Branches and Switches
Obviously, those that write the scripts for the "talking heads" to read on national TV networks don't know the difference between a tree branch and a switch. The reports are that Vikings footballer Adrian Peterson beat his kid with a branch. The TV optics show whelps on the kids lower legs. It would take someone with the strength of Peterson to pick up a branch and hit a kid with it.
Peterson most likely did what my wife's mother did when she punished my wife as a child. She sent her out to the Lombardy trees to select a switch. If it wasn't of sufficient size she was sent back to get a larger one. Her mother stripped the leaves off the switch except for the last few at the very end. Then, she "switched" (hit for you Northerners) my wife on the legs sometimes raising whelps. Her mother should have done prison time based on today's principles of how to discipline a child.
My father probably would have been sentenced to life in prison based on how he disciplined four rowdy unruly boys. The razor strop hung at the bottom post of my parent's bed and was always handy. For you youngsters a razor strop is a two-foot long piece of leather the thickness of a sturdy belt used to hone the cutting edge of a straight edge razor.
If we were at the barn my father used a check line. That's a short piece of leather about an inch or so wide and four feet long used to hook two mules together to make a team. It takes two check lines criss-crossed from mule to mule. A check line was always handy. And, he not only punished the offending kid, but punished all of us. That conveyed the message emphatically.
Those were the Great Depression days. Our parents were working long hours and struggling hard to get a little food on the table and to make ends meet. They didn't have the time nor patience for trying to reason with a kid in a polite, thoughtful, and understanding way. We got the message right away in no uncertain terms.
We as a nation have become overly infatuated with all the liberal notions of how to raise, feed, clothe, and discipline children. We have way too much time on our hands to contemplate the wonders of our navel and marvel at the liberal ideas of how to conduct our lives.
Maybe another Great Depression is needed to bring us back to reality.
Peterson most likely did what my wife's mother did when she punished my wife as a child. She sent her out to the Lombardy trees to select a switch. If it wasn't of sufficient size she was sent back to get a larger one. Her mother stripped the leaves off the switch except for the last few at the very end. Then, she "switched" (hit for you Northerners) my wife on the legs sometimes raising whelps. Her mother should have done prison time based on today's principles of how to discipline a child.
My father probably would have been sentenced to life in prison based on how he disciplined four rowdy unruly boys. The razor strop hung at the bottom post of my parent's bed and was always handy. For you youngsters a razor strop is a two-foot long piece of leather the thickness of a sturdy belt used to hone the cutting edge of a straight edge razor.
If we were at the barn my father used a check line. That's a short piece of leather about an inch or so wide and four feet long used to hook two mules together to make a team. It takes two check lines criss-crossed from mule to mule. A check line was always handy. And, he not only punished the offending kid, but punished all of us. That conveyed the message emphatically.
Those were the Great Depression days. Our parents were working long hours and struggling hard to get a little food on the table and to make ends meet. They didn't have the time nor patience for trying to reason with a kid in a polite, thoughtful, and understanding way. We got the message right away in no uncertain terms.
We as a nation have become overly infatuated with all the liberal notions of how to raise, feed, clothe, and discipline children. We have way too much time on our hands to contemplate the wonders of our navel and marvel at the liberal ideas of how to conduct our lives.
Maybe another Great Depression is needed to bring us back to reality.
posted by Donald G Davidson at 12:24 PM
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