The Ghost of Spankings Past

When I look back upon my youth, it’s little wonder I became a hard core spanko. In those days, spanking references were absolutely everywhere. Here are some examples that fueled my childhood fantasies:

• Story books often included spankings. Corporal punishment was presented as the inevitable consequence of a kid doing something wrong. Some books even included details about the actual spanking! I recall that my second grade reader in school featured a lead character who was spanked at one point. Even then, I was fascinated by the subject. I reread that paragraph at least one hundred times.



• Real life was little different. I was routinely spanked as a kid. So were most of my friends. It was common to walk through the neighborhood during the summer when windows were open and hear some kid getting her bottom smacked. Many schools still had (and used) the paddle. Time-outs hadn’t been invented yet.



• Cartoons on television provided a nearly endless supply of spanking material. Tom and Jerry, in particular, tended to feature swats with various implements. Foghorn Leghorn used a paddle-like board to spank his rival, the dog. Numerous other cartoons portrayed children being spanked, again as the unquestioned outcome of misbehavior.
  
  I fantasized for years about a Flintstones episode where Wilma and Betty were paddled by Fred and Barney and their Water Buffalo lodge buddies. Afterwards, Wilma and Betty rubbed their bottoms and discussed how painful it was to sit. In my daydreams, I wondered what it would be like if I were to take that paddling.



• Other TV shows fed my youthful obsession. Many people recall that Desi Arnez spanked Lucy on television, but did you know that Gidget (played by a young and perky Sally Field) was bent over the counter and spanked repeatedly by her sister and her husband? The best part was that Gidget didn’t seem all that upset.
  
  I remember the two boys on the Flipper show riding their bikes with white bed pillows on the seats because they had been spanked. Then there was the Beverly Hillbillies. Every week, Granny threatened to “whup” Jethro. Occasionally, she actually did it.

Maybe it’s just my twisted mind or faded memory, but it certainly seems as though I grew up in a spanking world. The comparatively few spanking references in our culture today are inevitably sexualized in a way that these old ones weren’t. I think it’s a positive development that many parents have found more constructive ways to instruct their children. At the same time, I miss those spanking references. Even forty years later, these memories can still press my buttons.

Keywords: spanking, spanking memories