Red and Rover by Brian Basset for July 06, 2021

Then there’s the water reflection. That’s even worse.

Red, don’t you know — Father knows best!!

/SHMIRK/

I wish I had used sunscreen.

And that’s where freckles come from….

That sneaky old sun!

Actually he’s wrong. I’m pretty sure.

Dad’s a redhead too, so he knows of what he speaks.

Isn’t Red’s Dad an aerospace engineer In Connecticut? Then he should know. Help me out folks. Thx

Dads do that – exaggeration is their way of controlling their offspring sometimes! Just put on the sunscreen, Red.

Nag, nag, nag,

Dad is making it up, though Red’s face would still need protection. The sun’s reflection in the pool will give Red a sunburn just as if his face was turned to the sun. It happened to my daughter every year. She just would not learn!

Must be related to Calvin’s Dad.

Red, listen to Dad and Rover, willya?

Red…just enjoy the day in your pool with Rover

In frustration in getting through to me about my acne, my dad said that one day a zit will form on my nose and lay down roots so deep that it will reach my brain and I will die. Surely this must be parental exaggeration, something he actually hopes will come true to prove him right. But later I read that something like that could happen, so maybe he was right.

Kind of makes one feel yucky. Why couldn’t he just say the sun reflects off the water and you will still get sun-burn. Father just had the opportunity to gross out “Red” and took it & threw truth out with the bath water.

I’m more fearful of cosmic rays than sun rays.

Just tell him his back isn’t sunburn-proof.

Um, didn’t call it sunblock back then. Didn’t know about connection with skin cancer. Suntan lotion.

Now there’s a conspiracy theorist for you.

Maybe Dad can’t explain diffused light from all over the sky.

NEVER in my life have I used sunscreen. I just build up the exposure gradually. With this summer, however, there’s hardly any exposure.

It’s for your own good, Red.

HIs back and neck will burn. I know it happened to me twice.

Truthfully, this is a bit anachronistic. Nobody I knew was concerned about sunblock when I was a kid in the 70s. Everyone wanted you to get a “good, healthy tan”. I remember girls and women smearing baby oil on so they’d burn/tan quicker. “Look at those rosy cheeks! You’ve been out in the sun!” was considered a compliment.

This would have been before all the awareness of skin cancer, and predated holes in the ozone layer.

Isn’t this strip supposed to be set in the 1960s? I was a kid in the 60s, and the only sunblock anyone used was zinc oxide that lifeguards smeared on their noses. We had suntan lotion or oil, but it didn’t prevent sunburn.