SPARE THE ROD AND SPOIL THE CHILD?

My father never hit us. This didn't stop the threat of 'wait until your father gets home' leaving us waiting in trepidation after we had done something particularly heinous. Why was that? Did our friends receive beatings that we knew of or was it because at school we received strappings and canings for minor offences? Whatever the source the threat was always effective.

On one occasion I remember my brother and I 'caught' some intruders having the effrontery to play in our creek. This was a creek down a steep bank at the back of our property in Liardet Street Vogeltown. It was very lovely with creeper covered banks. This was an early casualty of sub-division as as early as 1961 Dad sold it to my Aunt Chrissy and the creek was piped and filled in to make room for (now) three houses. The intruders were kids who lived on properties up the back on Finnimore Terrace and who had approached the creek from the bush on their side. Terry and I hurled rocks at them - or at their voices as we couldn't actually see them. There was some retaliatory missile throwing before they went quiet. One of our rocks had caught one of the kids in the eye and broke his glasses. The kid cried and scuttled off home. My brother and I felt a bit bad but then forgot about it. My mother was telephoned by that kids mother and uttered the terrifying 'wait until your father gets home'. We waited nervously until about 5. Dad when told of what had happened gave us a very black look before walking around to visit the kids parents. On returning he told us that he had had to pay for a new pair of glasses and was very disappointed in us and gave us a lecture on the danger of throwing stones. He didn't hit us and I don't think that he stopped our pocket money. I do remember though feeling very bad that Dad had had to visit the kid's parents and pay for the glasses. I also felt bad that we had disappointed him.