Pyracantha Pounding

Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain intended to discipline or reform a wrongdoer or change a person's bad attitude and/or bad behavior. I define it as my 6th grade teacher Mr. Fernandez (inflictor) smacking me (wrongdoer) with a wooden paddle that had holes drilled in it for improved aerodynamics. And all that for innocently participating in a pyracantha berry war. He broke that paddle on me.

And by the way, who plants pyracantha bushes in an elementary school anyway? Bunches of ripe, round, red amunition, er, um, berries fill these plants several times a semester just daring us to pick them and throw them (after trying to eat one - they do look like tiny little apples, after all - gag) at each other. They make a significant mess as they are sorta soft and smushy and stick to Keds.

I remember after a particularly involved pyracantha berry war we looked around the battlefield to see spent ordinance everywhere. As good citizens would do, we at least kicked them off the sidewalk and onto the playground. That didn't seem enough of a philanthorpic gesture to Mr. Fernandez to stay his hand. He lined us up in front of the class and gave us each a whoopin'. Funny, as I recall, there was one girl involved in the fray who received one gentle swat. I'm sure she couldn't see the circles from the holes in the board on her hind end that night like I could.