Big hole in my memory

[grampahol]

My father, now 90, soon to be 91 has lost most of his ability to remember much of anything, but despite that he can still recite his prayers in French he learned as a boy from his father who died in 1958. He can still remember taking a whipping as a boy for stealing a dime from his mother's apron just as I can recall things from my childhood as if they happened an hour ago. I still remember falling from my crib as a kid seeing the hard concrete floor coming rapidly toward my face. Some things from our childhoods never leave us while trying to remember what you had for lunch ten minutes ago seems impossible. Snitching on my squeaky clean sister (mom's favorite neighborhood snitch at the time) and watching my mother beat her within an inch of her life with a maple switch for a half mile will stay with me forever. My sister will never forget it either and still blames me rather than mom.. LOL  I have no other memories of my sister ever getting spanked for anything other than that one moment and it was a doozy worth the label of being a snitch at the time.. What I remember the most about my sisters whipping is the absolute feeling of vindication that I wasn't the only kid in the family to ever break one of mom's rules.. I've never felt such delight watching my sister take a whipping as that day and yet I love my sister like no other in my family..