It is my Dad's birthday today, 4th September 2013 and he is 91.
I had the pleasure of sharing breakfast with him whilst visiting him from Coffs Harbour.
During our breakfast he started reflecting on some of his early childhood days and one that caught my attention was an episode when he got a kick up the bottom for pinching a pencil with a small plane at the end when he was a young boy.
It was a shock to hear my Father admitting to pinching anything, the first and last ever.
He was not only caught, but was given a hiding from his mother, in front of his mates who had egged him into doing it in the first place. The hiding from his mother was after the owner of the store had grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and given him a good kick in the behind, a kick that felt like he was being lifted into the air and it hurt!
He said, "The embarrassment I felt by being kicked in the behind and in front of his mates was unbearable".
Kicking a child like that today would be classified as assault, but back in the early 1930's one could almost do what ever they wanted.
Oh how times have changed, today's kids get away with a lot more and certainly there appears to be little or no punishment, just words like "why did you do that son or daughter?"
in Arncliffe, New South Wales, Australia
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