There was one time when he decided my brother needed a whippin' so he took him into the garage and made him bend over. My dad took a short piece of reclaimed 2x4 and hit him on the bottom with it. But the board was cracked or rotten or both, and it broke in half. The end flew off across the room and went right through the stack of storm windows all leaning nicely against the wall of the garage. My brother started to laugh, and my dad started to laugh, and the beating was over. So they both went back into the house laughing hysterically. My mom asked, "What's so funny?" So my brother told her, "Oh, dad hit me with a 2x4!"
My hero was my grandpa. He was gentle little guy with a gleam in his eye, and not a cross word for anybody. Wore his pants up to his armpits. He came home from work one day and both my Mom and her brother, my uncle, who were like 8 and 10 at the time had done something that day at home while my grandma was there. But punishment was for the man of the house so it waited till he came home. he was told by his wife that they did this and they did that and they both needed a whipping with the strap. So reluctantly he took the shaving strap and the two kids into the bedroom and closed the door. Pretty soon my grandma could hear the strap strike home and one of the kids yell in pain. Then the other on the next smack. This went on for a bit, and my grandma felt they were getting too many smacks, and that my grandpa was hitting them too hard, and getting blood curdling yells out of both kids. So my grandma went and opened the door to tell him that was enough! She found the kids standing next to the bed and saw my grandpa coming down on the bed with the strap and then the kids taking turns yelling as if being hit. So then grandpa was in trouble!
