Paddled at Mrs Freeman’s

I’ve always had something of a big mouth, and it has got me into trouble many times in my life, but never more memorably than when I got my bottom smacked by Mrs Freeman.

She was an American lady who was living in the UK for a while, as her husband was in the US Air Force and he had been posted to England. To make a little money, Mrs Freeman acted as a childminder for other families. She was in her late 40s and her own children were grown up and gone, but her experience as a mother and her calm, kind demeanour meant that her services as a babysitter were in high demand, and there were usually at least a couple of other children at her house when she looked after me.

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