Summary

Chapter 8 is titled “Spare the Rod.” The family had unreliable television reception with the exception of the Kentucky Educational Television's Public Broadcasting Service. Bobi and Junior watched Sesame Street and the Electric Company, but Mister Rogers “grated on my nerves, though I felt a twinge of guilt for mocking him in our little house filled with cigarette smoke and heartache” (61). Bobi once saw her father point a gun at his father, Papaw Conn, who attended church and was gentle. Granny once said they allowed Bobi's father to get away with too much when he was a child, and Bobi equated that with the saying “spare the rod and spoil the child” (63). She wondered where her father learned how to whip her so viciously. Bobi described many incidents involving violence and guns, including once when her paternal uncle shot at her parents. Once, her...