When I was a teenager...

[susandennis]

Getting a good tan was THE only thing worth spending your time doing in the summer. Golden brown was the holy grail and I didn't know anyone who didn't work on it during every daylight hour.

We would lather up with a mixture of baby oil + iodine which was purported to get you tanned way faster than commercial tanning lotions. And then make sure we spent as much time frying our fronts as our backs and seeing that bathing suit lines were obscured as much as possible. I had fair skin so I usually burned but with effort, I could get a good tan by September.

Sun block? Why in godsname would you even want to do something like that??? That's nuts.

I heard about sun block maybe 25 years ago but only for little kids. I don't think I ever used any myself until a few years ago. Of course, I try to avoid the sun at all costs so it's not something I need often. And I don't know squat about all the different kinds.

My insurance affords me $50 in over the counter stuff every quarter and they carry one kind of each of the usual suspects (imodium, cold stuff, aspirin, etc). They had one kind of sun block and I ordered it.

It stinks. That is to say I find the smell icky but the woman next to at the game, as I slathered it on, remarked 'oh I just love the smell of sun block - it just says summer to me!' So, whatever.

Anyway, the point of this entry (and damn time I got there, amirite?) is how shocked I am at how good it works. I slathered it on when I first went out to my seat and sat there, in the sun for 2+ hours and have no sign on my skin that I wasn't inside with the shades drawn. Amazing. Smelly, but amazing.

Comments

[617529309.livejournal.com]

Ha! That's a funny story. I also remember growing up and the whole point of going back to school was to be as tan as possible - especially being from Texas.

But I can relate to enjoying the smell of sunscreen. Not sure what it is, but it does remind me of summer.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Bain de Soleil, for the St. Tropez tan.

I never tan. Ever. I freckle, blister, peel, and am white again.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I started using sunblock in the mid-80s, before that it was suncream but I don't think the SPF was that high. This summer I've been using something called Ultrasun which is horribly expensive but I'm really pleased with it, mostly because it doesn't give me a rash

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I learned early on that I would not tan no matter what I did, but that it was real easy for me to get a very painful sunburn. I think my family (and me especially) were early adopters of sunblock.

[susandennis]

Back in the day (love that phrase) Mom's told us that once you got the first sunburn of the summer, you were immune (yes, really) to any more and would just get tanned after that.

It's a wonder we're all not dead of so many many things.

[galebird.livejournal.com]

I remember my mother making that concoction of baby oil and iodine! I can still smell it. My memory is so patchy I think that I am making these things up, nice to know that was a real thing even if it was not necessarily a good thing in the long run. I know people who use SPF4 stuff now which is just like, a smidgeon better than the baby oil days. lol

[susandennis]

Oh no totally real. We were just oiling up for the frying. Hard to imagine now. Really.

[siobhan63.livejournal.com]

I never use any sunblock, but then again, I don't hang about outside much. There was something in the media here in Canada not that long ago about how the use (overuse?) of sunblock cremes is causing a major vitamin D deficiency in Canadians. It's bad enough in the winter, when we don't get much/enough sun anyway, but now we're shooting ourselves in the foot during the summer as well. They're trying to advise people to ease up a bit on using the really heavy-duty stuff. Some sun IS good for you -- just roasting in it for hours not so much.