I don’t believe in corporal punishment for children, but some parents do.

When I was growing up my father was the head of the household. He never hit me except for one time, and I deserve that. My mother respected him, even though they came from two different backgrounds. He came from Germany and he drank. My mother didn’t drink at the time. But he was the head of the household.

I remember in incident when I was eight or so. I was told not to get on this person’s tricycle. Cause I was the type that liked challenges, and never followed the rules unless I had to.

So I got on this thing in my father came out and saw me. He told me to come over and see him. He was going to punish me or lecture me. I was in a swimming suit which, ironically, I’ve been in for most of my life.

He chased me through the orchards were Cupertino high school now stands. He chased me all the way from Twigg lane to Stevens Creek. He chased me for miles and miles, but no one could catch me.

I came back to the house and that time we didn’t have all of our fences up. I ran back because it was dark, and I was scared, and didn’t know where to go. My half – sister Gloria was standing by defense, and she grande me and ran into the house. My father got hold of me and whacked me on the butt. That was the only time he ever punished me.

I’ve learned something there.

It was a life long lesson for me. When you do something wrong, you have to pay for it. I’ve never forgotten that. It wasn’t funny at the time; it was scary. But I have reflected on this lesson with my kids.

There’s another quick funny story. We used to go up to Stevens Creek dam and ride down the spillway on our butts. It was like riding down a giant water slide.

One time there was really heavy runoff and we were sure we should go down. It looked very dangerous at the bottom.

I got volunteered to lead the way for the four of us. They put a rope around my waist and a couple of life jackets on me. I jumped off the side at the bottom of the spillway into this pool of water to see how bad it was. It held me under!

It wasn’t funny at the time, but looking back now you see how funny it is that you take chances all the time when you’re young.

I have pictures of us walking away from the spillway with the seat of our pants all torn out from sliding down. Dee Christiansen’s mother used to sew leather seats onto our pants to make them last longer.

I had lots of friends in the church and out of the church. I had surfing friends.