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13. The Most Sunburnt I’ve Ever Been
Falling asleep on the beach will do it to you every time
I don’t make it a habit to get sunburnt. As teenagers, we used to apply oil to our almost naked bodies so we could get a really deep tan. Everyone wanted to be as brown as a berry, except if you were naturally brown. My girlfriends and I were all white as snow. Mary, a redhead, freckled the minute the sun touched her skin, the rest of us tried hard to make our white skins brown with varying degrees of success. Being tanned was the epitome of beauty. (What fools we were!)
I’ve lost count of the number of sunspots I’ve had removed by liquid nitrogen. And two BCCs (basal cell carcinoma) that were surgically removed. I don’t want any more. I wear a hat and try to stay out of the sun as much as possible. But the damage had been done.
Forty-two years ago, my boyfriend (before we were married) and I went to Bribie Island for the day. He was meeting a mate at the pub and I had report cards to write. It was early December so end-of-year reporting time. I had a class of 37 Year 5s. So I went down to the beach to transfer all the results from my mark book to each student’s report card. And make comments! So I lay on my tummy so I could write. And yes, it’s a boring repetitive job, so, yes, I fell asleep. I had on a pair of maillot togs. If you…
