Memoir Monday - 10K Walk-a-thons and Why Skin Cancer Is Gonna Get Me

It's Memoir Monday, my favorite day of the week.  Well, at least my favorite blogging day of the week.  Let's not get crazy; Mondays still suck!  However, Travis, at I Like to Fish, and his bloggy friends do make me laugh and keep me from drinking the poisoned Kool-Aid.  Check him, and them, out!



My husband, kids, and I are in my hometown for a little mini beach vacation this week.  I was born and raised on the Gulf Coast.  While you could not pay me a million dollars to live here again, I do enjoy visiting.  My kids love the beach, and we all get to spend some time with my dad. 

Anyhumidity, I grew up in a beach community where warm and sunny was the daily forecast for about 10 months of the year.  We wore shorts from Valentine's Day until New Year's.  For some reason, though, we'd get 14 inches of snow in January or February.  I guess God really does have a sense of humor.  For the most part, though, the weather was beautiful.

Each year in about April or May, the March of Dimes held a walk-a-thon.  A freakin' 10 kilometer walk-a-thon!  I say that because I looked at the March of Dimes website where they sponsor 3 mile walk-a-thons these days.  What's up with that??  Did they finally kill a kid?

Let me back up...  My school system, for whatever reason, felt compelled to support the walk-a-thon every year.  They talked it up and really got us kids into it.  If you didn't walk in the walk-a-thon, you were considered the anti-Christ and shunned by the rest of the teenaged community.  It was a big. dot. deal!  I suspect the schools were getting some kind of kick-backs.  Don't get me wrong; the March of Dimes does awesome work.  But a 10 kilometer walk???  That's a little much for 13 year old kids.

Without fail, my friends and I met at the starting point near the lighthouse on Porter Avenue each year and made the 10-kilometer trek along the seawall.  We walked from the lighthouse to the mall.  About 6 miles to raise 47 cents for the March of Dimes.  Sometimes, I walked even though I hadn't collected any pledge money at all.  I didn't want to look like a big dork, ya know.

This is the walk.  We walked 10K!  That's about 6 miles!

Of course, we put our own little spin on it.  It typically went from about 9 am until noon.  It took just about an entire day to complete the trek.  We'd start at 9:00 a.m. and finish at about 2 or 3 p.m.  We did have a lot of fun, though.  We pool-hopped through all the hotels along the beach.  We stopped and ate at Wendy's.  We'd meet up with other friends.  All this dressed in bikini tops and NO sunscreen!

I must admit.  My intentions were pretty suspect every year.  Ya see, I was a certified tan junkie.  And what better way to get a starter tan than to walk outside in the hot sun during prime-time tanning hours??  I'd slather on the baby oil mixed with iodine and reapply after every dip in the pool.  For me, it wasn't a successful walk-a-thon if I didn't receive a third degree burn.  If I had to sleep naked with a thick coat of Aloe Vera because clothes were too painful, I was triumphant!

I'm glad to see that the March of Dimes has changed the walk to a mere 3 miles.  I presume they had to change it because so many folks are fat and lazy these days.  You can possibly get a teen to walk 3 miles, but he ain't doing ANYTHING for 6 miles.  Maybe drive 6 miles.

Now ya see why I'm certain that skin cancer will be nemesis???  I still have the scars from a bad burn in 1981.