We walked without a word, the four of us. They hadn't said where we were going or why. Our dads after their conference in the trailer said to follow them. When we were deeply into the woods in a secluded little clearing with a stump in the middle of it. We stood silently as my Uncle Larry said, "You boys were caught shoplifting at the campground's store. Since you did it together, you will be punished together. Who came up with the idea?"
"I did, Uncle Larry." Good ole Jack. It was his idea, but none of us would have told. "Come over to the stump, Jack." It was my dad. In his hand he held a 4" wide leather strap about 2' long. Jack walked up to him."You will all get 30 whacks from the strap, but Jack, because it was your idea you will get 45. Pull down your pants, son." Jack slowly undid the buttons on his Levi's. His hands trembled. Jack was 14, the oldest of we four cousins. He wore blue jockey shorts and I thought that was really cool. I noticed his buns quivering as he stood there.
"Jack, your underwear comes down, too." He slipped them down to his knees. Then he bent over the old stump. Crack! I thought it was a rifle shot. Jack yelled. By 15 whacks he was sobbing. By 30 his butt was already criss-crossed with welts and purple. After the 45th he fell onto the stump and sobbed loudly. My Uncle Butch had him come stand next to him. "Sam, you're next." Sam was 13 and had never gotten a spanking in his life. Slowly as he could he unzipped his pants, pulled them down, then pulled the back of his shorts down."Sam, pull everything around your ankles." Sam complied, with eyes wide in terror. He bent over the stump. Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack! Five very hard, very fast whacks.Sam had started crying on the first. After his 30 Uncle Butch pulled him over. Neither boy had been allowed to
pull up his pants. "Bill, your next." Bill was Jack's brother and wore red jockey shorts. Bill was twelve, my age. He stood there a moment."What are you waiting for?" "Well, I just thought.." "Well now you're up to 35." Without even unzipping his pants Bill pulled his jeans and shorts down in one motion. Bill's bottom had half a dozen welts that looked only a day or two old. This was gonna kill him. My dad gave him 15 fast, without any letup. THen he waited and gave him the other 20 with no let up. By the end he was pleading for mercy, to no avail Uncle Butch took him in hand, still with his black jeans and red jockeys around his knees.
"You're next, son." I trembled as a unsnapped my pants and pulled them down. A tear slipped down my cheek as I pulled my white jokeys down to my ankles. I then realized what Uncle Butch was doing. When I bent over the stump I looked up and saw the purple, welt-covered bottoms of my cousins, right at eye level in front of me. They were my *inspiration* Dad had only used his hand at home on my bottom, and never more than 15 whacks. I was terrified.
I screamed, and cried, and sobbed through my thirty whacks. Then my dad unleashed another 20 swinging his arms full-length as fast as he could."Just wanted everbody to know I wasn't being soft on you," he said. We weren't allowed to pull up our pants until we had all stopped crying. The walk back took twice as long - we weren't waling very well. We were walked straight to the camp store. The owner took us into his back room and closed the door.We thought it was over, but before our dads let us go and hide a while we each had to apologize to the store owner. Then one-by-one we had to drop our pants again so that he could see we had really been punished as our dads had said we would be.
My cousins and I spent the whole summer together. That wasn't the only time we got spanked together, but it was the worst.