THE WOODEN SPOON

My Mum never talked to us. She just didn't talk. She would go around the house all day cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. I know OCD is an illness, I suffer from it too. But OCD shouldn't stop you from speaking to people, especially your kids.

Because of her OCD we were not allowed toys down the stairs in the living room and we were not allowed to play in our rooms in case they got untidy. The result of that was all that my brother and myself had was each other. The negative side to that was that we didn't really get on...

We used to sit and watch TV if we couldn't get outside but kids back in the 70's didn't have much to watch so were were bored all the time. My way of coping with this was to sit on the couch and 'bounce' non-stop against the back rest. For hours at a time. Me and Kenny both did that. For me I would sing or hum in a sort of trance.

Other times as we only had each other and never got on we would end up arguing, then fighting, then me taking a kicking...

And my Mum ignored it all. Ignored it until she snapped then came screaming for us!

Oh boy did we f*ck*n run!

Depending on where we were in the house we would either bolt under the big living room dining table where she couldn't reach us, (and if we stayed under there long enough she would calm down and go back to ignoring us), or we would make for the stairs...

She had 2 ways of punishing us if she cought us (usually by the leg half way up the stairs). She would pummell us with her fists till we got away or the worse way to be caught...

If she snapped and was in the kitchen we would hear the crash of the cutlery drawer being flung open and the sound of the cutlery being thrown around until she found what she was looking for, then the crash of the drawer being flung shut again.

We would be screaming and crying by this time because we knew what was coming... THE WOODEN SPOON...

When she caught us with that it bloody hurt! And she did her usual and kept hitting us untill the strength ran out in her arms and she had to stop.

She broke that spoon on my brother's back once...