My cousin Carolyn grew up in a pretty privileged environment during the Baby Boom era.

Her daddy was a doctor, her mother, my aunt, served on the Doctors' Wives Something.

At age 5, in the early 1950's, Carolyn was sent to a very good Catholic school in Ft Worth, where the teachers were all nuns who wore the old-fashioned black habits.

There was no air conditioning in the school.
in Ft Worth, Texas.
in August or September.

Carolyn misbehaved *all the time*, & finally one of the teachers told her, "one more time & you get a whipping".

so my Aunt Hazel gets a call from the school;
come pick up your kid, she's disgraced herself & she can't come back to school for 3 days.

at age 5!

Carolyn told her older sister Mary Ann what happened:
Sister Whoever had said something, & Carolyn had sassed her, & Sister had given Carolyn a whipping.
with a switch.
in that hot schoolroom.
in her full habit.
& Sister had passed out.

Mary Ann exclaimed in horror over the hurt & shame Carolyn must be feeling.

"Huh", said Carolyn,
"I'll take a whipping any day to see danged old Sister faint."

Carolyn is in her late sixties now, maybe seventies, & she still don't take no guff & she still calls 'em like she sees 'em.

She's a pistol. I like her moxie.

In fact, Catholic school alumni have written books about it...

& in the little town where I grew up, it was an accepted fact that "those Catholic school girls" were the meanest & the wildest.

I've always thought it was because they lived in a pressure cooker.