Where Have All the Fathers Gone? (standard:humor, 903 words)
Author: Godspenman	Added: Jun 14 2015	Views/Reads: 2276/1621	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Around this time of the year, my thoughts wander back to my father. He has been gone quite a spell but his memory lingers. I often wonder what he would think of what is happening in our world today if he were to come back.

Around this time of the year, my thoughts wander back to my father. He
has been gone quite a spell but his memory lingers. I often wonder what 
he would think of what is happening in our world today if he were to 
come back. 

I grew up with a father who believed in being the father. I confess he
was not always right all the time, but what he said was law in our 
house. That is, of course, unless his wife contradicted him. Then it 
was time for us kids to seek sanctuary outside where we could not hear 
what was going on. 

I cannot help but believe that some of the problems we are having in our
society today would not be such a problem if we had fathers. How many 
families are there where children grow up not knowing their father? No 
wonder they have no respect for authority. 

Although my father was not a very well educated person, he knew how to
use the Board of Education on the Seat of Learning for all of us 
children. Some of the stuff he did back in “the day,” would bring him 
some real legal problems today. 

For example. My father believed he had the right to be judge, jury and
executioner concerning the things in his children's life, with no 
appeal to a higher authority. 

In the kitchen hanging next to the door to go outside was a very
interesting parenting tool, at least in my father's eyes. It was a 
paddle with a religious inscription, “I Need Thee Every Hour.” The 
inscription was quite true to the reality of life in our home. 

Spanking was a routine exercise in our home. My father had the idea that
if you were in trouble in school you were also in trouble at home. He 
had this fantastic idea that the teacher was right and I was wrong. I 
guess he knew me and that I could take a little bit of truth and spin 
it into a lie. I wonder who I learned that from? 

Several times I got in trouble at school, which involved a spanking down
at the principal's office. The first time this happened, I well 
remember walking into the kitchen and saw my father standing there 
holding in his hand that infamous paddle. Within a few moments, the 
paddle was doing its duty and I was doing the “paddle dance.” 

After the paddling, my father sat down with me and said, “Okay, what
trouble did you get into at school requiring the principal to paddle 
you?” 

I wished he had asked me before the paddling, because now I had no
incentive whatsoever to lie. Looking back, maybe that was the whole 
purpose of the paddling. 

I well remember one time out in the backyard, I did something requiring
parental action. My father looked at me and said, “Go get me a switch. 
You need to be taught a lesson.” 

At the time, I thought it was funny, however, after the fact I could see
no humor whatsoever in it. I went to get the “switch,” according to my 
father's instructions and came back with a twig. I thought it was 
funny, but my father had no sense of humor about this. In a few 
moments, my sense of humor evaporated because my father went and got a 
switch, which is a whole lot different from a twig, just ask my 
backside. 

Ruminating over these things, I tried to figure out how many spankings I
actually got during my lifetime. Let me just say, it was significant. 
More than that. It taught me respect for authority. 

I wonder if some of these young people getting into trouble today ever
had a spanking? Of course, today that is completely against PC. My 
father did not believe in PC, but he did believe emphatically in BS 
(Back Side). I think if parents today would focus more on BS than PC, 
things might be a lot different. 

Today, people think those old-fashioned spankings represent cruel and
unusual punishment. However, if you look at this generation that has 
not had an old-fashioned spanking, I think the evidence speaks for 


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