Richmonders have discovered that the Agee's Bicycles jingle from the 1990s is just the right length to sing while washing one's hands to prevent transmission of disease. (Image via Lee Snavely/Reddit)
We can take some comfort during this present crisis while recognizing a consistent element of our community, which has endured with us through all seasons of challenge and change. At least since 1992.
I speak, of course, about the Agee’s Bicycles jingle.
The UK's National Health Service and the World Health Organization urge us to wash our hands consistently, using hot water and soap for at least 20 seconds, several times a day. This raises the question: How shall I know when I’ve fulfilled my required amount of time under the spigot? Can I program my FitBit to count this off?
You can sing “Happy Birthday” twice, but this can get a bit strained. One suggestion for timing your antiviral hand scrub is the chorus from Beyoncé's “Love on Top,” or the plaintive refrain from Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Others can be found in this NPR story.
On a Richmond Reddit thread from Monday — when things started going dark — one user, u/CurtR from Lakeside, made a good case that the only hand-washing song we need in Richmond is the Agee’s Bicycle jingle. The spritely tune clocks in at the allotted time, and once you get the song in your head, it’ll transfer to your hands.
This discovery came along in response to a post online by onetime Richmond magazine contributor Anne Soffee, who noted in “Covid Lockdown Day 3” that she’d driven her son out of the room by “playing a trap remix of the Agee's Bicycle theme song.”
A friend, Lee Snavely, then posted the take of u/CurtR from Lakeside on the situation, which seems to be derived from an application designed for the purpose of getting people through the 20-second requirement.
Everything comes from something, as did the Agee’s jingle. The energetic tune hit the airwaves in 1992 and lodged in the brains of Richmonders from that point on. In 2010 I delved into the theme’s origin story.
Writer/comedian Beau Cribbs recognized the durable pervasiveness of the Agee’s ballad in 2016. For the “Mayoral Fixation” segments of his chat show “RVA Tonight,” he posed as a qualifying question to one of the Richmond mayoral candidates how much they knew of the song.
But to the point of u/CurtR from Lakeside, he later added to the posting of the Agee’s graphic that he hoped to gain attention for a particular topic.
“Restaurants and coffee shops are closing,” he observed, “but some are staying open to try to service us and to keep their employees afloat.
If you find yourself in one of these establishments, for the love of god, tip these people well.
And print this out and put it in their bathroom.”
The Agee’s solution is more creative than “All Employees Must Wash Their Hands.” Anyway, most of us are employees somewhere, and we need help getting through this present predicament.
