Author:
Talking to a boy I knew all the way through school. His parents owned several farms about thirty miles to the west of us. Of course when he wasn't in school he was on the tractor or elsewhere out on the farm the same as me. He was cautioning me to use sun blocker everyday I went outside. He "now" uses Coppertone sun screen the same as for younger kids. It doesn't burn the eyes if he gets any close.
Why at this late stage in life is he suddenly a hustler for sun screen? The tops of both of his ears were removed to get rid of the cancer. Surgery on his nose and arms to remove cancer. All due to being out in the sun and weather most of his life. I didn't tell him all the damage he is suffering now came from the time we were school age and not in recent years. His words of warning to use sun screen still hold true if we plan on living a little while longer. Today's sun damage will show up later in five years or longer.
Nor did I tell him I have already been fighting the sun worshiping problem for several years myself. Growing up every year I always turned as brown as a chocolate cake as I was out in the weather and sun all day everyday. I took precautions such as a big hat but it wasn't enough. I am a Hinze 57 mongrel with DNA from a whole lot of races in me. Probably the only reason I don't have cancer like my friend. Cancer isn't the only problem caused by too much sun and I'm living proof of that. There are other things.
The moral to my story is for everyone to use sun screen when going out for an hour or more. For all you ladies, no it doesn't show up unless you purposely use the sun screen with the tanning additive included. Nice tan without cooking one's skin. And I ain't telling. Picking it up at the Dollar store it's only four or five dollars. In fifty or sixty years you can thank me for the beautiful skin you still have instead of looking like an old pair of leather chaps.
Life is a gift. Treasure it until it's time to return it.
always
Barb
Comments
I had a friend at work who
I had a friend at work who died of melanoma, so I hear ya.
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
At 54...
I am probably a poster child for future issues.
In the days of foil reflectors and baby oil... I was fortunate enough not to need either for an unhealthy cycle of burning and peeling.
...which is why I see a dermatologist every year (or two at the latest).
I had something scraped that we had been wathching for a while. Thankfully there were no issues. There will be no more "or two" for me timing wise though.
I am of Irish and Polish descent... where the term "fair" is an understatement.
All I will say is..
GET CHECKED REGULARLY!
Hugs,
Stacy
Sigh... though (as a still-secret person) I cannot begin to describe how I would love to have baby-smooth skin with bikini tan lines!
Heinz 57?
I guess I have a fair mix too, a lot of which is from the Baltic mixed in with a dab of other stuff. I'm a weird dark strawberry blonde and I tan quite heavily without any assistance. (yup I have a typical cyclists tan, lilywhite body and heavily tanned arms and legs.
Factor 50 is just a sticky mess on me - I can burn through a quite heavy layer. That said I don't get to a peeling stage very often as i'm out in all seasons. By comparison my dark haired daughter doesn't tan that much even sitting out in it.
I do however keep an eye out for melanomas and despite living a quite outdoors life from an early age i've not developed anything up to now. But as the song says 'wear sunscreen'.
Guess it's one of those 57 varieties things, no one i'm directly related to has had cancer of any type but asthma is quite prevalent. One side of the family are long lived, the other not so, one side are taller than average, the other tend to short and dumpy. We can't choose our gene pool!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Dog from Every Town
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_57
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
The summer was very good last
The summer was very good last year, but I was at work that day. So body just uses every possibility to tan.
Baltic descent doesn't give many choices, Madd, I'm just curious.
If you are going to wear a hat...
for heavens sake don't choose a baseball cap. You know those silly things that many Americans even wear to bed and probably adorned with a company name or logo.
Theu might shade the eyes but they leave the ears and neck totally exposed. Something like a Sombrero is ideal but something a bit smaller would work just as well.
Samantha
Cowboy or cowgirl hat of course
I always wore one on my head. My girlfriend wore a bonnet. Only lately have I started wearing a Mexican Farmer style straw hat. Big wide brim shades most of the body. In my case, too little too late as the sun damage had been put into motion by the time I was a teenager.
When we are young we are invincible. Only when we get older do we realize how vincible these bodies really are and it is the long term things that haunt us the most.
Life is meant to be lived, not worn until it's worn out.
always,
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
You could have made your
You could have made your point without insulting Americans.
They were never intended to be anything except a head cover that also shields your eyes from glare. It was developed to be part of a uniform, it became a fashion choice thanks to its compact size and light weight. Sorry if being so common is insulting to you, but practicality and usefulness matter at times.
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
I have to agree with EF
You could have made your point without insults.
My eyes are highly light sensitive making it impossible for me to see in bright sunlight without prescription sunglasses and some type of hat to shade my eyes. Ball caps are inexpensive, easily replaceable if lost or damaged, and don't get knocked off your head by the wind or when trying to enter or exit a vehicle.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Samantha didn't insult anyone
The lady made a comment what she thought about baseball caps. Which happens to be all true. I admit I've worn my fair share of them things. Great shade for the eyes but really and truly not that sexy if one doesn't have the body to flaunt it. I don't believe there are any better advertising dollars so well spent as a good looking woman in a bikini and a baseball cap advertising Hubcap Jack's Millions of Wheel Covers or whatever.
Have fun with life. It doesn't last long enough to take seriously.
always
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
can I have some of whatever you're drinking?
I say this because at the bare minimum two people found what was said insulting. To blatantly come out and say that only the truth was told is like rubbing salt into an open wound.
Why don't we sterotype even further! All Muslims are terrorists, all southerners are inbred idiots, all blacks are thieves, all Jewish are greedy, all British are stuck up assholes... Need I continue? Have I offended anyone yet as badly as I was offended by the Americans and the ball cap crap?
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Melanin
aka skin pigment.
Being Asian provides a good amount of protection in my case.
Up till my mid 20s I never touched any sunscreen.
As a kid I spent hours in the sun during Summer.
I used sunscreen in my thirties plus I stayed away from the sun for the most part.
The epiphany about avoiding the sun occurred when I got a very mild sunburn (skin a little warm, just a tiny redness) after spending two hours in the water near the shore learning to swim.
I still look about 13 to 14 years younger than my age to this day but I might look even better than that if I had used sunscreen throughout my life.Genes plays a factor of course but the sun is relentless.
Avoiding the sun is absolutely essential, reaping the benefits as you get older.
Know your genetic heritage and act accordingly.