This is really bringing back the memories. When my sister was 11 (I was 12) she had a part on the ministry school. Our congregation was very small at the time. Only about 30 people. Hey, it was a small town and the congregations hadn't yet integrated.
Anyway, right before her part, Brother Blake decided her dress was about an inch too short. I remember him walking over during the meeting and whispering to my mother, who then took my sister into the bathroom and ripped the hem out of her dress. I could see the look on my sister's face when she came back to her seat. Tears were in her eyes. Total humiliation. And everyone knew. She then had to get up on the platform with a ripped hem. Because she knew if she didn't, she'd get a beating when she got home.
I swear I had hate in my heart for that brother.
My stepfather apologized to me this morning about this. He remembered it too. He said that if he knew then what he knows now about the witnesses, he'd have punched Brother Blake in the face for even looking at his 11 year old daughter's legs!!!
April
"Love never dies." Voivodul Vlad Draculea (from Bram Stoker's Dracula-1992)