Coppertone

Coppertone

Coppertone. Oh the glorious smell of Coppertone. 🎵 Flash ‘em the light tan…flash ‘em the dark tan…flash em’ the Coppertone Tan 🎵 I can still hear that old commercial in my head. 

Experts say the memories associated with smells tend to be older and all though they are thought about less often, the recollection is very vivid when it happens.

This is definitely what happens to me with Coppertone. I am immediately transported back in time to riding my blue bike with its brand new banana seat. A hockey card close-pegged to the frame so that it makes a clicking sound in the spokes and the beautiful streamers that came off the ends of my high handle bars.

We were a gang back then, riding around the big oval parking lot of our community until the streetlights came on. One by one we’d turn off as close to our homes as we could. Our bikes dropped at the spot where we jumped off. We never stopped and dismounted. No, we slowed down, swung a leg over and heard them crash behind us. There they sat till morning.

Our gang consisted of all the neighbourhood kids. Boys, girls, 5 year olds and 12 year olds. We didn’t care. We were all barefoot and carefree. It was a daily occurrence for one of us to get our toes caught in our spokes. The older ones toughed it out with toenails split and blood streaking through the dirt on our feet. I still sport my scar. The little ones hobbled home crying to their moms who more often than not, made them wait outside for their bandaids as the floors had just been washed.

We had an enormous field to play on too. Games of Red Rover and British Bulldog were played…full contact! You were guaranteed to have a raspberry on your knees or elbows by the end of a game.

My attire back then was a brother’s hand me down jeans with  my belt cinched tight to hold them up. The few dresses I had were saved for special occasions.

In todays world I might have been given the choice to be a boy or a girl. Back then we were called Tom boys and we were proud of it. With 6 brothers and no sisters…well, you can imagine.

My life wasn’t ALL about being a Tomboy though. I had Barbie’s too. I was the envy of every girl in the neighborhood when I got my Barbie Country Camper! I proudly played with it on the front lawn for all to see as they rode their bikes past my house. My brothers had G.I. Joe figures. Me, being the bossy boots to my younger siblings; I would make them play Barbies with me. Their GI Joes always the dad or boyfriend  to my Barbies. Some days I’d go to the toy box to get my Barbie’s and set up a beauty salon. I’d give them all a haircut. I’d pierce their ears with my mom’s sewing pins.

One day my friend Heather got her ears pierced by her oldest sister Angela. We loved Angela. We wanted to be her. She was a teenager. She was a hippie. She was beautiful!!! Her blond hair, flowered top and bell bottom jeans finished off with a pair of buffalo sandals. I asked Angela if she would pierce my ears too. She said if it was OK with my mom, it was OK with her. Of course my mom said yes and off I went to see Angela. She gave me some ice and told me to hold it on my ears till I couldn’t feel them. The anticipation of the pain was nothing compared to the ice cold drips running down my arms to my armpits. Next she gave me a potato and told me to hold it behind my ear. With a darning needle, she poked right through my ear lobe till the pin poked the potato.  I was so much braver doing the first one then the second. To this day I have those holes, not quite even but “barely noticeable” she said!!!

The next day I got ice and a potato for each of my brothers…lined them up and stuck a needle through their lobes. My mom was not one little bit happy about this.

Being the only girl brought its privileges. I was always allowed to go to my aunts on my own and have sleepovers. I think my mom felt sorry for me having no sisters to play with. One summer I spent a lot of time with my aunt Fideles. She was the coolest aunt ever. She had a bouffant hairdo, fake eyelashes and wore bright blue eyeshadow. One weekend we went shopping downtown Toronto and she bought me my first pair of panty hose and my first pair of Levi jeans. My very own Levi jeans…never worn by a brother. I thought I was the bees knees. I wore those panty hose so often, the runs stopped with pink dabs of my mom’s nail polish. After shopping with my aunt, we went to the Lakeside park where she set out our picnic blanket and small containers of cut up vegetables, grapes and even potato chips. She had bottles of coke for both of us. Using a bottle opener she popped the tops and we giggled at the bubbles spilling over.

Wearing our bikini’s under our clothes we pulled off our tee shirts and  put on our Coppertone. She had her transistor radio with her and we listened to music.  She with her book and me with my new copy of Tiger Beat magazine. I will never, ever forget dancing with her in the middle of the park that hot July afternoon to the song ‘Locomotion’ by Little Eva.

One Easter Sunday my mom was meeting my soon to be step dad’s mother for the first time. She left us in our regular babysitters charge. I was 8 years old. My best friend Kelly and her brother Tim called on my brother Bill and I to see if we wanted to come out and play. We went to the big field and played our favourite game….scratch that….the boys favourite game…rocket ride. They would lie on thier backs with knees bent to their chest. Kelly and I would sit on our brothers feet and we’d have a competition to see who could be launched the furthest.

I landed on my arm. The sheer pain!!!  I broke my wrist in two places and disolocated my elbow. I went screaming home to the babysitter. She ran and got her dad to take me to the hospital. My arm was grossly deformed. Unfortunately her dad was quite intoxicated and apparently driving was a non issue. He tried to avoid the bumps that only enhanced my screaming we ended up driving through a ditch. 🤦‍♀️  We got to the hospital and I was put to sleep. When I woke up I had a cast on from my hand to my arm pit. Miraculously, my mom was by my side. Because it was Easter Sunday, I got completely spoiled.  I was getting chocolate eggs and bunnies from all of our neighbours. All of my friends came over to sign my cast. All this attention made it worth the agony…that is until it got itchy and I had to use my mom’s knitting needles to slide inside the cast to scratch my arm. Also the whole no swimming or running through the sprinkler made for a very unhappy 8 year old. 

I was a really good athlete when I was a kid. My brothers and I were all very fast runners. I remember in grade 3 winning athlete of the year. My mom came to our school to watch me get the trophy. It had my name engraved on it and it was placed inside the curio cabinet at the schools entrance for all to see. My mom took me out for lunch to celebrate. We went to McDonalds.  The big red sign with those Golden Arches. What a treat. I had my first Big Mac and  milkshake. To this day it is probably the best milkshake I have ever had. 

My 11th birthday party was a sleepover. I was in grade six. My mom set the basement up for me and my friends with some Christmas lights and a drink station filled with root beer, cream soda and potato chips.  I was gifted an Elton John album, Yellow Brick Road…we listened to that album over and over again on my brand new blue and green striped record player.  

Long, long, gone are those days with posters on my wall of the Partridge family, the Jackson five and the Osmonds.

I get calls from my granddaughters on the weekends. They tell me all about their weeks and get excited about their weekend sleepovers with friends.  I can only imagine the fun they are having. Memories they don’t even realize they’re making…they won’t realize until one day there will be a scent that brings back the sweetest memories of their own childhood.

Some days I wish I could go back in time for those innocent summer days filled with laughter…then I realize…all I need is some quite time, a little squirt of Coppertone and those timeless memories come flooding back to my heart 💕