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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Story series - Blood blister'd hand

Editor's note - I thought I had this scheduled to publish. My apologies to those who were expecting my regular post.

I was rather a wild child growing up. That's how people saw me. Why was I wild? I just didn't understand the societal expectations placed on me and the norms I was supposed to follow. Nobody had ever taught me...I figured almost all of that on my own. Bear that in mind when I tell this story of the blood blister'd hand.

Sometime in the day somewhere far away from the house, I had this undefined feeling deep down in my belly that I was in trouble. Didn't know what or why. Just knew. I never liked coming home and get spanked for what, to my underdeveloped mind, was no reason at all. Never liked having my parents administer corporal punishment to me and then say to me, "You know what you did!" No explanation. How was I supposed to know what I did when I didn't understand the expectations and the norms?

I decided that I would protect my butt from the inevitable sting of a parent's hand, but how? My young mind deduced that the rocks, when I'd fall on them, hurt A LOT...so, the rocks would hurt the hand that "fell" on them. Perfect. I gathered up a whole bunch of small rocks and stuffed them into my back pockets. Then I got up and went home.

Sure enough, my mother came to the door upon hearing my entrance into the house. She grabbed my arm before I could say anything and spun me around so she could swing her hand down to spank me. Thud. Not "thwack!" I felt the rocks push into me and that hurt a little. Surprised me...how the rocks hurt me...but I was more surprised by my mother's reaction to my "butt protection".

She howled in pain and held her wrist as she tried to shake the pain off. Perfect, my idea worked. She ran into the kitchen to soak her injured hand in cold water to help relieve the pain.

She never spanked me again. That was my entire recollection of this episode. When I told her about how I remembered this moment while discussing the demerits of corporal punishment few years ago, she told me something else had happened that day. The rocks were pointy enough and she had hit the rocks hard enough that she developed blood blisters on her hand. She confessed that she was too scared to spank me since then.

My idea worked too perfectly. I felt bad about that, but we all are able to laugh about it now.

7 comments:

A Daft Scots Lass said...

Resourceful wee man, weren't you?! This made me laugh.

Mission accomplished.

Lin said...

Very clever! lol

Bird Shit said...

LOL I will have to pass this info on to any kid who will listen...for a fee of course!

Copyboy said...

Yeah you were a rock star. Ok, that was bad. Sorry.

DCHY said...

ADSL - that was my earliest recollection of being a resourceful person. It has carried over into many aspects of my life. :)

Lin - I had no idea how clever I was until my mom added the footnote of blood blisters. LOL

Bird Shit and Baby Caca - I can see it now..."Life Management and Coping Skills seminar for kids - $10 per or a supply of frogs". ;)

Copyboy - that made me laugh. Excellent pun!

Sandra said...

Wow...it's very telling of how far our society has come. Even though your mother felt like she was "teaching you a lesson," nowadays, people would have entered her home and taken you away. Thank goodness though the old rock-in-the-pants trick worked!

DCHY said...

Sandra - those were the old days where hands-on discipline was the norm. Even the schools participated in that. Ohh...that gives me new material for my Story series. That'll be posted next week Wednesday!