(07-11-2023, 09:50 PM)NightskyeB4Dawn Wrote: The was commonly heard coming out of the mouth of parents when I was growing up. My Father did not believe in spanking because he said it was over too fast and you didn't have enough time to really reflect on the error of your ways.
He came up with really creative punishments that gave you plenty of time to think.
We always had about 2 years worth of chopped wood and our hardwood floors were spotless.
When I was about 14 years old, I ran away from home. I made it about 500 miles or so, and was trying to make it just a little farther into Canada when they dragged me down.
Dear Old Dad could have come right away and picked me up when they got me back to Virginia, but he didn't. He let me sit my young ass in jail for about a week to think things over. I was kind of glad of that, because I knew without a doubt that I was in a shitload of trouble whenever he did finally show up.
But when he did come and pick me up, he didn't yell, or smack me, or nothing. Just stone cold silence that scared the crap out of me worse than any yelling could ever do. "You ready to go home?" was all he said when he showed up, and nothing more. Just stone cold silence.
When we got home, he decided the punishment was going to be a little more time to think over the error of my ways, and that thinkin' time was going to be spent outdoors, clearing about 3 acres of cedar forest into pasture land. By myself. With just an ax. That did give me plenty of time to think... and plenty of time to grow some blisters on my hands, and then calluses. I'm not sure if he ever realized just how much that really did teach me, beyond the "error of my ways", but I'm guessing that he might have had an inkling.
Pap was just another dumbassed hillbilly, never made it past the 7th grade... but for all that, he was no one's fool.
I've never forgotten how to handle an ax, from felling to splitting.
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