All washed up.

How would you like to bathe in a French slipper, like Ben Franklin? Or would you rather join 3,000 of your friends in a tub larger than a grocery store? People have come clean for thousands of years, but not always in a bathroom with running water and rubber duckies.

The first bath may have happened when a scruffy prehistoric human bent to get a drink and fell into the water. He probably emerged clean and refreshed, unless he was eaten by a crocodile. By the time of the Greeks, people had recognized the health benefits of bathing (and dodging crocodiles). A doctor named Hippocrates told people to take cold baths for good health. Greeks also enjoyed bathing and swimming in heated public baths, where they used bronze scrapers to clean their skins.

The Romans took public bathing to extremes. One of their baths could hold 3,000 people at once. Roman baths were huge and beautifully decorated. Libraries, art galleries, exercise rooms, and restaurants surrounded the baths. It was like the mall, but with towels.

But after barbarians conquered Rome, Europe forgot about bathing for hundreds of years. People struggled against infections and diseases caused by unclean habits.

When the first European settlers reached America, they still weren't taking baths. Some actually called it unhealthy. Besides, you had to carry water and heat it over a stove and then dip it out of the tub by hand afterward. You could end up as dirty and tired after the bath as you were before!

American patriot Benjamin Franklin was one of the few who believed in baths. He used a "French slipper," a big copper tub shaped a lot like a shoe. But most people at the time were only using slippers--French or otherwise--for walking.

It wasn't until the early 1900s that many people knew that keeping clean helped eliminate germs, and most people bathed at least once a week. By the 1950s, most American homes had running water, bathrooms, and brothers and sisters who shouted "You're spending too long in there!" at each other. Once-a-week bathing was a joke.

But if you think once a week is weak, think about Isabella, queen of Spain when Columbus set sail in 1492. She took only two baths in her entire life!