I was more of a blanky kid (still have it at my parent’s house; it is a destroyed tattered rag that I love the shit out of) than a rubber ducky kid, but I have to imagine that Jeff Moss‘s ode to Ernie’s most beloved bath toy inspired swaths of kids to get down with bathing the moment the song was introduced in 1970.

“Rubber duckie” is a simple, charming track that reached the number 16 spot on the Billboard charts when it was released 45 years ago, and most certainly inspired the national holiday we are semi-celebrating today. Watch below and lose yourself in Ernie’s tender celebration of his second favorite person in the world.

Something I have been thinking a lot about recently is how to access the same imagination I used to have when I played with action figures ceaselessly as a kid, and then I remember Jeff Moss and Jim Henson wrote this song well into adulthood. Something about that is very sweet and reassuring. Everybody go hug your childhood toys and feel those feels. <3