I have been talking about the worst spanking and only spanking I ever remember receiving. Keep in mind that my parents did not believe in hitting, each other or us kids. They always treated each other and us children with the greatest respect. They only used spanking if we endangered our life or someone else’s. I know I must have been spanked when I was young for going in the road, etc. because I saw them spank my brothers and sister, when they were young and didn’t listen to no when it really mattered. My parents wisely picked their battles.
Ok, now about the Park, my parents used to take my brother and I to the Park, on nice Sunday afternoons during the summer to play and have a picnic supper. There is a path along a cliff by the river with a beautiful fence and a beautiful view, and picnic tables, a frog pond that now has fountain, there are 2 roads to walk around the park and a beautiful flower garden, with a sun dial and a band stand with lots a room for kids to run around. There are now concerts every Sunday now during the Summer at 5PM. There is also an nice big grass hill for kids to run on and roll down, and more picnic tables. We used to climb the big old pine trees, most are still there, and roll down the hill. The sun dial is neat. The dial part has been broken for years but if you put a stick in the middle and use your finger you can figure out the time as long as it is bring enough for shadows. The stick and finger makes the shadow that point to the correct roman numeral. That is how we used to know what time it was, taking day light savings time into consideration, of course.
Now, because the park was on Rt. 2 at the top of a hill and on the other side of the road from our house, we had orders NEVER to go down there without our parents. One day when I must have been 8 or 10 yrs old, which would have made the older kids in our gang 12 or 14, we were playing out in the cow fields at the end of our street and got bored and decided to go to the park. Remember there were no cel. phones in those days, and when we went out to play it was up to us to know what time it was to be home for dinner at 12 noon. All our parents went by the same schedule. So of course, we didn’t tell anyone. Unfortunately we forgot the time, otherwise, no one would have been the wiser. It was perfectly safe for us to go down there with older kids that were 12 and 14 but I did not have permission and I had my younger brother, with us.
Anyway, dinner came and went and we were no where to be found. Evidently every parent on the street was looking for us. When we showed up, I don’t know what happened at the other houses, but my Mother was in a panic. She said, “where have you been, I was getting ready to call the police”? Once we established where we had been, and I really never lied to my mother, she told my brother not to do that again. Since I was in charge of him, she said she was sorry but she really was going to spank me and to never do that again. I still remember it, not because it hurt either my bottom or my spirit, but because I was sorry I had scared her so. Remember that in those days we wore heavy jeans when we went out in the fields, and since I was as big as she was, it was hard for her to hurt me. However, she decided I had put my brother and myself in such danger she was going to use her wooden hairbrush which she never did before. Unfortunately, when she spanked me it broke her hairbrush, so that was the end of the spanking. Really it didn’t hurt anything, but I didn’t bring my brother anywhere I wasn’t supposed to again.
Mrs.American Patriot 