Now I usually never write about my own experiences, but a memory came back to me during the holiday and I thought you might enjoy it....... .....Let me know.
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My brother Jared came to spend Christmas with me this year, which was a real treat because the last Christmas we spent together was god knows when. He and I had both taken vacation till after the new year, and so we decided to see the millennium together.
The day before Christmas eve Jared and I were decorating my tree when I came across this box filled with antique ornaments which use to belong to our grandmother, and this is when the memory came back to me.
Well Jared must have seen the distant look I had on my face and walked over to me. "What is it Rol?"
I held up one of the ornaments and smiled. "Remember these?"
"Not really....Why? Should I?"
"There were Grandma Betty's." I told him.
"Well they're ugly." He said with a grin.
"You're right about that." I said and laughed.
"Oh, wait a minute I remember them.....I thought they all got busted."
"Most of them did.......this is all that's left."
Jared started to laugh when the memory came to him as well. " I can still see you over Dad's knee."
"Yeah, knowing you, that would be the part you'd remember." I said and looked back at the box, but to tell the truth, that was the part I remembered too.
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It was Christmas eve, 1979. I was eleven. My family and I were spending Christmas at my grandmothers huge old house in Vermont along with my fathers side of the family, which included my Aunt, two uncles and their families.
Now before we even arrived at the house I was warned to behave myself and If I did not my father informed me that he would not hesitate from giving me an adjustment in front of every body.
Well I didn't need any of that on Christmas eve, so I decided to keep control of myself no matter what, unfortunately though my cousin Richard was not in such control, which was no surprise because he never was.
My cousin Richard and I started out picking on each other early in the day, and it just escalated from there. First at lunch, kicking each other under the table, and then at dinner, throwing food at each other. Both times our fathers warned us to cool it, which we did for a while, but an hour later we were back at it. Running in the house, chasing each other, wrestling around like a bunch of lunatics, being told again and again to cut it out, but it did not stop. Actually it got worse, and then finally it happened.
I was standing in front of the Christmas tree with one of Richard's gifts in my hand. He had called me a name that I did not care for and I was threatening to drop kick his gift if he did not take it back.
"Screw you pal, I'm not going to take it back, and you better not do anything to that present." He said.
"Oh I better not huh......" I said giving him an evil grin.
"I'm telling you."
"All right, I won't." I said and acted as if I were going to put it down.
Richard dropped his guard and turned, and that's when I dropped that box and kicked it clear across the room.
He snapped back around and just looked at me for a minute as I stood there laughing at him, and then all of a sudden he came charging. I remember wondering what the hell he was doing as his shoulder hit me in the chest and we both went tumbling backwards into the tree.
Before I knew what was happening, the Christmas tree came crashing down over top of my cousin and I, sending the lights and ornaments crashing to the floor, then I heard someone shouting.
When the tree was lifted off of us I looked up and there stood my father, looking very angry.
"OOPS......" I said and gave him a little smile.
He reached down and grabbed the front of my shirt suddenly and yanked me off the floor. "That's it, I've had it!" He yelled.....loud.
"It was an accident." I said quickly.
"I warned you to stop.........now you're going to get it young man." He said as he pulled me.
"Wait.... Dad, stop.........It was an accident!" I shouted, but he wasn't having any of it. He sat on the couch and pulled me in front of him.
"You can't seem to understand anything else but a blistered backside, so be it!!!" He yelled and started to undo my pants.
I was one of those kids who hated to be spanked in front of anyone. Even if it was just my brother, or my mother, I hated it, and my father knew this about me. So most times he restrained himself till he got me in my room, or behind closed doors, out of the view of others, but not this time. He was going to beat my bare butt in front of his whole family.
"Dad, don't please..."I said and tried to pull back, but he closed his legs and pinned me between his knees.
My attention shifted suddenly when I heard the sounds of smacking and crying. I snapped a look in that direction. and saw, over on the opposite side of the room, my uncle had Richard hoisted up in his left hand and was smacking his Jean covered butt with his right.
"God how embarrassing." I thought, but my attention quickly returned to my own predicament when my pants and underwear were pulled down and the cool air hit my butt.
"Dad! NO! Not like this!!!." I yelled, but I was still flipped over his knee.
"You were told again and again to stop, but you wouldn't, so like any boy who doesn't listen, you get spanked." He said and with that he raised his hand high above me and brought it down hard.
There was this awful "SMACK" and then the pain hit me a second later, and God did it sting.
I shouted out and tried to throw my hand back to cover my bare butt, but my father grabbed my wrist and pinned my hand to my side then continued to spank me again and again.
"Stop it!" I yelled.
But he just spanked away. "I will teach you to behave yourself if it's the last thing I do."
I couldn't hold it in anymore. I was going to cry. "Please Dad...I'm SORYYYYYYYYYY!!!"
The _d_a_m_n_ broke and I was now crying like the little kid I was as my father busted my butt. I bet he spanked me for five minutes straight thought I don't know that for sure. It was hell.
When my butt and his hand were good and red, the spanking stopped and I was lifted to my feet and told to pull my pants back up , which I did with lightning speed. It was humiliating enough to know that my family got to see my bare butt, but It would have been like death if they saw anything else.
"Now, am I going to have any more trouble out of you on this trip?" My father asked in his powerful voice.
I shook my head no.
"What was that?"
"No sir." I said still crying.
"I better not, cause if you do give me any more trouble I'm going to drop your pants again, only I'll use my belt instead of this." He said holding up his red hand.
"Yes sir."
"Now go sit in a chair till I tell you to get up." He ordered.
I must have sat in my grandmothers rocking chair for an hour, pouting, as the rest of my family, Richard excluded, agreed with each other about how two little boys got exactly what they deserved.
It was one memorable Christmas.