Tanning no more

Once upon a time in my foolish youth I thought it was cool to get a suntan. There were many summers during my teens where I would “sunbathe” with almost nothing protecting my skin. Several times I got a crispy result.

The turning point for me was a visit to Hong Kong with the Navy back in 1991. Many of the crew and I visited a water theme park in the hills above the city. It was blazing hot so I removed my shirt, I had no sunscreen, and I was on a mountain in the tropics for several hours. I had huge blisters on my back for the rest of the week and came very close to requesting a light duty chit to recover from that foolhardy damage. Never again would I take that for granted, I vowed.
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