Cussing

Late November early December 1981 - Sunday Dinner

Usually we ate three squares a day, breakfast, lunch and supper but on Sundays we had breakfast, which was always cocoa-wheats, dinner, which was a feast after attending Sunday school and morning service and then we took naps and then we had popcorn for supper.

So we were sitting at the dinner table, I always sat next to Dad who was at one end of the table, being left-handed I guess this was the ideal place to seat me. My sister was to my right on the bench and for some reason she was telling lies about me. She did this fairly regularly because it put her in "good" with the parents. I understood because they could be so very cruel to her. She was/is a little mentally slow and they didn't tolerate that too well.

Unbeknownst to my parents I had been swearing for 4 years already. I started as a 7th grader while attending a private Christian school. My first cuss word I began saying was, "God". Yes I was taking the Lord's name in vain and yes I am aware that that is one of the Ten Commandments. Earlier that summer I had given my life to Christ and crazy as it may seem I only used God's name in vain one more time and that was the same day I gave my life to him. I know it was only possible to quit through him. However I did continue to cuss and on this particular day my sister pushed me too far and I lost control of my wherewithall and what words come out of my mouth, "You fucking Bi..." and I caught myself before the "TCH" was out but not before my parents had heard it and "whack" my Dad literally backhanded me so hard it knocked me off the bench and on my ass. Dad was quite athletic still at 50+ and he got up and grabbed me from behind. I elbowed him to get him off me, this was the first and only time I fought back. I got up to my feet and then my Dad tossed me across the room and I stopped next to the sewing table that was set up in the kitchen area. I said something with the word "damn" in it and I walked out of the house.

I walked up and down the ridges and hills on our property for three hours or so and when I came back in Mom told me to go get ready for church (yes we went to evening services as well) so I went and changed clothes and the incident was never spoken of again.

Just to give you a little data on the whole cussing thing. When we first arrived in 1971 we discovered that the word, "pinky" was forbidden we could only call it our little finger. The following list is of by-words which we were also not allowed to say because they were short for God, Jesus or Damn I guess, Gees, Gee-whiz, Gosh, Golly, Darn, Dang and shoot (shit) Mostly our exasperations were Oh boy or Oh man. Extreme it may seem but this is my favorite - for #1 we said "wee-wee" and for #2 we said "grunt".

I can only believe that this is the incident that sent me packing!