Growing up on a farm provides many opportunities to learn life skills, to make mistakes … and to learn how to correct them. Dad (Pawpaw) expected me and Charles to learn how to do do valuable chores, and to do them correctly, because he was depending on us. He didn’t whip us when we made mistakes, he made us do it again.

I only remember one time when Dad whipped me. He had me by the hand, and was “giving me love strokes” with a leather belt. I started running, and ran around him in circles with him still holding tight to my hand. As I ran, he turned and kept whipping. I think he found the whole situation quite amusing. I don’t recall exactly what I was being punished for, but it wasn’t a mistake with my chores. It was related to mistreating my brother or sister. These types of transgressions were more serious.