Antique tonsil guillotines - photos

[PJs]

I gotta say removing the bayonet intact from the end of an Arisaka while impaled is bad ass as it gets. I have one and the bayonet...they don't come off that easily!

Yeah he was tough as nails and his methods of tending to what he called minor injuries and illnesses were equally as stern as he was.
But you know what, I respected him for it, hated him at times but still respected him.

I never felt that Gpa was proud of his Hog incident and scars, but his story I think was more about paying attention...hogs are not to be trusted, and here is what they will do to you, if you don't pay attention.

I thought considerably before responding to your story, as I almost curtly said something like; you got a tonsillectomy from your dads methods. It felt very harsh for a sick kid to endure on top of the horrific sore throat, but evidently it worked despite the cure. I think it is an age old process we go through to make us who we become. I had inclinations as to why Dad joined the Navy and went to war on a tanker in the South Pacific at 16 (lied on sign up) for that familiar Hate/Love/Respect process but they were never really confirmed other than a few word like I needed to get out of there and such. I have many of those crappy moments surface once in a while about my dad, but age and experiences tells me some of those tactics were some of that learning by negative example that actually made me better.

High on my list is being tossed in a pool at about 4-5 to learn how to swim. I did not like water, especially deep water and was content to wade but that's it. Mom tried to teach me a couple of times gingerly and about the third time I was clinging to the side of the pool in about 3 foot of water. Dad reached down from the side picked me up by one arm and said you need to learn how to swim and tossed me out into the middle of the deep end. Laughed when I came up gurgling and spitting and all he said was Swim Boy...repeatedly. Must have gone under about 5-6 times and finally got a little of dog paddle going and got to the edge...and when he came over to me I push off to get away from him. To this day I'm not sure he wouln't have waited till I popped up face down to rescue me. Almost seven decades and I still remember that clearly...and hated him and to this day have no respect for that act. However, in High School I got my senior life saving cert and went longer by 4 minutes than anyone else treading water fully clothed (wonder why¿) and spent part of that summer as a life guard. In my 20's early 30's I was an avid water skier and white water rafter and saved a few that upended canoes and a couple of rafters...and likely saved my own life at least twice in Skiing and rafting accidents of my own. Ab dived a few times and a lot of lake and ocean snorkeling, and a diving cert way back when, and finally got to do 2 magnificent tank dives on the Great Barrier reef in my 50's. So maybe that negative example made me a bit better by saving a few folks and actually had a ton of fun along the way.

Perhaps in some way that stuff is about teaching will¿ I know that my choices as I became a father were to take a different approach based on what I got, not that I was easy, but clear (most of the time) about what and how I wanted my kids to learn and become for themselves. As a single dad for 10 years I'm sure my son has a few of those crappy memories and since he's smarter than me will probably figure out sooner the value of some of those for himself. No textbooks worth a damn, imho about raising kids...we've been practicing for 10k years or more....and I think it's getting better in some and yet worse in other generations.