To condemn Adrian Peterson without considering racial context ...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

54. My parents ran down the sidewalk with a bamboo switch.

This was in postwar suburbia. I remember my mom running down the sidewalk in heels and a nice dress shrieking at me.

I hid between the houses and laughed at her with one of the neighbor kids, because she looked like a complete fucking maniac.

What did I do wrong? I 'ran off' which was a horrible sin, according to mom. Yes, I left the house. Went outside to find other kids to play with. My folks were jailers. Didn't want me to play with anybody else. And they were supposedly educated people.

Dad lumbered down the sidewalk like a bear with a switch. I could run faster than they could.

They could not have grounded me, because I didn't go anywhere except school. And I never got an allowance even though I begged for one for years. They wouldn't buy me a new dress until I threw a fit in high school. Mom always collected handdowns like we were Goodwill or something.

She also bought herself fine straw hats and expensive purses and shoes she did not need and didn't wear.
She even got an alligator purse for $150 in the 1960s when that was an awful lot of money.

That was fifty years ago and every time I think about it, my brain feels like it's on fire. I guess that's Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

I'm white & middle class BTW.