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by Wendy
(Lexington, TN, USA)
As a young girl I looked forward to the summer as any school aged person did except for one task that was inevitably a part of my summers, pulling weeds in the garden.
I'll never forget one particular summer when it came time to clear the garden of the pesky plant life that inhabited it.
It wasn't a big garden. I guess it was about 20 or 30 feet squared. I spent hours toiling in the dirt out in the California sun.
My shirt had apparently ridden up my back as I worked and when I stood to go inside for the evening the fabric felt like sandpaper as it brushed over my damaged skin.
My muscles protested and I recognized that sick to my stomach / head cold feeling that comes with having a sunburn.
I gingerly ran my hand across my back and felt a multitude of raised blisters that spanned the width of my lower back to a height of about six inches up my back.
What's worse is I was only about half done and that same tender skin was exposed to the sun's UV rays yet again the following day.
I wish we had had sun protection then that had as high of a rating as what we do now. I still have scars from that burn.
Sun Allergy
Human Skin
UV Index
