Let me start off by telling you a little bit about me. I was born in a small city in Mississippi to a great set of parents. My mom had three sisters. The four sisters’ mother had died when the youngest sister (aunt Judy) was about one and the oldest (my mom) was about eight. After my grandmother had died, my grandfather never remarried. His mom, who was still alive, lived with my grandfather and four daughters and helped raise them.
My grandfather was a very successful business man and, as a wedding present, gave each one of his daughters a starting home. My mom’s house and Aunt Judy's were next door to each other. My grandfather lived in the house the girls had grown up in and the second oldest daughter, Aunt Helen, and her family lived with him. The other daughter, Aunt Rita, lived about a block from us.
The four sisters were inseparable and that meant that the eight cousins (five boys and three girls) spent a lot of time together. My Aunt Judy had only one child, a daughter, who was born 3 months after I was. I was as close to Patty and I was to my brother.
All eight of us were basically raised by these four sisters. As can be expected from Mississippi children growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s discipline was delivered by whichever of the sisters you were with when you misbehaved. This obviously meant that each one of us had been over each one of our mother’s/aunt’s lap on numerous occasions. Spankings were delivered “as needed” and ranged from a few swats across the rear to a bare bottomed spanking or two based on how serious the spanker decided that infraction was
We were fortunate in that all of our dads were fairly successful in business. When I was in the fourth grade my parents built a new house and Uncle Tom and Aunt Judy, who had been our next door neighbors, bought the land next to us and also build.
After we turned twelve or thirteen, spanking started to become less frequent even though they still did occur.
Since my mom and my Aunt Judy lived next door to each other, me and my brother spent a lot of time at Aunt Judy’s house and Patty spent a lot of time at ours. In addition to that, I spent even more time at Aunt Judy’s as Patty and I played together a lot and also because Aunt Judy was my favorite aunt. As to be expected Patty and I on occasion got a bit mischievous and we would both end up over Aunt Judy’s or my mom’s lap. Our moms had decided that when any one of us got into trouble and were to be spanked then the other kids around could witness it. They felt that the added embarrassment would add to the punishment.
I can still vividly remember the last spanking I got from Aunt Judy. Patty and I were both seniors in high school and I was driving us back home from a school event. Patty and I were talking away and Patty was teasing me and trying to tickle me. I completely failed to notice the red light which I ran. Unfortunately, a police officer did notice it and pulled me over.
We got to Aunt Judy’s and I ran home to change clothes and then came back to have dinner with Aunt Judy and Patty as Patty’s dad was away on business which was not uncommon as he traveled a lot on business. . During dinner, Aunt Judy mentioned that Patty had told her that I had been ticketed for running a red light. Needless to say, I was more than upset with Patty for blabbing but had to admit that I had been. Aunt Judy started lecturing me on being more observant when I was driving and was telling me that both Patty and I could have been seriously hurt had there been an accident. She then told me that as soon as dinner were over I would be spanked. I could not believe what she was saying. I reminded her that I was now eighteen and was way too old to be spanked. Aunt Judy simply told me that she knew that I was eighteen but that my behavior behind the wheel was childish so she was going to treat me as a child.
After dinner we cleaned up and then Aunt Judy and I headed to the living room. Aunt Judy went into the dining room and brought a dining room chair into the room and placed it in the center of the room. Aunt Judy sat down and had me face her and started lecturing me about my behavior. I noticed then that Patty had come into the room and had taken a seat on the sofa. I looked at Aunt Judy and told her that I obviously was going to take the spanking but I felt that Patty should not be present. Aunt Judy actually smiled and reminded me that all siblings were always present during punishment. She reminded me that part of the punishment was the embarrassment so she felt that Patty should actually be present especially since if I had caused an accident Patty could have been hurt.
She went on to say, “Actually, Patrick, I think that I need to reinforce just how serious your bad driving was.