Allan´s Weblog

I have been waiting for white to get the new tan, it must be just around the corner - just like in rococo times, when a tan was for the working people.
Nice to see you, very relaxed in front of a camera. Maybe you should look into it sometimes?
I like your observations.

I don't get it either, the frying part that is. Here in in Arizona, which I think is the skin cancer capital of the U.S. because we have sun almost 365 days a year, people flock to San Diego or other areas of California beaches, or they go to the various lakes in Arizona to cool off or just to see water. Some go to 'fry'.

I think I've only had a tan twice in my life. Once when I was 16 and then, when I was still thin and cute, when I was 38. Twice I've had a sunburn where my skin hurt, then later peeled. Those two times I had gone tubing down the Salt River with a bunch of friends. I hadn't thought I'd get burned because we were all moving constantly in the river, never just laying out in one spot and baking. It was a few years after that when sunscreen came onto the market.

Because of living in Arizona all my life, I now have what I call 'the brown splotchies', sort of a freckling on any areas of exposed skin not normally covered up by clothing (face,hands, arms). Some of the brown spots are called sebhorriac keratosis and others are called lentigo. They began appearing around the age of 50. I have had three on my face 'frozen' off but the freezing leaves a whitish mark. My doctors have assured me that none of these brown marks are cancerous. My mother was a red head and had very fair skin and she had lots of these brown spots.

Oh Allan, I didn't know. Didn't get on Opera till the end of April or so. I am thankful it was benign. Things like that are very scary.

I was very worried about the first keratosis I had removed because it was growing and would get scaly sometimes. The dermatologist assured me they often do that and not to worry. I had no insurance at the time and asked him if I could pay in installments figuring it was going to cost $300. It was only $50. I could handle that!

I disappear into my cave whenever it is 110 degrees and higher. During the hottest months (June,July,Aug) I tend to work in my yard very early in the morning plus I have a large tree in both front and back and I stay in the shade.

Agree, but I must say feel a bit better looking when I have a bit of taning. What I really don't get are people with fake tans looking orange

Anita writes:

Hi allan !

you are just gorgeous with that videothing....great post......and I haven´t read about your experiences about having a birthmark before...so I read it, your older post...and I could tell that it was terrible to wait for a result that long.....I once waited 14 days for the result for breatcancer...but i was told already when I was examined on the hospital that it surely was nothing to worry about.....but I had someone in my family ..my mothers sister that just died from it the same year and taht´s why i was examined for this....but I do remember the feeling when I called my doctor to get the result and the two days before when thinking about, if ?

I do get some tan but not from lying down on the beach that much..it´s just while I´m working in the garden and sitting in the garden reading or so....but sure you have to be careful....and a funny thing about the people from India wanting to be white...crazy stuff....

Kjeldsen writes:

Nice post, Ricewood. You are getting better.

As you know I subscribe to the same newspaper, and I was puzzled too by that headline. I meen, light skin is popular in most places, isn't it? The so called white race has after all claimed supremacy on the entire face of the world, haven't we? A headline like that makes my skin red with shame of beeing a fullblood member of this 'master race'. Not that I have parttaken in any imperialist actions myself, but that doesn't make it go away, does it?

I hate sunny beaches.

Great commentary. I enjoy your style immensely.

It's about class and leisure. In poor countries, or for groups in the lower part of the economic bracket, being dark always suggested being a peasant and having to work in the fields. So being light was considered a good thing, because that meant that you didn't have to work at that kind of labor.

On the other hand. for the upper classes, being tan meant having the leisure time to lay out in the sun.

I guess it depends not really on whether you are dark or light, but what class you are in.

Kjeldsen writes:

Sorry for my last comment, Ricewood. I can be extremely 'uptight' on mondays.

True, Piercy...

It's the same with obesity. In some cultures overweight suggests that you live a life of plenty. In the dawn of man overweight women were actually worshipped. Today the archetype of beauty is a pale and skinny girl looking like a 12 year old boy (if it wasn't for the enormous breast-implants).

Times do change.

I for myself is a fullbload celtic with mould cheese skin. Five minutes in the sun and I look like a boiled prawn.

Enjoyed the entry... I'm trying to be careful to not get too much sun, but enjoy soaking in a bit of Vitamin D... I seem to get depressed if I avoid it all together. I haven't put on my sun hat once this summer, but the last couple years hardly ever went anywhere without it! Take care now.

Pale or tanned, it all seems to be just fashion and what's popular at the time.