"Tell me about how it was in your household. Did a spanking occur often?"
I looked at my watch. Twenty minutes to go. I squirmed before I answered but the detail came floating back from so long ago.
"No. Only for serious offenses. I had a short fuse and tended to say what was on my mind. On occasion it got me in trouble." I paused. "Maybe I was spanked four or five of times growing up, give or take a few."
"Give me a for instance."
"I was eight or nine and in art class Mary Simmons made fun of my drawing of a turkey. She said it looked like a duck. I'd worked on it really hard and thought it was beautiful. I snatched her drawing away and ripped it to pieces and told her now her picture looked like a pile of trash! She went bonkers, screaming to Mrs. Porter but it was worth it. My teacher didn't just sit me in the corner like she usually did; she marched me to the principal who called my mother. I knew as soon as she picked up the phone my fate was sealed. I knew exactly what would happen, and it did."
"What happened?"
"When I came home from school, mother sent me to the pantry and wait for my father. When he got home from work, I knew I'd get a spanking."
"Were you mad?"
"I was mad as hell at Mary Simmons!"
"But not mad at your mother, for dishing out the sentence?"
"Of course not. She wasn't the one who'd torn up the paper, I was. It was my fault. My mother simply assigned the agreed-on punishment."
"Agreed on?"
"Definitely. My sister and I knew perfectly well the difference between right and wrong and what would happen if we strayed. We knew the rules and the consequences."
"So she was spanked as well?"
"As much or more than I. She had a two year head start and was a pretty rambunctious kid."
"Did you two discuss your spankings?"
I had to stop and think. Lord knows Suzie and I talked about everything else. "We didn't dwell on them but each knew when the other got it and why. We were never around when it happened. We were sent outside or weren't home at the time. I'd come up to our room and one look at Suzie told me. She'd say, 'Daddy had to bury the cat today'."
"What does that mean?"
"It was Suzie's expression for getting spanked. We talked one time about how tough it was on both of our parents to discipline us. My father would come home from work all happy to see his family and looking forward to a nice quiet night and my mother would tell him what he had to do to one of us. Suzie said it was if he came in the door all cheerful and Mom said the cat died and he had to take the body outside and bury it. That's what it must have been like for him; coming in happy and then having to do this distasteful chore; cause pain to these kids he loved."