As a teenager, most of my friends and myself seemed to get into a fair share of trouble. Growing up in a small Texas town during the 70's, this usually meant that we eventually ended on the receiving of a paddle, belt, strap or switch. In my case and if I lucky, it was a couple hard dozen licks with a belt on the seat of my jeans. If I was not lucky, I ended up bare-ass in the garage getting a dose of the strap and or switch. After some of the beatings that I had gotten by the time I was 16, you would think that I would have learned to behave. But unlike most teenager, I must have had a real stubborn streak, because as I could not seem to avoid trouble. I have to admit that my problems were complicated by problems at home (my dad had a drinking problem). After my last strapping in the garage (see My Attitude Adjustment), I managed to stay out trouble and avoided my dad's belt and strap for several weeks. Early in the spring of my junior year in high school, I was fixing to turn 17. I did not expect much for my birthday, since my parents were having problems that were mostly related to my dads drinking.
The day of my birthday, my best friends, Jerry and Karl, and me decided to skip school and go to the beach. We made a stop at a friendly convenience store that sold us couple of cases of beer, and we headed for the beach. We had a great time and by mid afternoon we decided to head home. As we pulled into town, we had the misfortune of getting pulled over by a cop. The officer was fairly nice, for a cop. He could tell we had been drinking but he didn't give us a ticket or arrest us. Instead he told us to follow him and he took us back to school. It last period when we were escorted to the vice-principals office.
The vice principal looked at me and said, "Why am I not surprised to see you in hear again". He opened a desk drawer and pulled out a paddle that lots of boys at our school were familiar with. We were resigned to what was next! He pointed to Karl and told him to take his wallet out of his pocket, pull the shirttail out of his pants, and to assume the position. The "position: involved standing about four feet from the wall, bending forward and grabbing a bar mounted under a coat rack on the wall. (The bar was about five feet of the floor.) When the vice-principal was satisfied with Karl's position, he told him that he was getting ten licks, since this was the second time that he had skipped school this six-week. We could see Karl brace himself as the vice-principal got into position to one side and tapped Karl's butt a few times before grabbing the paddle with both hands and cracking it full force across Karl's jeans. Karl took the first six licks stoically, but by the 8th he was yelping. The 10th lick almost buckled his knees. Karl stood up slowly a came over and stood by us. His face was red and we could tell he was trying real hard to compose himself. The vice principal then motioned to Jerry and he assumed the position. Jerry took the first few licks without reacting but he was yelping and his knees buckled by the 8th lick. (I knew that the vice principal was really giving to Jerry full force.) He then lost his grip on the bar and almost fell down and the vice principal waited for him to get in position before giving him his last two licks. Jerry had a few tears in his eyes as he came and stood next to us. Jerry was pretty small and it really pissed me off that the vice principal seemed to have gone out of his way to hurt him. The vice principal then told Jerry and Karl to wait outside. They both looked at me and I just shook my head and told them to wait for me.
As Jerry and Karl left the office, I glared at vice principal and asked, "Are you having fun?" Why I said it, I don't know, but this really pissed him off because he grabbed me pushed toward the wall. I didn't wait for instructions; I just pulled my wallet out of my pocket and pulled my tee shirt completely off, and grabbed the bar. The vice principal came to my side and; "You think your a tough guy?" I probably pissed him off more because I actually laughed at him. I figured that if I could take my dad's beating, I could take anything this asshole could throw at me. He must have been really pissed because he didn't waste a second before the first lick landed on my butt. Before I knew it he was really laying them on hard and fast. I knew he was trying to get a reaction out of me but I gritted my teeth and stayed in place. After ten licks, my jaw was hurting from gritting my teeth but I was determined not give him the satisfaction of yelping or crying out. He stopped for a second and I started to get up, but he yelled at me to stay in place! He said; "Your attitude just earned you five more". I braced myself as he cracked the paddle across my butt again. The force of the licked almost buckled my knees but I stayed in place. I knew he hitting full forced with a double-handed grip on the paddle, but I stayed in place. The 13th lick caused me to lose my balance and I stared to fall sideways, but he didn't stop. By the 15th lick I lost my balance and I fell sideways a knocked a chair over, causing a big racket. I lay on the floor for a few seconds and I slowly got up. I did my best to act tough as I stood up and glared at him. I looked at him and smiled! This pissed him off more because he came toward me told me to get back in position! I laughed and said; "No _f_u_c_k_ing way." I thought he was going exploded. As he grabbed my arm, the door opened and the principal came in and asked; "What is going on?" I looked him and, "Asked him!" pointing to the vice-principal. The principal looked surprised that I was the only person in the office. He then told to leave the office. As I was leaving I heard him ask the vice-principal how many licks he had given me.
Outside the office, various student and teachers were standing around as I stormed out. Jerry and Karl were waiting for but I walked past them and head outside toward the student parking lot. They finally caught up to when I finally got to my car. They came up to me as I punched the side of my car window and almost broke my hand. They both came up to me told me to calm down! I took a few deep breaths and managed to calm down. I could see that they were kind of scared and I said; "I'm ok, give a few minutes. " I then told then what I had said and done to piss the vice-principal. They couldn't believe it and asked if I were crazy. I kind of smiled and said that there was no way that ass hole was going to get the best of me. It was then that Jerry reminded me that the school was going to call our parent about us skipping school. For Karl this meant another paddling when he got home and for Jerry it meant a whipping with his dad's belt! For me, this would typically result in a trip to the garage and a session with the strap. I stared at Jerry and hung my head and told him that I would see him later. I got in my car and took off and drove around for a while before going home.
It was after dark by the time I got home. My dad and mom were home and as usual were arguing. When I walked in to the house my dad yelled at me and said; "Get in the god-_d_a_m_n_ garage." I could tell he was drunk and I knew that he would really lay into me with the strap and switch. I said; "Dad calm down a bit and sit down." He came toward me and grabbed me and said; "Your going to get your ass whipping you'll never forget boy." I got really pissed, not because he was going to whip me, I was used to that, but because he was not in control and would really hurt me. I then yelled at him and said; "_f_u_c_k_ off!" The really set him off and he slapped me hard across the face and I fell side ways across the couch! That was it for me. I got up and started to walk out the front door. He yelled after me and came toward me but I ran out the front door. I got in the car before he could catch up to me. He stood next to car and yelled for me to get out. I started to car and drove off and went to Jerry's house. When I got there I sat in the car crying. After a long time Jerry came out to see what was up. His face was real red and he had tears in his eyes and I knew he had just gotten a whipping from his dad. I stared to drive away, not wanting to cause him any more trouble but he reached in and turned off my car and told to get out of the car. He asked what had happened and I told him about my dad being drunk. About this time his mom and dad came out to see what was going on. When they saw me, they knew something was wrong. I started to explain but I started cry, so Jerry repeated my story. Jerry's parents told to go inside and get cleaned up. After a few minutes, Jerry's mom came in to his room and told that I could stay with them until things calmed down. She said she had called my mom and told her that I was ok. It turned out that my dad had stormed off after I had left. I spent a few days at Jerry's before I went home.