Dad's erratic angry control persisted over the years. I can remember getting yelled at and spanked for even the most asinine things: toilet paper being on the roll "the wrong way", condiment bottles with the name and/or label turned around in the refrigerator, laying a hamburger face down while eating it (instead of sitting it up), ... and Heaven help me if he heard a fork hit my teeth while eating at the dinner table -- that earned me a hard slap to the face. Once he hit me so hard that he knocked me over backwards, still seated in my chair.

He was also notorious for making these insanely strict rules about chores/things, then changing them later and getting pissed if you couldn't remember the latest way he liked something being done. For instance, loading the dishwasher: I had to close it a certain way if he was anywhere around because he liked things being done his "way". When I vacuumed the house, I had to do it so that the "marks" were fresh when he saw them, or he'd say I didn't vacuum at all, or I "half-assed it" and would have to do the whole house over again with him going behind me the whole way yelling in my ear, telling me how worthless I am because I couldn't vacuum correctly.