You never knew for sure when it was going to happen, but you could be sure that in our house sooner or later it WAS going to happen. Those famous words would be coming out of dad's mouth: "Boy you are in for a good ass-warming."
That particular night was one of the first nights I had ever worn blue jeans. I never wore them to school like the other kids did in years before, but I was getting older and I thought it was time to be like the rest of the guys in my class, their buns stuffed into a pair of "foremosts" or wranglers. Earlier the week before I had finally asked Mom if I could have a pair of jeans, so the first pair I could find to fit me were mine. They were called "Bulldoggers," and I thought I was really cool...finally wearing those "overalls" to school. I wore them in just the same style as they did in those days...with a two inch cuff at the ankles. I thought I was pretty smart now....too smart maybe.
Anyway, I'm not sure what started it all, but I remember I must have "lipped off" to my dad one too many times, and what happened after that was much quicker than I expected. Dad got up out of his chair and shouted:
"That's it, boy. You've been asking for it, and now you're gonna git an ass-warming you won't forget. You won't sit down for a month of Sundays when I get through with you!"
He grabbed me by the arm and took me back to that chair, and had me bent over his knees in less than a minute. He put one hand on my belt and pulled my jeans as tight as he could get them, and then with the other hand he let fly across my butt.
"Whack...whack...whack...whack...whack.."
You could hear the sound if you were standing outside. Everybody in the house could not only hear it. They were witnessing it as it happened. And I was already begging for mercy.
"Whack...ow...whack....ouch....whack...ow! It hurts! Dad...stop whipping me! Whack...whack...whack. Ow! Ow! Ouch!" I pleaded again and again for it to stop, but Dad would not hear of it!
"I told you you were gonna get an ass-warming you won't forget, and by God, that's just what's gonna happen, " he shouted at me, as I put my hand back to try and rub my butt.
"Get your hands away or I'll give you more and you'll get it harder!"
You can guess that by now I was really in pain and screaming to stop. I was bawling my eyes out over the pain, but it still went on for some time until suddenly it stopped. He was finished...or so I thought. I stood up and was still crying, when I heard another of his famous lines....
"Stop that bawling or I'll really give you something to bawl about."
But I couldn't stop. My ass was hurting so bad I just kept crying. Wrong thing to do. He grabbed me again and put me back over his knees, and started all over again. It seemed like it lasted for an eternity, but to a ten-year old boy, any whipping could seem like an eternity.
When it was all finished, I hurried away to the bedroom, still whimpering and wincing from the pain. I took down my jeans to look at my bare ass, and it looked on fire! I could see the marks of his hands all over my ass, I went over to the bed and cried my eyes out for half the night. It would have been a whole lot worse if he had carried through with the threat to give me a "bare ass-warming." Those would come much later!
To this day, some thirty years later, I still think back to that night I was wearing my blue jeans, and thank God I was wearing them or it would have been worse. I wear blue jeans a lot now, and like to have a couple of different brands like Wrangler and Levi's. I still think I look cool in them, and I like to wear them on the tight side to show my butt, I'd like to think that somewhere out there is another "dad" who could put me over his knees and blister my but with his back hand. And I guess I'' be forever in blue jeans...waiting.