I mentioned before that we passed a lot of the time in
the back by fighting. We would try and nap and read and pay games but
there is only so much camper time a boy can take before he can't take
no more. Then a brother or sister or I would start to pester someone
else to get some excitement going. Then someone else would join in
and the melee would ensue. Then someone would get hurt too badly and
start to yell and scream or the queen mother of all kid-sins, go
tell. My dad would yell back at us to knock it of or he was going to
give us something to cry about. We were not wise so a word was never
sufficient and we would push our luck right past the point at which
he would ultimately take action. When my dad decided it was time to
lay down some law he would yell for whomever was responsible in the
back to stick their head through a hole in the bottom front of the
camper that matched up with the back window of the truck and tell him
the story. He would listen to both sides and then decide who needed
their 'melon thumped' and then tell that person to put their head
through the hole.
 |
| " |
You had to kneel on the floor of the camper to line
your head up to put it through the hole. He would then reach over his
right shoulder with his left hand as he drove with his knee and grasp
the hair at the back of your neck. Then he would say something like,
' I Don't want to hear anymore fighting.' and then give a crisp
knuckle rap to the top of the offenders head. It was best to take
this medicine without instinctively pulling your head back because
the window of the truck and its mating piece in the camper were both
lined with ribs of extruded aluminum that would wreck your face if
you drug it back incautiously. The pain was great but the indignity
was greater so there was a fair amount of wishing hateful and painful
misfortune on my dad as I whimpered in the back after justice had
been served. The problem was it was evidently not anywhere aversive
enough because I sometimes would get several whacks a day. Live and
don't learn that is what I say.
