The final indignity was having my face covered with her terribly feminine cold cream. (Vicks sometimes seemed to make my face rashy.) Her last act before tucking me in and saying goodnight was to put some Vicks in a vaporizer near my bedside and plug it in. I was left with a very sore bottom, a badly bruised ego, and a hissing machine that was rapidly replacing all the oxygen in the room with menthol fumes.
The treatment (less the spanking) was repeated three times the next day and on several other occasions of illness. Each time thereafter, the treatment was accepted without any negative comments from me. As I said, I wasn’t dumb!