Of course, Dad wasn't always out of town, and often he came in late. When he was there, my expectations as to the punishment I could receive changed. It was he who first told my mother, "Susan, all you need to use on that boy is your hand. You can give him plenty to cry about with your hand on his bare ass. You don't need a belt to do the job." My father spanked me only twice that I can or desire to remember.

The first time he spanked me was the night he made the comments to my mother I attributed to him above, and I laughed. Immediately he just reached out and jerked me out of the dining room chair, half-carried, half-drug me into their bedroom. When we got there he made his case well. He jerked the pants off me, roughly pushed my underroos down, lay me across his lap and spanked me for what seemed like an eternity with his hand. I was crying with the first SWAT!

Over and over again his hand fell. My mother finally came in and told him to stop. I fled, even stumbled, from the room screaming and crying with my pants and briefs still gathered around my ankles. I vividly remember standing in class the next day because my ass was so sore. (It doesn't take a history major to know this was before the state began to intervene in domestic situations for matters relating to parental discipline.)

There was only one other occasion for him to spank me. It seems he came home late one evening to learn I had been in trouble at school and at home. A rule in our home said that if I got into trouble while he was away, I could expect punishment from him upon his arrival. Then, as before, he didn't hesitate in his chosen course of action. He stormed into my bedroom, flipped on the light, threw back the covers, turned me over with one hand while he removed the belt from his waist with the other, pushed my underwear down, and lay into me with all his weight.

POP! POP! Over and over again his belt slapped my tiny ass. Once again, it was mom who was alarmed enough by my screams to make him stop. After she came in, he left me alone in the room, but mom stayed long enough to inspect the damage.