A Just A Little Bit Orange Feature
By Clara Pettitt. Copyright © 05/29/2000. All Rights Reserved.

Our Mystic Tan Field Trip

Ever since the first feature on the Mystic Tan back in January of 1999, I imagined the day when there would be one close to me. I checked on the Mystic Tan web site frequently, noting the fairly rapid spread this year from the originating state of Texas to nearby Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama.

I was startled and pleased when the Mystic Tan took a giant leap to Totally Tan, located in Sacramento, California, just 85 miles from me. An idea took hold in the message board that those of us in the area would go on a Mystic Tan field trip, and the date was set for May 7, 2000. [Since then, Mystic Tan has made another giant leap to Las Vegas, Nevada].

I put up a page with the details, then wondered what I was getting myself into. So, for protection, I was accompanied by my brother Frank. We captured his paleness in a photo the day before, in which he demonstrated successfully that there wasn't much difference between the color of his skin and his white T-shirt.

I had mixed feelings about going to Sacramento to get a Mystic Tan. I was born in Sacramento, and growing up there as a teenager in the 1970s, I was surrounded by tanned, charbroiled flesh, some of it my own.

My suntanning career ended there with a bang [not to mention a whimper] in 1981, when I got a second degree sunburn while floating on a rubber raft down the American River. I felt like a criminal returning to the scene of the crime.

When the day of the field trip dawned and the rain started pouring down, I knew the turn-out would be small, which was both a disappointment and a relief.

It turned out to be just me, Frank, Linda, and Jodi. We met at the Subway Sandwich right by Totally Tan, where we held our first ever sunless tanning product exchange.

It was hilarious and enjoyable. People who use sunless tanners don't get to meet others who do very often, so we made the most of it. I scored some Jan Tana Competition Tan. Linda brought sample size bottles so we could share everything. I burdened Linda and Jodi with a new mystery product that a manufacturer sent to me a few weeks ago.

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