Your first REAL Sun Burn...

I remember growing up in california in the summer time, gosh i lived in my swim suit and roller skates, sold lemonade in front of the house, we always had the best pool right out in the front yard, one of those big plastic pools with the slide in it, had all the neighborhood kids in it. We had a driveway that was slick when wet we could use like a slipnslide, us as kids just lived our lives in the sunshine. I always stayed nicely tanned.

My very first sunburn i ever had i'll never forget. I always thought i was invincible, i actually didn't know what the heck a sunburn is, never knew the sun could beat me up so badly. I trusted and loved the sun..

Our family came here to Vegas this was our first family trip to vegas. We arrived in the evening coming over Cajon Pass mountain suddenly in view of all those twinkling lights of Las Vegas, something i have never seen before.. i was seeing the galaxy on land, we were going to be driving right into the universe of stars. Daddy was our astronaut, he drove us into outspace!

We arrived in Vegas, i was so bewildered and taken with this glorious sight, every eye turn was bright like daytime, flashing and beaming in every color imaginable. One thing i had my eyes on was the POOLS.. omg.. pools with BIG slides, not like the 5 inch slides we had at home, these pools had slides 10, 15, 20 feet long. Some were curved like a snake, some took you round'n round. These lighted up delights of fun we were going to enjoy when morning came.

We finally got settled into our motel, to late to go swimming, barely able to sleep thinking about that pool, finally dosing off... morning came.
It was 6 am, we put on our swimsuits, blew up rafts for 30 minutes, grabbed a towel, and RAN down to the pool. Without a second thought we just jumped right in.. aaaah cold jumped out.. aaaaahh hot jumped in.. lol. Anyways the day went on we slid, splashed, swam, floated, layed out for our so called tans. While you are out there you do not know what it's doing to you, and i did not know until i went into the motel room to take a shower, i noticed i was a whole different color...

I AM RED..red like lobster, from the top of my head in my scalp to the tip of my pinky toe. Within a few hours i could not move without pain. I was burning everywhere.. There was a chair in the room that had an ottoman i slowly sat into it and in such pain lifted my legs on it, i placed my arms on the arm rest. It felt like i was in a complete red body cast, i could not move, i had slightly swollen up and my lips looked like a malpratice of botoc, just blinking made me cry, not even to think i am now at the mercy of my sister... Sister.. you evil, evil thing get away from me.. don't touch me... don;t you dare toooucch meee... aaaaahhhhh.. she poked me

So.. anyone have any memorable sunburns? lol

It's fun to swim at the YMCA.  You get to take lessons and move up from tadpole to minnow and so on.  One summer my brothers "worked" at "The Y" and were there all the time even though our parents made them take me with them.  I was probably about 8.
My brothers were not great at watching me.  I only saw them as we drove to the Y, and when they finally could locate me to go home.  There was a game room, a baseball field, a gym with a trampoline, and OMG a snack bar!
And the pool.
I was forced to take lessons, but when lessons were over it was free swim all day.  I guess lifeguard duty was more like babysitting as I never saw my brothers in the pool (or, if I did, they kept FAR away from the 'baby' of the family).
I knew a little about sunburn.  I put on the Sea&Ski suntan lotion (what a joke-probably about a 2 on the current SPF scale) which washed off as soon as it got wet, but I was just a kid.  Since I wasn't the best swimmer, I was usually in the shallow end, which went almost up to my shoulders.
I got home one day and had blisters covering both shoulders.  I cried and cried.  Couldn't put clothes on-my dad finally gave me one of his t-shirts-the kind without arms-just a small strap across the shoulders.  I remember the little strap kept turning yellow and crusty, sticking to my oozing blisters.  I cried and cried somemore.  Then the parakeet, George (George is a good boy...my name is George) flew over to see me and where would he land?  On the shoulders!  With his bird-claws.  More crying.  Next week where would you find me?  In the pool at the Y.
I've had worse-at the beach as a teenager oh the pain.

My youngest daughter, Saxon, had very fair skin.  Her preschool class went to Splashtown.  I musta told those ladies 10 times BE SURE you put LOTS of this SUNSCREEN on her OFTEN!  I wanted to call the police at the end of the day when I picked up my purple child.  Not just red.  Purple.  The doctors said she had 3 years of sun exposure damage in that one day.  I have lots of freckles from the sun.  Saxon has practically nothing but freckles now, at 19 years old.  I'm still mad at that damn preschool.

Those are both great stories i LOVED them, isn't it strange, spend all your young age in the sun the suddenly POW, and you get the POW you don't even know you got lol...

Yes, i was very sick too and went through all the bubbled blisters and pain,the chills and swolleness, my parents wanted to take me to the hospital, but i begged them not to.. so she called a nurse practitioner and got advice as to what to look for with me and gave her advice on how to treat the sunburn, it helped somewhat..but i did have to spend the vacation in that chair.. I'm not fair skinned i do have some color to my skin..

I spent MANY summers at the beach, but never did i get burned like that!