Nothing too horrible but maybe the time Christmas morning Dad me and older brother entered the barn to milk the cows. We had about 15 head , 7 milking also a bull and a big old work horse. The bull had broken loose and began attacking the horse who also broke loose. They must have faught all night; horse was totally drenched in sweat. All the cows had broke loose and the interior of the barn was kind of wrecked. Good thing bull was dehorned or horsie might have serious injury. Dad managed to snag bull by the ring in his nose and get him tied up. Cows were all too nervous to be milked so we just fed them some hay and leave them to settle down. So the large part of Christmas day was spent fixing up and cleaning up the mess in the barn . Can't remember what plans we were supposed to have for the day.
It was past childhood some but one of my best friends got killed in a car crash by some one on the wrong side of the interstate and I was a pallbearer and was just lost with how to deal with that.
Broken blood vessel, instantly fatal in 99.9999999 % of cases. I was unique in 1957. Lots of people prayed for me I guess. The surgeons were astounded that I lived and had no physical problems afterwords.
Element, your father just disappeared never to be heard from again? That's a pretty huge deal to happen to a six year old. I'm very sorry. Did you ever manage to track him down as an adult?
When I was a kid I was friends with a boy who had a really strict grandmother who was raising him. His parents died in a car accident so his grandmother was acting as his mom. One Sunday I went over to his house so we could go out to play. Anyway there was a pond nearby with a rope swing which was always fun so that's what we did. He said he wasn't allowed to get wet but I didn't know why it was such a big deal so I talked him into going on the rope swing.
We went back to his house first and when he went inside I could hear her screaming at him and hitting him. Monday morning at school he didn't want to talk to me and he had a hard time sitting in his chair. The next time I wanted to go to his house my dad told me I couldn't but I went to his house anyway and when I went the sheriff and a guy in a suit and tie were taking my friend away. I went up to them and asked them where they were taking him and they told me he was going to a Foster family.
When I got home I asked dad who the Fosters were. I never saw the friend again but it still haunts me.
This post was edited by Livvie at July 17, 2022 9:58 AM MDT
What a kind thought and it is so adorable that you hoped he was going to live with Mr. and Mrs. Foster.
I never got a friend spanked but I did go visit a girl who was a friend but not my girlfriend. She came running out of her house opened the back door of her car jumped into the backseat and lay down crying. It took me a while to figure out that she had just gotten a spanking.
I felt really helpless to make her feel better. I said something trying to be comforting but I was really distressed that neither I nor anyone else could take away her distress. I never learned what she did to earn her spanking but I will never forget that feeling of being unable to alleviate her pain. Of course, to the extent that spankings work to improve behavior, it is precisely because there is almost nothing that can be done to hasten the recovery period. I had a similar thought about my own punishments -- nothing can speed up that period of smarting and tingling that follows upon the end of a firm spanking.
I never made the connection in my mind that I was responsible for him getting a beating. From my point of view we went on a rope swing and jumped in a pond. It was fun! What's so bad about about that?
My own parents didn't have a lot of rules but the ones they did have at least made sense like do your school work don't hurt other people and don't steal other people's things but my friend's grandmother had rules like don't get your clothes wet which just didn't make any sense to me so yeah, I didn't see why that was worthy of a beating.
I don't know what it is about grandmothers and wet clothes but my husband's grandma was the same way about it when he was a kid. He didn't get spanked over it just grounded. It just freaks them out for some reason.
This post was edited by Livvie at July 17, 2022 9:59 AM MDT
Benedict Arnold 