We Forgot The Sunscreen And Got Sunburned. 9-26-21

A trip!

By: Ryanne Leavitt

A trip to the beach!

A trip to the beach with driftwood!

Driftwood and sand!

Driftwood and sand and fog!

Driftwood and sand and fog and fighter jets!

Freighter jets and seals!

Fighter jets and seals and sun!

Fighter jets and seals and sun and rocks!

Rocks and hikes!

Rock and hikes and waves!

Rocks and hikes and waves and water shoes!

Water shoes and a happy girl

Water shoes and a happy girl splashing with friends!

Water shoes and a happy girl splashing with friends in tidal pools!

Tidal pools and ice cream cones!

Tidal pools and ice cream cones and walking in town!

Tidal pools and ice cream cones and walking in town in shorts!

In shorts in sunshine!

In shorts in sunshine with out sunscreen!

In shorts in sunshine with out sunscreen now sunburned. 

We Forgot the Sunscreen and We Got Sunburned

By: Carrie Keiser

The sun peeked through the window waking Janice and James from their slumber.  Janice rolled over and check the time on her phone, 6:15. She groaned, flopping back onto the bed. It was Saturday and she had planned to sleep in, but as usual her body or more accurately the sun had ended her sweet dreams way too early. James bounded out of bed with a smile on his face, always ready to greet the day. He was such a morning person and Janice had always been more of a night owl.  She reached for the pillow and covered head wishing that sleep would take her back, knowing that it wasn’t going to happen though. 

James, clean clothes in one hand and checking the weather on his phone in the other, “Come on, Janice, its going to be a beautiful day, let's go for a ride down the coast!” He hollered as he headed to the bathroom for a shower. 

Janice slid out of bed with her eyes closed reaching for her phone and her bathrobe, not at all ready to face the day.  She’d feel better once she got some breakfast and a shower. It was just the getting up part that was hard.  If she admitted it to herself, it would be nice to take a ride with James. She loved the ocean and they didn’t get many opportunities to take off and enjoy the day together.  They had been married for just over a year and one would think they would have plenty of time to go do things together but with James working as a welder and Janice as a 1st grade teacher, they were more busy that they expected. Thinking about spending the whole day with her man, brought a smile to her face and improved her attitude, she hummed her way into the kitchen to make breakfast.

She could hear James singing in the bathroom to her favorite Nickleback song, “If Today Was Your Last Day,” as she flipped the last pancake and set the table.  The idea of a drive down the east coast and possibility of stopping at her favorite beach, Colony Beach, to enjoy the ocean sounds and views with James had inspired her to move a littler faster.

They finished their morning meal and she set to getting a beach bag ready to grab on the way out the door. Janice hurried to shower and dressing a cute sundress she’d recently purchased.  Lastly she grabbed their swimwear tossed them in the bag and met James in the car.  

The drive down the coast of Maine was beautiful and they pulled in to Colony Beach in time for a lunch on the sand.  After a midday meal they changed into their suits and lounged on the beach, played in the watering just enjoyed the day together.  After a few hours, Janice realized that her failure to remember the sunscreen was going to make for a very uncomfortable few days enduring the sunburns they acquired. She felt despite forgetting the sunscreen and getting burned the day was a success.

By: Vanessa Holmquist 

We forgot the sunscreen and got burned.
A lesson was learned.
No need to forget again.
Because we were beet red.
Next time we go out to the beach. 
We will be preach.
Don't forget the sunscreen.

We Forgot the Sunscreen and Got Sunburned Flynn Family Story Slingers, 27 September 2021 by Cary Holmquist.

The day was 22 August 1987. Colleen and I had a day of fun planned to celebrate her birthday, to enjoy the large water park at Raging Waters, in south Salt Lake City, which had a number of thrilling water slides. Colleen lived and worked in Salt Lake and I was visiting on a long overdue vacation from dusty, windy Montana. We were ready for thrills to give us chills from the summer heat.

And so we spent most of the day waiting in lines, to get up to the top of the water slides, waiting our turns to splash down in a few seconds and swim around a little. It was a bright sunshiny day and hot. We had not planned everything, which evidently included little or no sunscreen. With all those hours under the sun on both sides of noon, we got pretty well sunburned. Or at least did not use enough sunscreen to protect us all through those hours.

And so, our energy was sapped by the thrills and chills and climbing and no doubt dehydrating from not drinking well enough. In the late afternoon, we covered up again and sought some shade and food.

And then it started to hurt, those sunburned shoulders and backs and arms. We found relieving lotions, high in aloe vera and started applying it and loosening up all our clothing. And with

all that goes plenty of talking. In particular, I kept lightly rubbing lotion onto Colleens very burned back and shoulders as we sat on the deck of her apartment near downtown Salt Lake.

I had been courting Colleen from afar for several months by this time, having made a couple earlier trips from Fairfield, Montana, to Salt Lake and joining up with her on activities with family members—I recall a hike up to Morrell Falls, north of Seeley Lake, earlier in the season.

We had known each other through Young Single Adult activities before she had left to serve a mission in the Philippines and after her return. For example, Colleen had acted a hillbilly in a three- act farce play where I was the assistant director. We had rehearsed with our group many times and put on two or three full performances. And we found ourselves together at several other social activities.

But the sunburning at the water park probably brought us into more physical contact than we had before.

Somewhere as we continued talking late into the evening and then through ALL the wee hours, we came to a consensus. My intention was to formalize our relationship by stating that we were going steady in our dating. Then as we continued to talk and subtly reveal our intentions and preferences and emotions for each other, it seems that my hints and longings for companionship kind of skipped over that intermediate convention, at least in Colleen’s mind, and she finally asked me if I was asking her to marry me.

Well, now that was a topic much hotter than the sunburn and again I had not used sunscreen and in my fumbling around for something to say to that, I went right on and said yes.

Many years before, when we much younger and sillier, we were on 24th of July handcart trek in Missoula heading for the stake’s campground property up Miller Creek. Colleen was with her lifelong friend, JoAnne Johnson (later Allen) and I was with my roommate Carey Cannon and we were surrounded by quite a few other older youths from the stake young adults and soon-to- be-high-school-seniors, who were invited to join in—resulting in all kinds of flirting, as you might imagine.

One of the flirtations that I recall involved my bragging about speaking French, which was still new to me as I had just finished three quarters of French classes at the University of Montana. And these giggling girls were anxious to know some fun French, the language of romance. So Colleen and JoAnne wanted to know how to say, “Will you marry me,” and I was only too happy to show-off, having learned this exact phrase quite well.

So, I tried to teach them the phrase, “Voulez-vous me marier.” And we did not think much of it, other than it was a way for boys and girls to flirt. But since it was a spoken phrase, it was also implied and could be regarded in many cultures as intended.

Fast forward 11 years to a sunbaked day in Utah, where we were older and wiser but not wise enough and had forgotten the

sunscreen and got sunburned and the subsequent treatment for such folly turned into a night-long application of soothing lotion and coming-to-terms emotions. The “Voulez-vous me marier” turned into a proposal of commitment. And the rest, as they say, “c’est nos histoire.”

So, beware, forgetting sunscreen and getting sunburned can lead to life-long consequences, happy as they may be....

By: Colleen Holmquist

It’s not that we forgot the sunscreen it’s more that we didn’t think about sunscreen.  Don’t ask me why, it was August in Utah—August 22, 1987, in fact.  Maybe it was the spur of the moment idea to spend the day at Raging Waters, maybe because it wasn’t a true scorcher —only up to 86 that day or maybe it was the carefree, indestructible, fearless, untouchable attitude of youth—on the other hand were we still youth at 28 and 30?  Shouldn’t we be smarter by then? Shouldn’t we know better?

Doesn’t matter, the simple truth is that Cary and I headed to Salt Lake’s fairly new water park (eight years old at the time) in the little blue air-condition-less Nova. The temperature inside the car was stifling and magnified the outside temperature. But we were prepared with bathing suits and towels anticipating hours of relief from the hot summer day—cooling off in the pools and slides of Raging Waters.  Time just disappeared while we rode the breakers in the wave pool and crashed into the pools exiting the tubes and slides, laughing and chasing and splashing and staying cool.  Only one thing would mar that day—it turns out that cooling in water even—and probably especially— when you’re having a really good time—isn’t exactly effective at preventing the deleterious effects of sunshine.

Funny how that works, hours of fun in the sun; never a clue that we were being par-broiled because the red doesn’t show up until the fun ends and then,”Oooh you’re red—you’re really red!  You’re gonna feel that!  Ouch! That’s gonna hurt!  No need to tell me, the pain has already manifest itself—and then it gets worse.  Cold, wet towels, sunburn lotion, aloe vera if you know about that and have any.

Sore, red shoulders for days! Clothes rubbing uncomfortably. Not a valid reason for calling in sick. People slapping me on the back and then laughing! Blisters—peeling, itching layers of skin—finally after a week or two the freckles show up on new baby soft skin.  

But after all of that the sunburn is a side note in the annals of history—personal history—for that day.  In fact, if it wasn’t for the event later than night, I probably would have forgotten all about the sun, Raging Waters and the sunburn.  Somehow, that sunny funny day seems to have melted brains and cooked hearts—or something—Cary and I sat up late that night, into the wee hours of the morning even. By the time he left we decided to get married!  

Even that experience didn’t guarantee that we would remember sunscreen the next time or the next time.  Perhaps it was because we tend to remember the last part of things better than the earlier ones and, well, honestly a marriage proposal changes life more than a sunburn!  But that is why I know the exact date of probably my worst and definitely my most memorable day without sunscreen!

By: Aaron Leavitt

Traveling at faster than light speeds can be a jarring experience. The crew of the Quicksilver were about to discover how literal that could be. A small deviation between their star charts and the internal timekeeping of their ship finally caught up with them.

There was just a small skeleton crew on the bridge, watching deep in the night, ship time. They were supposed to continue in their travels for hours and hours more. They expected to end their watch in boredom. Then the ship started to creak slightly, and as the helmsman turned to the officer on duty, everything seemed to happen at once. They’d come far too close to a star, it immediately filled most of the view in front of them. The officer shouted for their protective screens to be raised, a moment too late, they were all hurled out of their seats as the ship abruptly changed directions, sliding along the gravity well of the blazing star. They each stared at the inferno glowing ahead of them as they were pinned in place. For what seemed like ages they swung agonizingly close to the infinite flames. Then the speed they’d carried into the orbit pulled them away and they raced into the coolness of the gaps between planets. 

Alarms sounded, tragedies and injuries were attended to. The captain limped onto the bridge and looked at the chaos, and then stepped down the corridor to put his space suit on. A few moments later he and the first mate floated there in space surveying their vessel. Any paint she’d had was gone, and every surface that had faced the fury of the sun had had the first few millimeters completely vaporized. A strange feeling to think that so few degrees existed between sailing obliviously past this event, and plunging straight into the heart of the star. They’d skated as close to that edge as would ever be possible. He was humbled, still amazed they’d made it, even without that life preserving screen in place. They’d be recovering from that burn for a while now.

No Sunscreen=Sunburn

By: Myrna Flynn

We recently inherited 50 acres of forest land in a very remote area that we never knew existed. We decided that it would be our vacation location.

Our Uncle Ray had kept it a secret from the whole family. He was rather a recluse. We knew that he would leave for 2 months every summer. No one had a clue where he went. He did leave his satellite phone, so if there was an emergency, we could contact him.

When he died and his will was read, we learned where he went and that Justin, Marcy (me), Sally, Calley, Jerry and Roger (the kids) had become the owners of land with a cozy cabin and a pristine lake. The only way to reach it was by helicopter or sea plane. We were looking forward to peace and tranquillity -- no cell phone reception, no television, no hustle and bustle. We did have his satellite phone, if needed, to reach help.

Uncle Ray had also told us who could fly us to the place. The pilot had been compensated to continue to be discreet and not disclose the site to anyone. And we were not to invite others to come there, he did not want tit to become over run by tourists. It was to be kept serene and clean.

We hurried around getting all of the things we needed together to "rough it". Soon we were in the helicopter and flying to our dream land. It was not as primitive as we expected. It had solar power electricity, indoor plumbing, running water pumped in from a cistern, kept full of water from a well. The "cabin" was more that a cabin, it was more of a lodge.

We quickly got everything unpacked and set up for living. The kids were ready to go swimming but it was a little late in the day. We finally convinced them that the lake would still be there in the morning.

They grumbled, but then they found there was a pool table, a one-lane bowling alley and games machines. Some aspects of "civilization" were available.

Next day, our offspring gobbled through breakfast, dressed in their swimming suits, and ran out the door and jumped into the lake. They promptly jumped back out again. They had expected the water to be nice and warm, like the water in their pools at home.

Justin and I joined them later, when it had warmed into the 80's. We even joined them in the lake. Took us all a while to adjust to the almost frigid water.

That evening, after having spent most of the day in the sun, we realized that we had forgotten the sunscreen and now were reddened with sunburn!!! When we recovered, we rationed our sun time. Thus we were able to enjoy our 'perfect lifetime hideaway' for many generations, with no more forgotten sunscreen.

Story Slingers Prompt

"we for got the suntan lotion and got burned"

9/25/21

Daren Flynn

PURE NONSENSE

I went with you sledding

Although I was dreading

The thought of freezing

But while we were coasting

And marshmallows were roasting

The sun's rays were blazing

While up the hill I was treading

My coat and shirt I was shedding

So my Exposed skin was scorching

Before leaving home while packing

I perceived something was lacking

But my memory was waning

So I forgot the suntan lotion

And got burned!