To tan or not to tan, that is the question!!!
As I sit here with my white legs, white arms, white face, white body, white everything looking like a newly plucked chicken, next to my Hispanic granddaughter with beautiful caramel skin. I love caramel skin and in my next life perhaps I will have that gorgeous, flawless skin, caramel in color. But, today I am reflecting back to the days when we actually tried to achieve, and did, but not without a little (a lot) discomfort and pain. Tanning beds were then invented and were a lifesaver for a lot of us. You put in your twenty minutes a couple of times a week and wah-lah a sweet tan all over. Works for me. But, now we find they also are not what to do as they also can cause skin cancer.
O.k Now, the self-tanning lotions. Some of you might find this the answer for a glorious looking tan, but for me, I break out. You see somebody does not want me to have that caramel skin I am looking for.
Here was my procedure as a young person to obtain that golden glow a lot of us dreamed about and tried to achieve. First of all, if you didn’t tan easily like me you first had to wish for a wonderful cloud-free day. It didn’t matter if it was 100 degrees out. Then you slathered your body with baby oil, vegetable oil, whatever you had on hand. You laid out a shiny silver blanket on the ground if you didn’t mind ants and miscellaneous other bugs crawling over you. Otherwise, you laid in a lounger and hoped the mosquitoes wouldn’t find you. Have you ever tried to read a book while lying on your stomach in a lounger that doesn’t lay flat? This makes for a wonderful neck ache and total discomfort. You lay there, for me, it was at least two hours. It might even be longer if you want to make sure you have a proper glow on both your front and back. You get up after a while, run through the sprinkler to get cooler, and again to activate the sun on your body. Now, after about two-plus hours in the burning sun you feel you have had enough, you hope your not too burned, just nicely tanned, yeah right, you think you are done for that day. But there is always tomorrow if you didn’t burn today and hopefully, the sun will again be out.
Can you imagine the boredom of laying there in a bug-infested, burning hot, situation for more than five minutes? Boy have I changed. I don’t care if I am pasty white, I would never do this again. This isn’t even bringing up the fact that we have now created a wonderful situation for skin cancer and possible death.
I still like the tanning bed idea, but COVID has sort of fixed that idea, and, of course, the thought of skin cancer (and dark spots) has cause for concern.
I still pine over those beautiful bodies that are nicely tanned and wish them the best, but unfortunately, it won’t be me.
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