The other boys and I were supposed to be gathering wood for the fire when Josh pulled out a cigarette. "Where'd you get that?" I asked him.
"I stole it from my brother. Have you guys ever smoked before?"
There were four of us - all between the ages of nine and ten. We all admitted that we had wondered what a cigarette would taste like but had never tried it.
Before long, all four of us boys were coughing our heads off and our dads came running.
"What are you boys doing?" Dad screamed - glaring at me.
"We were... uh... uh..."
"You were smoking!?!" Dad sounded like he was in disbelief.
The other dads agreed that all of us boys deserved a good butt busting. They dragged us back to the campsite.
Josh was the first one to get it. We watched as his father unsnapped the blue jeans of the thin, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy and pulled them down to his ankles. The man took Josh across his lap and WHAP! He gave him a hard smack on the left cheek of his white cotton briefs. WHAP! Another one on the left cheek. WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! Three on the right cheek. WHAP! WHAP! Two more on the left and Joshua's little butt was on fire. He was allowed to stand up and pull his pants up. Then his father gave him a hug.
Next it was Tommy's turn. "Come on boy, let's get this over with." Tommy's dad looked tough. He was 6'4 and weight about 270 pounds. I thought Tommy was going to get it good. "Grab your ankles kid" His dad ordered before standing up behind him. The huge man took his belt off. Oh yeah, Tommy was sure to get one hard bottom tanning. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! Three smacks and Tommy's spanking was over. I couldn't believe it. What kind of spanking was that?
Third in line was Charles. His dad brought a wooden paddle with them. He ordered his read headed son to drop his pants and bend over the picnic table wearing only a thin pair of grey boxer shorts. "You know the drill boy! You're getting 5 swats. If you make a sound, the count starts over!"
WHACK!.... WHACK!.... "Owwww!" Charles screamed.
"Starting over!" His dad spoke softly before getting a new, firmer grip on the board. WHACK!.... WHACK!!.... WHACK!.....
Charles jumped up with the third lick.
"Starting over!" His dad said again. I could tell Charles was in a lot of pain. His boxers weren't providing much protection against that huge board. It was the largest frat paddle I had ever laid eyes on. WHACK!.... WHACK!.... WHACK!.... Charles flinched and I thought he was gonna scream, but he held it in. WHACK!.... WHACK!.... I was happy for him - he made it without the count starting over again.
At the same time though, I was scared. It was my turn.
"Can I borrow that paddle Rob?" He asked.
"Sure, no problem."
I could only hope dad would let me keep my pants on. I didn't want the other boys to see me in my underwear.
Of course I wasn't that lucky though. Dad quickly unfastened my blue jeans, pulled them down to my ankles and told me to step out of them - leaving me standing there in my tight fitting, white briefs. "Bend over the table, just like Charles did. You're getting fifteen licks with the board. You're not going to start a bad habit like smoking cigarettes young man!"
Fifteen smacks? Owww... Even the thought was painful. But I did as I was told. WHACK! With the first swat I wanted to scream. That was the most painful paddle that had ever connected with my bottom - and I had been beaten with quite a few of them. WHACK! The second lick hurt even more than the first. WHACK! Twelve more... oh... I didn't know if I could make it. WHACK!... WHACK!... WHACK!... WHACK!.... My butt was stinging worse than it had since dad had whipped me a few weeks before. WHACK!... WHACK!... WHACK!...WHACK!... WHACK!... WHACK!... WHACK... WHACK!...
I was thrilled to death when I was allowed to stand up. And to be honest, I was proud. As bad as my bottom was hurting, I was the only boy there who didn't shed a tear. I started to put my britches back on, but dad stopped me.
"What do you think you're doing son? We're not finished yet!"
What? I had just gotten whipped harder than any of the other guys. What more could there be?
"Get over here!" Dad said as he sat down on the bench. "Bend over my knee."
I hated over-the-knee spankings. Especially when there were witnesses. How embarrasing!
SMACK! Dad brought his bare hand down on my already sore behind. "Owwww!!!!" I yelled.
"You know better than to scream like a baby!" Dad lectured. He slipped his hand into the waistband of my briefs and started to pull them off of me.
"No daddy! Please no! Not right here in front of my friends!!!!!"
"If you didn't want your friends to see your bare bottom, you shouldn't have acted like a baby in front of them!"
In seconds, my briefs were around my ankles and my dad was whipping me in what my brother always called the rapid fire. He whipped me as fast and as hard as he could. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! On the left cheek. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! On the right cheek. I was no longer the only one who was not crying. I was crying and yelling and squirming around all over my old man's lap. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! By the time the ordeal was over I had received at least fifty smacks.
That was the last time I went on a father-son camping trip with my old man.