After You Are Gone


After you are gone...
Mr. Mueller was right, but he is no longer around to hear it.
We lived in Florida in the 70s on the cusp of the sunscreen revolution. Before that, we mirrored the old Coppertone® ad that directed us, "Don't be a pale face!" I never realized the little bum on the bottle belonged to a real 3-year-old girl from Bronxville, NY. In 1959, Cheri Brand posed in pig-tails for a picture and became Little Miss Coppertone®.
Mr. Mueller knew better than Little Miss Coppertone® that we needed protection from the damaging ultraviolet rays of the sun.
"You girls will be sorry one day that you aren't wearing sunscreen."
"Whatever..."
Girls in our teens in the 70s weren't interested in protecting our skin. We were on a mission: get the darkest tan as quickly as possible every summer. "Babes" were skinny, cute, and tan. Silly. Now, I look at my sun damaged, freckled arms and legs and hear Mr. Mueller's warning. Every trip to the dermatologist is a reminder.
"Mr. Mueller, maybe I should have listened." But who knows? The emotional scars from being the only girl on the block looking like I had just seen a ghost might have been worse. Thankfully, peer pressure around smoking and other vices didn't have the same pull as tanning.
Mr. Mueller had another strong opinion. His wife wanted to paint their house yellow, and he protested, "over my dead body."
Sometimes you are right, but you don't live long enough to hear those three little words, "You are right!" Other times your opinion matters only as long as you are around to enforce it.
Guess who painted her house yellow after her husband passed away? (I'm sure she waited a respectable amount of time.)
I guess the point is to push for things; push for things that will matter even after you are gone.
~ LowTide explorer, Carolyn Fjeran


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