The Summer of '69

In the summer of ’69 I turned 16 and worked at the local Moose Club pool for the minimum wage of $1.50 an hour. As a naturally pale and freckled kid of Celtic descent, I was engaged in a futile effort to attain the coveted blond surfer dude look. Sunscreen, if it even existed back then, was out of the question. And the pool manager, an officious jerk who was a junior high gym coach and high school football referee who enjoyed terrorizing teenagers, wouldn’t let his pool staff wear a t-shirt or anything else but a Speedo. His rationale was that removing clothing might unduly delay our leap into the pool to make a save. So over the course of that and several subsequent summers, I got myself serially fried more than bronzed—especially on my back where a primary melanoma tumor cropped up nearly 35 years later.

But the truth is that I have no regrets over my choice of summer jobs and wouldn’t change a thing. I was being paid to hang out in the sunshine with friends, some of the female persuasion, and never break a sweat. It sure beat the heck out of the actual work involved in the jobs a lot of my buddies had as oil field workers, golf course or landscaping laborers, grocery store clerks, etc. And the ‘view’ was oh so much better!

Until next time, I’ll sign off with my rendition of Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ‘69”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f06QZCVUHg

I got my first real skin singe
’Bought’ it at the lifeguard ‘grind’
Laid out 'til my skin turned red
It was the summer of '69

Me and some guys from school
Had suntans and we fried real hard
UV bit and mole C got scary
I shoulda known we'd leather too far
Oh when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Ya - I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life

Ain't no use in complainin'
When you got a ‘job’ to do
Spent my evenin's brown at the dive-in
And that's where I met you U

Tannin’ was my cancuh’s torch
Who told me that I’d pay for leather?
Oh and when docs held my scans
I knew that it was now or never
Those weren’t the best days of my life

Back in the summer of '69

Man we were killin' hide
We were young and reckless
We needed U sun kind
I guess nothin' can last forever, forever, no

And now my hide’s all pale skin
Look at everything that's come and gone
Sometimes when I spray that cold sunscreen
I think about U, wonder what went wrong

Tannin’ was my cancuh’s torch
Who told me that I’d pay for leather?
Oh and when docs held my scans
I knew that it was now or never
Those weren’t the best days of my life

Back in the summer of '69