A Side of Clyde
I'm home again and you can't miss me. I'm the one with the PABA-stained shirt and hat. It's from excess sunscreen oozing from my pores after spending a week in last week's East Coast heat wave. The temperature was over 100 each day, and the humidity was more than 90 percent.
I attended a relative's funeral in Pennsylvania and was at the grave site twice during the heat of the day. I used so much super-strength sunscreen I actually got paler as the week passed. What makes me nervous are those terrible stories about your entire body turning into a large asymmetrical mole (That's a super beauty mark.).
On the wall at the dermatology office, I see all these terrifying close-up photographs of people with moles that look like something from Star Wars.
My first day in Philadelphia I went to a SuperKmart and noticed the store devoted entire aisles to sunscreen.
They had sunscreen for sportsmen, gardeners, scuba divers and seniors; beach lovers, golfers, tennis players and even dogs. Yes, there is a company called Coat Handler that sells a 2-ounce tube of pet sunscreen for dogs with short hairs for $10.95.
The active ingredient in sunscreen is a substance called PABA, or para-aminobenzoic acid. The higher the PABA rating, the higher the power rating. The clerk suggested I use a 230 rating because of the intense sun with a weather report of no clouds.
The clerk said PABA is one of the oldest known sunscreens used in suntan products and still one of the best. The UV light PABA filters out is the UV that gives you a sunburn.
It can be quite upsetting when you go back to get a refill for your chosen tube of PABA and sitting on the next shelf is a big sign that says PABA-free sunscreen. And, it claims to have none of those "harmful side effects that comes with PABA."
"Harmful side effects?" About the only side effects I noticed was that it soiled my shirt, my hat and some dribbled on my trousers. But it saved my skin while I stood in a graveyard with the temperature at 102 degrees.
Based on evidence I collected during a hot spell in Santa Cruz last month, a lot of beach bunnies are not as concerned with excess sun exposure as I am. The sun bathers I observed seemed intent on exposing as much skin as possible. Upper-body covering was entirely optional on the crowded Santa Cruz beach I visited.
I, however, was more concerned about practicing safe sun. And now I can dispense advice to those scantily-clad sunbathers from experience.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. You will not realize that power and beauty until it has faded. Sunscreens, more than anything else, will help prevent premature aging and wrinkles.
Trust me. If you practice safe sun, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall how fabulous you really looked.
Clyde Noel is a longtime contributor to the Town Crier.