1976-77 (?) Barn Fire Spanking
Let me tell you about one of two times I received a spanking.
As a kid we’d wander deep into the hill side, following dirt roads, often a creek bed.
One day we ventured high up the hillside to an old abandoned farm near my grandparents home. On our walk up the old dirt road I could see the thick forest of trees, there in the coming distance was a very tall tree that had fruit, though I couldn’t quite figure it out because of the shape and size of the tree. It stood tall with branches that were close together and not so spread out, not like an apple tree.
We climbed up. ‘What is it?’ those on the ground asked. ‘They’re pears!’ we shouted back. Greenish, yellow pears.
We sat in the tree eating pears before continuing on to the farm where there was a huge old barn with a hay loft.
After climbing up we discovered a rope mounted on a pulley system near the massive upper doors.
We spent the afternoon swinging off the top floor and eating pears. The grass below was tall, thick and green. After throwing some hay down, we made a safe place to land when swinging out.
What a wonderful discovery.
I’m not sure of how much time had passed when my older cousin/brother and I returned one day but it must have been toward the end of summer since I recall wearing jean jackets.
We walked up the hill on a windy day, looking for pears in the tree and not finding any, like they were never there.
We went on to the barn and climbed into the hay loft and began swinging into the sunny and windy day.
After a bit I had to use the bathroom and while I stood I mentioned to my cousin that I felt a little cold.
Within moments he began to light matches in a circle around me as I urinated. He walked around me tossing matches onto the dry hay covered floor and in a matter of seconds the fire grew bigger and bigger and even bigger.
In a panic I jumped down from the loft and began ripping up the tall grass and tossing it up to the loft in hopes that it would help smother the growing flames.
The fire grew too high along the floor and walls. It was an inferno.
Exhausted from trying to extinguish the fire, I stepped out of the barn to see the smoke towering into the sky and the flames as big as anything I’d ever seen.
By now I was petrified and all I could do was watch. My cousin shoved me, ‘run!’
Down the hillside as fast as my legs could go, I ran. It was like looking down and not feeling the ground below me and caused me to wonder how I was staying in motion.
I turned back once to look and there on the hillside was a raging fire you could see for miles. There was no hiding from this.
Once we reached the village below we stopped at a relative’s house for big gulps of water from the garden hose. ‘You guys smell like smoke’, he said.
As we reached grandmas house the word was out. Grandma sent me right home. I was terrified at what my punishment would be.
I walked into the house as fire trucks and police cars zoomed on past.
I went straight for my bedroom, changed clothes quickly and tried to think of ways to soften the inevitable spanking that was about to come.
With extra layers I laid on my bed facedown to act as though I’d been there the entire time.
My mother came in to talk to me and told me that I’d better stay there, dad would be home soon.
I heard him loudly walk into the house and there was some talk between him and my mom. I lay still, squeezing my eyes closed as tight as I could to pretend that I was sleeping.
It didn’t matter, the belt was whipping my extra padded behind with force that I cried out in pain. I knew I’d made a mistake.
I did my best to plead my case and knew that I was wrong.
I think I was more hurt that I disappointed my father than I’d done wrong, I was afraid that he’d no longer like me.
