Bathing Beauties

Another "stranger" photo - clickable - check out those 1930s swimsuits. From the back of the photo information the girl on the left is Sarah Frances and the girl on the right is Molly.

I am a white chick - there is no racial connotation there at all. I am a natural redhead - freckled face - fair complexion - scream out loud here - BLINDINGLY WHITE.

During my teens I was a sun-worshipper too. Talking babyoil and reflective sun blankets. Weekends at the lake laying on a float in the water. One hellatious sunburn - remembered in great detail - on vacation at Myrtle Beach. Even with all that sun overexposure, I was always the lightest skinned girl in the group.

Let's also cover sunless tanners -- OMG -- orange skin and red hair -- hideous.

Then I watched as my Nanny's friend - fought and lost a battle with Melanoma on his face. His exposure not a result of worshipping the sun, but of working hard in the sun - in the fields - at the sawmill - hard work required just to survive and feed a family. He lost most of his face to the surgery - a disfiguring, awful surgery - and we loved him right on. The last of his days were painful and ugly - metatastic melanoma is an ugly killer.

At the sight of him right after the surgery - sunscreen became my friend. I still love the Bullfrog Orginal Formula and my children have never been without mom hovering with that "stupid tube of sunscreen" (teenspeak here for those who don't have those). I also faithfully wear my sunglasses.

The result - one very fair skinned redhead who is proud of the fact that I am a seriously white girl.

I was with a friend of mine in the last few days. She owns her own tanning bed - uses it everyday - spends lots of unprotected time in the sun - and thinks the "tan lines" generated by sunglasses are hideous.

There is a picture of us as same age teens in my yearbook. We were both pretty girls according to the Man at my Address. When my girls saw the two of us together the other day, both commented that Miss ________ looks "rode hard and put up wet" and at least 20 years older than I. She is wrinkled and age spotted - squint lines around her eyes and between her brows. She also just called and said that the doctor found a spot on her back that may be a skin cancer.

Take note people - take all the precautions you can with sun exposure. Protect your kids. Protect yourself. You will look younger longer and it does matter to your health.

This concludes todays random outburst public service announcement.

Now - thanks to all the encouraging words and hoorays about my wieght loss - 40 more to go to get where the doc wants me. I'll keep plugging away.

Have a wonderful day.