it was a message to your pals; "Fuck you. I went to Florida and you didn't!"
And prior to the tanning booth generation (and the kids on "Jersey Shore" can't even be blamed because they weren't even born yet when those things came out in the '80s), so was the suntan. The February tan was the ultimate status symbol back then. Just think of Cliff Clavin going on and on about his Florida tan on "Cheers," and multiply the obnoxiousness by a hundred.
Oh, yeah! The winter tan thing. My buddy I grew up with was a pollack and his folks were loaded. Every year over the Christmas Holidays they would go out to either California, Florida or Las Vegas for a couple weeks and come back "tanned". He would be all Cliff Clavin about it until one of the girls in CCD class asked him if I went along with him. He was not very happy.
My grandfather was from Palermo and he passed a long that year round "dark Dago" thing.
My pollack pal strutted through the halls of St. Dominick's a bit more humbled!
Edit: Apologies for the off topic posts, guys. It's all pizzaboy's fault! He gets me wound up and we go off the charts.
