To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

Such a good point. My parents grew up in a time and place where kids really did have rickets, and 'getting sun on your body' was a good, healthy thing.

I am very fair skinned, but burned repeatedly in the 1970s. My holiday memories, in the UK, are the smell of calamine lotion and painful tears at bedtime.

Sun lotion was available, but it was low SPF compared to today, and I remember it being very expensive, we didn't use it very often.

Today, although I cover up and wear SPF50, I continually worry about getting skin cancer (as I already have another form of cancer).

I burnt. I also stayed inside a lot because I associated the sun with pain.

I have had a suspicious mole removed and although it wasn't cancerous I was told I'm more likely than most people to get skin cancer. Every new mole gives me the heebeegeebies.

Calamine for sunburn

My mum encouraged me to burn so that I would eventually get tanned. Luckily I only got singed a few times as I do tan easily. The remedy was calamine lotion.

We burnt. I had fair skin and red hair. One day on the beach, burnt. Sun creams were useless. Sometimes we covered up a bit but no one seemed to worry very much, certainly not for being in the garden. Holidays in the UK and sun wasn’t guaranteed at all.

In the early '90s factor 12 was high. I think 20 was called sunblock.

On our Spanish holidays as a child back then we just burned and then wore a tshirt once your shoulders were in agony. No-one thought to put on tshirt before burning!

I remember several gross slatherings with calamine lotion. Wtaf was that stuff???? Then my mother discovered Ambre Solaire and we were slathered head to toe in that thereafter …

We burnt. Clothing was the only protection .Mother used to liberally apply Acriflex cream on the burn when it happened....Also while we're on anyone remember getting into the car on a hot day,in shorts,and trying to "hover" above the nuclear temperature vinyl seats?!

Sun cream has been around for decades, but no one worried too much about getting burnt anyway.

Reading a lot of these comments and seeing the old suncream ad, I think sun oils and creams were sold as a glamour fashion item, with glamourous people sunbathing by the Med, to give you a glowing tan, not as an essential medical product to prevent sunburn. Sunbathing was not a thing in my circle of friends, we were active, playing, swimming, working, so the thought of spending holiday time just sat going brown was totally alien to us. Furthermore, we never went abroad. Our hols were a couple of weeks in Bridlington, Scarborough or Cromer, or camping in the Lakes, Scotland or Wales, none of which were known for their blazing sun. As I reached my teens, Dad found the English Riviera, so off to Paighton for my last couple of family hols. It still rained though. My first holiday abroad was in 1976. The summer of the drought. Worked all summer indoors, looking forward to a week in Italy with my new partner. We went to Como in Sept. It rained all week, so no suncream needed.

But a tan is still sun damage and still puts you at risk of getting skin cancer. It's not a good thing.

We used calamine lotion and sun hats. The North West coast isn't the hottest place.

The kids in the school where I work are starting to develop a tan now- faces and arms of the ones that regularly play out are turning brown- none of them are peeling or red. Children do build up a base tan gradually, just like I remember my friends and I doing so as children. Little by little.

Of course if you are going to go in the sun for extended periods then you will likely burn, especially if you are very fair and have had little previous exposure, but skin can protect itself to gradual and moderate exposure- that's the whole reason we go brown in the first place.

If you burnt in the 70s and 80s then your parents were irresponsible because there was just no need if you were sensible.

@AliceMcK
@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads

I know what you mean on Sun beds!

I saw one the other day in a town and was genuinely surprised that they still existed and that people still use them.

It was like a 1990's time slip...

I’m 60 and i remember being covered in ‘sun tan cream’ (not oil because mum thought we’d fry), such as it was. We wore long sleeved shirts and huge hats in the sun, especially when we were on holiday in Wales.
The sunburn happened when we were at home. We lived on a farm, so I spent all day everyday outside in summer, either with my ponies, helping with the cows or harvesting. Having ginger hair and pale skin didn’t help.
I’ve had a few BCCs and SCCs removed in the last ten years and now I live in Australia, I have a full skin check every year so anything dodgy is picked up very quickly, thankfully. We have bottles of factor 50 all over the house!

There is one in our town, it’s really busy, so many brown leather women around here. I just don’t get how they think they look good.

We got burnt - but I don't remember getting burned badly. I do remember being told off for getting burnt.

Mum was quite keen on us covering up, though we spent much of the time in the garden. We got brown on forearms and lower legs. Dad worked most of the summer in just denim shorts and sandals (farmer) but I don't remember him burning (this doesn't mean he didn't.) We never had foreign holidays, and UK holidays were taken May/October (summer was harvest.) And though we went to beaches, we also did a lot of museums and walking in the rain...

I did a lot of exam revision in the garden - ghetto blaster out of the window on an extension lead, sun bed with books and notes carefully arranged either side. I did actually revise, but I was also in the shade some of the time at least. At school, I remember some girls at lunchtime sitting in the sun, socks pushed down, skirts pulled up, blouses unbuttoned as much as possible, "burn me! Burn me!" But I'd rather have been with a book, and then as now, didn't bother with make up and so on, and wasn't bothered about tanning - it was just a side effect of walking and cycling and gardening and stuff.

We weren't far from the coast, and had lots of evening trips down to the beach to swim. The one time I do remember getting badly burnt was age about 14 - my best friend and I got the train down and spent the day on the beach. We did put on suncream, but spent the day swimming with short breaks on the beach, and not reapplying cream - my shoulders got so burnt they blistered. I hadn't known till this point that it was possible to get sunburnt so badly it would blister like that, and I've never burned so badly since.

I do catch the sun easily if I'm not careful. Pretty much the last thing my mother said to me was, "You've caught the sun" - I'd been planting out in the garden, and my arms and nose showed it, though I'd put cream on. I just forget to reapply if I'm busy with something.

I'm a late 60's baby. And a redhead. Suncream was rare, and expensive so we burnt! My mum used Acriflex and Savlon to take the sting out of it! I think many people of my generation have skin cancer....

What an ignorant post. Have you actually thought about this? What were they supposed to do?

Suncream didn’t exist as we know it today. Not sure if you realise that children literally played outside on their own all day, every day. After school and all day on weekends/holidays. Ask your parents! There was no one making sure that little Timmy had his hat on or was sticking to the shade. Keeping your child indoors all day in case of burning would be cruel when all the other children were playing outside. They also didn’t have the clothes we have today - rash vests etc, so your child would’ve just worn shorts and a T-shirt in summer, and a swimming costume on the beach. And burnt.

Also burning wasn’t seen to be as dangerous as we know it is today - they weren’t aware of links with skin cancer etc. It was just ‘oh well, it’ll hurt for a couple of days and you’ll be fine.’ The parents weren’t being deliberately cruel or stupid, honestly!

I still call it suntan lotion!

Yes she is. And when and where she was born I can well believe that rickets was more of a public health issue than skin cancer so I can see that her advice came from a place of genuine concern. But times change of course.

Is she in her 80s like my mum?

My MIL believes in this too and it was a source of tension when my DC were young as she thought I should leave my children naked in the sun to prevent rickets and obviously I wouldn't comply! But she is not British and had her own children in the 60s so would, I am sure, have been given very different advice.
Lack of vitamin D is a consideration and is being taken much more seriously now, but you certainly don't need to be naked for 2 hours a day to get enough, and there are also dietary sources and supplements available so it doesn't need to be either/or!

I’m pretty sure my mum put suncream on us , neither of my sisters ever burned , one of them is dark the other mousy blonde , I was a ginger blonde . Our adult son has the same colouring that I had and he still burns irrespective of using factor 50 just not as badly as I did back in the day when suncream wasn’t as effective . Also we spent all day in and out of the sea and I don’t think you noticed you were burnt until you got home in the evening .

Yes, her intentions were good 😊 my point was more that she didn’t know any better and as you say, might have even been advised by a health visitor to do it. People just didn’t know back then.