The Board of Education. (Part 1)

Yeah! A trip out of the house on a Saturday morning with Pops! We arrive at our local hardware store for some "supplies". Prior to this interruption of the usual Saturday morning cartoons and riff raff, Chuckwick, AML, and I were raising hell with our G.I. Joe's and throwing balls in the house. Typical Hell raising for 3 obnoxious boys. Anyway, on this particular Saturday we loaded up in to the A-team Van ( Yes, our family had a Van painted like the A-team van) and headed to the hardware store. We arrive and pile out only to soon realize what "supplies" meant. Pops immediately jetted towards the lumber isle. He had me pick out a nice 2x4 inch piece of wood. Then he had the Chuckwick pick out a coarse rasp. AML was in charge of picking out markers and paint. We quote unquote had "what we needed?" Back to the Van and home to the inner sanctum that was Pop's workshop. The toiling began, sanding, sawing, filing, until BLAMMO! We had fashioned what appeared to be a cricket bat. It had a handle, was smooth and you could feel the excitement grow with anticipation of what we had created. Proud, Pops motioned for us to follow him inside the house to show Mom. She lovingly approved and all was right in the world. We all sat and marveled at this "thing". Pops summoned for the paint and markers. After painting it, in his best penmanship he wrote "The Board of Education". WHAT THE FUCK!?! A paddle? A tool used to beat our asses for our unruly behavior? Not on my watch, I thought. Not on my watch...