During my childhood in the 1970s, my parents took a trip to visit my grandmother in Cornwall. We lived in Leeds, so I was sent to stay with my Aunt Jennifer in Saltdean, near Brighton, for the week. Aunt Jennifer was a stern woman in her late fifties, with sharp features and a no-nonsense attitude. […]
About half a century ago, when I was in second grade, I experienced a slight stomach ache during the morning. I informed my teacher, who responded, “Peter, I see Miss Chandler, the school nurse, arriving. Head to the nurse’s office right away.” Miss Chandler was in her 40s, very tall, with red hair. It was […]
Betty was our matriarch, We used to go for long, innocent walks on Sunday mornings. When I say innocent, I mean that in those days – around 1939 – kids accepted the standards of their parents: we did not use ‘rude’ words or talk about anything ‘rude’ – such as bottoms, or anything sexual. I […]
In my day and age, if a child was naughty, the inevitable response from an adult was: “Somebody is asking for a smacked bottom” – which of course was very confusing, because who would want that? Nevertheless, whether or not a naughty child wanted a spanked bottom or not was irrelevant because once those words […]
I had just finished my second year at prep school. My brother had gone off to scout camp but I was deemed too young to join the wolf cub camp that year. Instead, I was invited to spend the first week or so of the summer holidays with a school friend, Ian Gibbs.I got home […]
It is now 50 years ago that I visited an aunt with my mother. On arrival, we were shown into the dining room and my aunt apologised for asking us to wait, as she had a job to finish upstairs. As we sat down we could hear my aunt sharply issuing instructions and the pleading […]
In the early 60s, I was frequently earning money as a babysitter. There was one family which I doubt I will ever forget. There were three offspring – a set of twin boys and a girl. They were generally well behaved; however. there was usually some trouble-making going on, especially with the twins. One afternoon […]
I grew up from grade school to high school with my good friend Marty. Marty was the class clown at school, but at home his mother Susan was a strict disciplinarian. As far as I knew, Susan never punished Marty or his younger sister, but I was witness to his younger brother’s punishment. Susan was […]
I grew up in the 50s on a small Mediterranean island off the Italian mainland, where my father was “something in intelligence”. My two sisters (one older and one younger) and I were punished when necessary and as neither mother nor father was ever around to do it, Nanny, who ran the entire household, took […]
When I was in my formative years, I was a bit of a softy. If I had to have my bottom smacked, I would be in tears before the punishment was administered. I lived in the north of England and was brought up at home by my mother until just before I was about to […]