A “whoopin’” lesson

I was just a little boy about 11 or 12 years old when I had a pony named Polly. Our neighbor, Mr. Thern Harris, was a truck farmer who sold produce locally. He had a big field on Ash Bridge Road. My sister Vickie and I went riding one day, and I was on Polly while she was on Rosebud. I decided to ride Polly right through the little pepper plants in the field. It was so fun. Vickie knew better.

Thern Harris came to our house that evening and got my Dad and me. He showed my Dad what I did. Dad asked me, "Did you do that?"

I said, "Yessir." He told me to go get a hickory switch.

Thern said, "Now, Bill, don’t whip him. He didn’t know no better." (But I did.) Thern said, "Let him go."

Dad let me go and said, "If you ever go in a plowed field again, planted or not, I’m going to get you!"

Months went by, and one evening I was going to put Polly up. She broke and ran right though our garden. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dad "smiling." He was not mad, but he showed me he was a man of his word. He got a switch off the little white pine. (It’s big now.) And he tore me up.

I smile now when I think about it, but back then both those men showed me lessons of kindness and discipline.

Graylan Boyd, Marion, Rutherford EMC