Surely I'm not the only one who laughs, talking about "gettin whippins"..
I wasn't a bad kid. I just had an opinion and wasn't afraid to challange authority.. (Never did get past that, or so I'm told..) More of mine, from "other than parents" was from challanging authority or blowing off homework.. I went to private school for all but two years, (both, 8th grade).. I was the first person in the history of the elementary school to get paddled.. I got seven licks with a ping-pong paddle.. I was as much in shock as I was hurt.. That was the beginning of a trend in school(s).... It was college before I could go to school and expect not to be beat on..
It was the teachers trying to establish control over the class that hurt the most.. The smaller the (female) teacher, the harder they hit.. I made the mistake of laughing when one swung so hard that she picked her feet up off the floor when she hit me. Licks 2 and 3 weren't as funny.. I learned early on, the concept of "Thank you, Sir. May I have another?".. I think what they hated the most was that I wouldn't quit having fun with them.. (But they didn't leave themselves with something left undone with/to me)..
Daddy was the not so fun part of that conversation.. I got 4 whippins in the last four years. I remember those pretty well too.. I wore that belt till it literally rotted off of me, after he died.. "That was MY trophy, and I earned it". Mother was more like "Oh, shit. Duck!" or mass punishment.. Her favorite tools were a hair brush or a metal handle fly swatter, (the latter being my choice to carry on the tradition). I got caught with a corset of some sort one time. It didn't hurt but it hit me like 100 times by the end of the swing.. I remember, I caught myself smiling, but she was headed in the bathroom and I got away with it.. It really was funny... She told me if she had to do it again that she'd get the hair brush.. I wandered off at that point.. I don't know why I remember that one in particular. I guess it was just a little peculure is all..
I learned alot.. Not the least of which was that the well timed and placed, judicious use of a metal fly swatter handle will save so many people, including the recipient, so much time and heartache in the short term and over the long run, that it's worthy of any
civil society.. My Drill Sgt. called the principle "A little pain, to make yo mind right".