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Giggling in Church

I was probably about 10 years old and I remember well one time when I got the giggles. In our church, it was the custom for babies and very small children to sit with their mothers on one side, while the fathers sat scott free on the other side. Children my age sat way up in the front, and young people sat in the balcony. On this particular day, I sat up in front with some other girls. We had a guest preacher, and since we were not used to him and his mannerisms, his different actions made us laugh. It was bad enough to have to sit up in front, where everyone saw if we misbehaved, but to sit there and giggle and not be able to stop was unforgivable, at least if you knew our mother. We were supposedly in a position where we dared not misbehave.

Nothing happened that day until we got home, when the trouble started. When we had done something wrong and expected to "get it", we used to say to each other, -"Scoldings don't hurt, whippings don't last, and kill me if you dare". Well, we didn't get killed, and we didn't get scolded, but we did get the licking, no questions asked. After that incident, we were pretty careful to behave in church as long as we had to sit right up in front.