subject: To Bare At The Beach [print this page] The beach is where we socialized, hung out and spent our summers. During the day we watched the boys surf and fried our bodies with baby oil. I don't remember there being any such thing as sun screen in the 70's and if there was, we never used it. It was tanning oils and tanning lotions, anything to bronze the body. Now that I am in my late 40's, I am wishing I hadn't spent six hours a day in the sun with no protection but hey, who is ever going to be 4O something when you are sixteen, certainly not me.
The beach, with its pounding waves, cute boys and endless sun was were you could always find me and my friends. I don't think we ever got in the water, but we sure spent a lot of time on the sand. Nights were the best, with bon fires and friends around them. There was a train that went close by to where we spent our summer nights and we often talked of hoping on when it slowed down to see where it would take us. Maybe we should have, but I guess it is a good thing we never did. I always thought of what my parents would say if I called them from San Francisco and asked them to come pick me up!
Well, back to the dilemma of a bathing suit. Like I said, my friends were all scantily clad and I was always jealous, not that one pieces in those days were much more modest then the bikini's it was just not the cool thing to wear and no one wants to stick out in high school. Sometimes I would go to the beach and borrow a friends bikini and switch there, those were days that I felt great, sort of.
I was always worried I would see one of my brothers or neighbors and the cat would be let out of the bag, which actually happened on an occasion or two. Most of the time I just sat there in my one piece feeling dumb, but I know no one else even noticed now that I look back. The suits were always cute, and the style of the day was the dance skin suits, flattering. Traumatic times for a 16 year old girl.
Now that I am in my upper 40's I have the opposite problem, I want a cute modest bathing suit that I can boat with my 4 boys and all their friends and not worry about getting in and out of the boat. I search and search to no avail. I try on bathing suit after bathing suit but modest swimwear is an elusive goal, especially a cute one. I should have kept the ones from my youth and enjoyed them while I had them. I should have especially enjoyed the body of my youth and not worried so much about the style of suit. Ah to be young again, I am now older but wiser and unfortunately more wrinkled.
by: Art Gib
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