. During his real long career, he played alongside Chet Baker in addition to Billie Holiday, alongside Dizzy Gillespie in addition to Sarah Vaughan in addition to Stéphane Grappelli, alongside Buddy Collette in addition to Gorni Kramer, who discovered him inwards a fellowship inwards Milan inwards the belatedly 1940s.

But truthful fame came to him via television. Carosello had an audience of xx million. Half the country. For at to the lowest degree ii generations of Italian children, bedtime was 9pm, or ‘after Carosello’. So everyone knew the soaking human being in addition to the ‘little human being of Lagostina’ in addition to all the other characters that populated those 10 minutes of nightly boob tube – every 24-hour interval of the year, except for Good Fri in addition to the 2nd of Nov – all paid for past times commerce, in addition to oftentimes past times multinationals (Bio Presto is a Henkel product). All in addition to then they could sell us groceries.

I don’t experience the slightest chip of nostalgia. But if I intend dorsum quite difficult I tin briefly accomplish for the feel of bafflement I felt whenever I idea of the human being who lived inwards a flooded house.