Last night I was thinking about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (you know, like you do on Monday. nights) and….

Okay, that’s a lie. I wasn’t thinking about Maslow or his hierarchy at all – at least not at first.

The truth is, I couldn’t sleep and in my tossing and turning, I upended a box in my brain where I store Particularly Useless Random Crap. Out of that box came rolling a jingle…Godchaux Sugar so pure and fine! The best sugar down the Sugar Town Line! (I looked but can’t find a recording of that or I would share that with you.) I remember singing along with that jingle every Saturday morning while watching H.R. Pufnstuf, Children’s Film Festival, and my other Saturday morning favorites.

So, of course, my next insomniac task was to think of other commercials I remember from childhood – Morton Salt, Martha White Flour, Shake n Bake, Texaco, and Shell Oil all came to mind. I don’t believe the food items are advertised much of anywhere anymore – maybe in cooking or lifestyle magazines – and I haven’t seen an oil company ad in forever, either.

Now, to be fair, I do not watch much regular television. I love my Frumpy Hat British Women Detectives; so, I am nearly always tuned in to Acorn or Brit Box. Still, I do love Home Town (as a Mississippi woman, how could I not?) and it seems that most of the ads I see during that show have to do with cable or cell phone service, new cars, fast food or pharmaceuticals for people who like to self-diagnose and who are not afraid of anal leakage as a possible side effect (shiver).

Look how much things have changed in my lifetime! By and large (or at least according to Madison Avenue) we are no longer concerned with our basic physiological needs – food, water, air. The only need I see addressed by advertisers on this basic list is sleep and that only in the form of sleep aid sales. Otherwise, advertising completely ignores the bottom layer of the pyramid. Instead it seems to focus mostly on the top two layers – Self-Actualization and Esteem. Advertisers are constantly telling us what we deserve and how much better we will look and feel when we buy this or that product.

Yesterday, I spoke with some people from central and south Mississippi who live near where I grew up and are near my age. We talked about things we remember from childhood – hand-me-down clothes, shelling peas, playing in the hot Mississippi summer, and spending time with our grandparents. Things were, indeed, so much simpler then. Pleasures were simpler. The pace was less frenetic. Exhaustion was less of a status symbol. Families were more fully connected.

I guess I’m getting old. I miss a lot of those things. I miss sitting with older family members shelling peas until my thumbs were purple. I miss holidays at my grandmothers’ with my cousins, aunts, and uncles all crammed into houses that smelled of baked chicken and cornbread dressing (my mother’s mother), and butane lighters and flammable eggnog (my father’s mother). I cherish the remembered thrill of picking out new clothes – not those that had been worn by two cousins and my sister before me. I miss a time where the choice of flour was a real consideration and was heavily influenced by the baritone of Ernie Ford. I miss when the rats didn’t race so fast.

Madison Avenue may think my needs have changed – they sure spend a lot of money appealing to what they think these new needs are – but, the truth is, my needs haven’t really changed much at all. I still want salt that doesn’t get stuck in the shaker, flour that makes fluffy biscuits, sugar that makes smooth icing, and family around to share all those meals with.