Nineteenth Century Skin
It's the first day of summer, and the day is worthy of the name. So why am I not making plans to hit the beach for the first time this year? Because I'm a water bather, not a sunbather. The water temperature is supposed to peak at 17ºC today, and the air temperature reach 27ºC (though I think it's passed that point by now), while the UV index is supposed to be 9. My idea of a good summer's day is not to roast like a peanut on a towel. Once upon a time, I wanted to be tan. When I was a girl I would spend as much time as possible in the sun and earn a sunburn. While everyone around me turned brown, I'd turn a nice vermilion. My problem was the white as alabaster skin I had been endowed with at birth. An aristocratic lady of the nineteenth century would have killed for my skin, but not a normal teenager of the late twentieth. Some summers I would despair. I would try different sun tan lotions with different SPF's. I would go ecstatic when, upon removing my watch,...