Snow Melt

The Birthday Spanking

Istijlal (Majesty), 3 Ayyam-i-Ha, 164 B.E. - Thursday, February 28, 2008 about 7:47 AM PST

Thinking about the birthday spanking now, at 61, it seems like an odd custom, but when I was growing up in Oklahoma it didn't seem odd or anything else. The spanking was never painful, I don't remember any of them every hurting. The spanking went something like this.

The person giving the spanking would sit down in a chair and the birthday girl or boy would bend over the person's lap. Then the sibling (or whoever gave the spanking) would swat the birthday girl/boy the amount of times the person's birthday indicated. For instance, at my tenth birthday celebration each of my three siblings would give me ten swats. I don't remember my parents or grandparents every giving me a birthday spanking, but they could have and I just don't remember it.

As I get older, my memory has started to become selective, with a few more senior moments. I'm finding that I remember things that I didn't a few years ago and forget things that I did remember without putting them in a date book, such as appointments.