Things that are cool about Pop, # 2

I was doing the dishes when I noticed that the handle on the pan I was washing had come a little loose. I turned to Pop to ask if he knew where the screwdrivers were located. As I asked, I rummaged around in the sideboard and eventually found one. "YAY!" I cried as I carried the tool over to the sink and began to fix the pan. The 'fix' only took about twenty seconds and I asked Pop "Isn't it great how easily that was fixed, Pop? Not any great hassle, yeah?"
"Well" he said, "I'm just glad I wasn't hit with it!"
I laughed and said "With what, Pop?"
His voice held a smile as he said, "Well, with that pan! Used to be that women would hit their husbands with pans!"
I knew he was kinda kidding, so I played along. "What!?! Surely most women don't hit their men with pans, do they?"
"Yep, they do!"
"Well, Mary never did hit you with one, did she?"
"No." he said quite seriously, "She never did beat me up with a pan. No one really did."
"Really?" I asked, disbelief in my voice, "So you weren't beaten up by any of your classmates when you were younger?"
He turned around to look at me squarely in the eyes and said, "Well, here is how it was: There were 9 boys and 3 girls in my family. People pretty much left us alone!"