My Pop drilled in me that; a good boy studied hard, helped with the chores, gladly ran errands, tipped his hat to ladies, always said “no thank you” when offered a piece of cake (at the first offer, that is), never puffed a cigarette or said bad words, would never in all his years touch a drop of hard liquor, never told lies, never played hooky, never missed Sunday School, and got nothing but A’s on his report card.

Well I was a good boy all right, but I wasn’t all that good. Pops gave my teachers permission to paddle me when I did wrong. Although I can’t recall any of my miss deeds, I do recall that they exercised his permission a few times.