Stories From The Past

Today my grandmother walked into my office and announced that she was lonely so she came to visit me. So we ate lunch together and she started telling me stories about when she lived in an orphanage. I am not sure how old she was when she moved in there....I want to say around 7 or so. Anyway, the things that she got herself into during that time was crazy. She told me that everyone used to grade all the orphans in different areas, and for every zero that you got meant that you got 5 spats. My grandmother managed to get 8 zeros in a week. For talking back. That meant 40 spats. So she was given 20 and left to sit and think and when they came back to give her the other 20, she tried to turn the other way to get the 20 on the other side of the butt, which didn't work cause they knew what she was trying to do and moved her back. I asked her if she felt like Jesus with 40 lashes and she just laughed and said no. She told me another story about a classmate of hers that used to tattle on all the other kids. This little girl would tell on every little thing and often didn't tell the truth. My grandmother and her friend got so mad that they managed to get this girl to come down to this old shed and they tied her hands above the rafters. She said the little girls feet were still on the ground but they had her hands tied. Then they went and caught a turkey and tied it to the rafters across from the little girl and left her there. My grandmother ended the story telling me that the little girl never told on them again. I think that my grandmother must have spent most of her time getting spankings and getting in some kind of trouble. She talked about sticking her tongue out at the matron and getting caught. Her punishment was a whipping on the back of the legs...she told me that it would draw blood and then if you squatted down to play marbles with the other kids and started to sweat it would sting - so a constant reminder of what you did. Quite a life lived I would say -and maybe not all the punishment was undeserved.