The beach beckons

Summer ritual started out as therapy

SANTA MONICA, California (CNN) -- Every summer, millions of people trek to the beach for fun in the sun, but the practice of vacationing by the seaside began in the 18th century -- for its therapeutic value.

Tanning was not among the top 10 reasons to go to the beach.

"Tanning comes along last in this sort of beach regime," says Huntington Library research director Robert Ritchie, "because most aristocratic folks -- and they are the ones who got to the beach first -- want to always show that they are different from peasants. And the easiest way to do that is to keep an alabaster skin."

Back to the beach
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Ritchie says that our beach-going forefathers and mothers avoided the sandy shores for fear of a "great putrescence" in the waters -- not to mention the monsters that supposedly lived there. How ironic, Ritchie says, in light of a growing sewage problem on many beaches.

"Lots of people now think twice about going in, and quite often beaches are closed," he says.

And then there's also the increased prevalence of skin cancer, caused by over-exposure to the sun.

"So in the late 20th century," Ritchie says, "there are now a number of things to keep us away from the beach and scare us away."

But scary as it all is, it's clearly not enough to end stop the summer streams of sun and water worshippers heading to the nearest shores.

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