Once the frost from winter was gone and the flowers were starting to bloom, I would rush down to my favorite tanning salon and get a 3 month membership. Heaven forbid I start wearing shorts while I had my white legs. That would be so embarrassing. So everyday when I got off work I would go tan before I went home. I would go at least 4 to 6 times a week for that 3 months, I did not want to waste the money I had spent for the membership and I knew the darker I could get in that 3 months the prettier I would be and the longer it would last. At the end of my membership I would pay extra to be able to tan in the 10 minute super bed, I thought those were a gift straight from God. They get really hot and I loved it, instant gratification when people would comment on how dark I am. I loved showing off my amazing tan, I seem to get darker than most, good genes I suppose.
After I had my 2 kids, I started a yearly membership at the tanning salon, it was cheaper to do it that way and I could be tan year round, I was not about to pass up that opportunity.. Pregnancy does a number on a woman's body and I knew having a tan made the imperfections a little more perfect, I have a saying that tan fat is better than white fat.
During the cold months I would sometimes miss a week here or there but always made sure to make up for it by going everyday for a few weeks. My favorite time to tan was in the morning in the spring, I loved getting hot and sweaty in the bed then walking outside and feeling the sun on my brown skin. but it wasn't quit hot enough that I couldn't go home and lay out for a while before it became 100 degrees. whenever outside I made sure that I was sitting in the sun, even if it was just talking on the phone for a few minutes or watering my flowers. I try to wear tank tops or at least pull up my sleeves so I don't get those silly tan lines.
The older I got I did start noticing signs in the tanning salon that I hadn't noticed before, I don't know if they had always been there or if there was some stupid new law requiring their presence. They were fairly small signs with black writing mixed in on a wall of signs with beautiful brown bodies advertising the latest tanning lotion. I glanced at them a time or two as I was getting undressed to have my 20 minutes of peace and quiet, I brushed them off and I pushed start
The signs told of the dangers of tanning in a tanning bed, that it could cause skin cancer, it also warned that if you don't tan in the sun you are unlikely to tan from using a tanning bed. I thought I was lucky because I tanned easily in the sun so I knew I could get very dark from the tanning bed as well.
Even with the Warning signs I still pushed Start.
It wasn't until 2006 when my Mom called me and said my Aunt, my dads little sister, has been diagnosed with stage 4 Melanoma in her lungs that I realized the real dangers of Melanoma skin cancer, until that point I thought that the mole she had removed 10 years prior that had been Melanoma was it, she had it removed and she was over the Melanoma, I had no clue that it stayed in your body maybe to show its ugly face again someday. Sharon was alot like me, always in the sun or tanning bed from the time she was a kid. she lived for 15 months with the Melanoma all through out her body, she was 37 years old and a school teacher. That should have been a wake up call for me, but like most I never thought it could happen to ME, other people get cancer not ME. so I continued to lay out, by this time I was stocking up on Bana Boat tanning oil with no sunscreen, I loved the way it smells like coconuts and when I spray it on I look shiny and tan, and I continued pushing start on the tanning bed
