When I was growing up, my dad’s sister Beth and her daughter Ruth lived next door to us. Aunt Beth was a widow – her husband had been killed in a road accident when my cousin Ruth was only a little girl. My dad took great care of them always, and we were very close.
Aunt Beth worked in a bakery and although she didn’t make much money, she managed to get by. My dad would often help her but she preferred to be as independent as possible – she lived frugally and made the most of what she had.
One day, when Ruth and I were about 11 years old, we were hanging around at her house. We couldn’t think of anything to do so we decided to cook something.
We looked into the fridge and saw the remnants of a roast chicken which Aunt Beth and Ruth had had the previous evening for dinner. We made a fried chicken dish and ate it.
When my aunt got home later that afternoon, she was furious that we girls had left the kitchen in such a mess. Aunt Beth was even madder that we had eaten the food she had intended to use for the next two nights’ dinners.
She grabbed Ruth by the arm and slapped the backs of her bare thighs hard a number of times. I seeing remember the vivid bright red hand prints all over my cousin’s legs, contrasting starkly with her white shorts.
Aunt Beth then grabbed me as well and took us both next door to my house. I protested all the way, partly because it wasn’t my idea to use the chicken but mostly because my dad was very strict and I knew that he would punish me for upsetting his sister.
Once we got there, my aunt told him what had happened and he glared over at me crossly. Ruth and I knew that there was trouble ahead and we started squabbling over who was to blame. Dad often disciplined Ruth if she needed it because although Beth was strict, we were a male-dominated family and dad was the disciplinarian. Even Beth seemed to be accountable to him.
He ordered Ruth and I to stand facing the wall and to pull our pants down. Dad pulled out the ‘spanking chair’ and sat down. He called me over first and put me over his knee, he spanked my bare bottom long and hard. I squealed and cried as his hand smacked his hand across my bottom cheeks/ Just when I thought it was all over, he told me that I woould be getting ten spanks across the back of my thighs as Ruth had already got that from her mum! Always one for fair play, my dad!
After I had been done, he sent me to stand over by the wall as Ruth got the same hard bare bottom spanking as I had been given. Then we both had to sit on the hard wooden chairs at the kitchen table with our pants down until dinner was over. I was sent to bed with a sore bum and a lecture about being thoughtful and respectful of others.
Aunt Beth and Ruth then went home, with instructions that Ruth was also to be sent straight to bed with her own sore bottom.
Contributor: Kate