UV Bomb

As a teenager growing up in the 60’s on the baked plains of Kansas, my summers were devoted to hanging out with friends at a neighborhood pool for relief from the oppressive heat. And I started working as a lifeguard the summer I turned sixteen. My ‘sunscreen’ of choice was SPF Zero Johnson’s Baby Oil. And my pool manager boss wouldn’t permit his lifeguards to wear anything more than a black speedo, because he thought shorts and a t-shirt might get in the way of lifesaving duties. Little did I know that I was setting myself up for big trouble thirty years or so down the road. The honest truth is that melanoma awareness education probably wouldn’t have changed my behavior one bit because I wanted to look like a bronzed and bleached surfer dude and couldn’t have cared less about the potential consequences decades away in the future. But an adult pool manager who enforced sun safety rules as stringently as he enforced other employee rules just might have kept me out of The Hotel Melanoma.


Summertime is here so, mamas and papas, don’t let your babies grow up to be mole mates. I’ll leave you with my take on John Mellencamp’s “Cherry Bomb”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF0gsbQKhD8


Well I lived on the outskirts of brown
In post war boom ranch house, baby
When my summer fool friends would lie round
There was always some skin burnin’
Had me a gaggle of real nice pool friends
Stopped by my tower every once in a while
When I think back about those days
All I can do is sit and smile


That's when a mole was a mole,
Infusin' was boozin'
And tannin' meant everything
We were young and we were improvin'
Gamblin’, gamblin’ with our skins
Getting’ scans meant nothin', baby
Outside in club "UV Bomb"
Our brains were really pumpkins
Say yeah yeah yeah
Say yeah yeah yeah


The winter days they last forever
But the summers went by so quick
Sun beatin’ upon this flatland country town
We were bronzin' nuts, girl, out in the sticks
One fright, me with my big moles
A couple fries had to put C in my space
When I see tan lies these days
I just gasp and say do you want leather skin


That's when a mole was a mole,
Infusin' was boozin'
And tannin' meant everything
We were young and we were improvin'
Gamblin’, gamblin’ with our skins
Getting’ scans meant nothin', baby
Outside in club "UV Bomb"
Our brains were really pumpkins
Say yeah yeah yeah
Say yeah yeah yeah


Seventeen has turned fifty-nine
I'm surprised that I’m still livin'
If I've done any wrong
I hope that I’m forgiven
Got some new scars of my own
And some days I still don't know if C’s through
I hope that God’s not laughing too loud
When he hears me preachin'
Safe sun to you


That's when a mole was a mole,
Infusin' was boozin'
And tannin' meant everything
We were young and we were improvin'
Gamblin’, gamblin’ with our skins
Getting’ scans meant nothin', baby
Outside in club "UV Bomb"
Our brains were really pumpkins
Say yeah yeah yeah
Say yeah yeah yeah