Odd little problems seemed to come my way. The house was covered in parts by a large creeper coming up from the ground at several locations. One point was outside our front window. The creeper had evolved over many years. A thick trunk about the size of my arm ran close to the ground. At first, it held my weight, and then it suddenly snapped. The damage was not apparent at first, but slowly the creeper started to die off. Soon a large area at one side of the house was clearly seen to be dead.

I decided to see how the radio worked. After taking out the many valves, I found that I was unable to get them back in the correct order. The set appeared to work but the sound was very faint and unclear. Another experiment was to set fire to a car tyre in the field. Although the flames did not spread to anything, the amount of smoke I caused was a bit of an annoyance. For each of these events I received the plimsoll and was in tears after every session, which for the level of damage I had caused was in my mind quite fair. I wondered how close I had come to the cane. I knew it was not just a threat; my mother had found a suitable one from the vegetable garden and kept it in our sitting room ready for when it would be needed.

 Two other problems were not my fault. A couple of my friends decided that the metal swings could be given plenty of heavier use; the swings were soon a twisted pile of metal. The corrugated plastic panelling of an unused stable block was partly ripped apart in an effort to acquire a couple of sheets to use in a den at their home. I was blamed for these two events, as they happened on the same day. I found I had now reached a punishment beyond the plimsoll. I was taken to my bedroom; my mother spent a little while talking to me over these two events. Damaging these items was wrong and I had to be punished. I tried to explain that I had little to do with these events, but to my mother, as these were my friends and I had allowed them to come here to play, I should have made sure that no damage was done. In future, none of my friends would be allowed to come here again.

There was a choice given to me: either two days in my room with just books to read and no sweets, or the cane. I might have taken a day in my room, but two days was just too much. On telling my mother that I did not want to stay in for two days, I was left alone whilst she went to get the cane. She was only away a minute but it seemed to take forever for her to return. I was now asked how my grandmother punished me; was it any different to the way of the headmistress? On explaining that my grandmother had hit my bottom and the teacher had hit my hand, my mother decided that perhaps my grandmother was the best person to follow. Instead of standing up in the way I had been punished by my grandmother, my mother told me to lay face down on my bed in the same way as if I was having the plimsoll.

I was in tears, I knew it was going to hurt, but I was not going to stay indoors for two days. The two hits from my mother matched exactly the pain from my grandmother. It was one hit for each of the damaged items. My mother knew that the punishment had hurt, and instead of leaving me straight away, she sat on the bed and told me it was all over now, and I should now go back to being a good boy. I was now left alone to get over my tears. I was angrier that I was punished for the damage my friends had caused, than the pain from the cane. Soon I was out of my room; at least to me the punishment was over, and there was only a little more pain than the plimsoll.

At night, I was having trouble getting over the punishment. I was upset over the cane; to me I had not done anything wrong. I knew during the night, I should have got up to visit the lavatory. I wet my bed – more to upset my mother, than being too lazy to get out of bed. In the morning my mother kept her word over if I wet the bed again – there was the plimsoll first thing on getting up. The following day was school and again my bed was wet. During my cold bath, there was a reminder that when I came back from school I would be punished.

If I was miserable during school, it was with the knowledge that I was going to get the plimsoll on my return. At the end of the day on my return home, I was given the plimsoll before tea and sent to bed as soon as I had finished the meal. From that night onwards, I knew that this was one battle I was not going to win and tried to be a good boy as had been requested.

The next time I went out to play, there was a reminder not to let any of my friends come here. I managed to get even with the two boys that had caused the damage. I was not forbidden from visiting them, so on a day they were not around, I went to one that had a den in his garden and caused a similar amount of damage. I opened a large party keg of beer that they had stored in their den. They did not have the intention of drinking it, but one of them had taken it out of their father’s garage as a trophy. Emptying it onto the dry earth floor made their den unusable.

 The next time I received the cane from my mother was after I had lit a few matches in my bedroom. I had not tried to set light to anything; all I was doing was seeing how slowly I could drag a match across the edge of a box before it caught light.  In the normal way, I was not meant to have matches. If I was out of doors and at the bonfire that was fine; if I burnt myself that was my own lookout. Indoors it was wrong and I knew it. I might have got away with it had I not struck the matches shortly before it was time to get up. On coming into my room my mother had noticed the smell from the recently struck matches. It was quite easy for me to tell that it was not going to be the plimsoll.

Once my mother had removed the matches that remained, I was left alone for a short while before she returned with the cane. If the punishment was to hurt more today it was because I was still in pyjamas. The ritual of lying face down was soon requested. To my mother my crime was worse than any previous matter; today it was three hits with the cane. I had thought there were only going to be two hits, so I had moved slightly after the second hit, when the third one hit at the top of my legs. I was crying in agony.

It was easy to see my mother was still cross, the telling off over the matches now followed. I was now told to get up and have my morning wash. As today was a school day, the delay I had caused meant that there was only time for a very quick wash and breakfast before leaving for school. In a way, getting the punishment over so quickly had made me forget about the pain for a short while, but once out of the house I could still feel the stinging as I walked to school.

By the afternoon everything was back to normal, and when I met up with my mother outside the school gates, there was a reminder about not playing with matches. Once that was over, the matter was at an end. A reward of a small bar of chocolate was purchased for me once I promised not to light any more matches indoors.

Continued

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