Between the ages of the very young years, there were others. These others included Aunties, Baby sitters, School Teachers, friends of the family, in laws, out laws, sods law, others kids from our street, big teddy and on and on who either play spanked, spanked for real, or got spanked. Although the fascination for spanking was firmly cemented in my mind by a very young age, I always did seek to avoid being spanked for real like the plague and for someone who was constantly in trouble, I did succeed. There were other Kids that were not so fortunat,e and at the time of my formative years and there seemed to be a more than a few smacking parents about.
As a child, especially after the death of my father, my immediate family, which consisted of myself, my older sister and my mother seemed to do more visiting of relatives and friends than most families would do. A lot of these friends and relatives had their own children and there were a few of who were not only the smack parent mentality but also their one or two families who seemed to gloat in smacking their children.
One such time I remember was of a time when we visited some distant
relatives in Sussex. I am not actually sure how these people were
related or even if they actually were related. Another aspect of
that day and age was that as children we use to have to seem to have
to call anyone over the age of forty Aunty or Uncle. So this fine
summers day we were off to spend the weekend on the farm with Aunty
Mary and Uncle Ray (Who was actually a dead ringer for Ted from the
Fast Show.
I seem to remember that within half an hour of arrival the
conversation turned to that of how Uncle Ray chastised his children.
He seemed to take great delight in informing us that he had given his
children a damn good thrashing the evening before. That weekend
continued and he made no fewer than about ten threats to slipper all
his children with those good old-fashioned timely sayings like
“I still have my slipper and it will be used”
“You wont be sitting down for a week”
Now I am going to be honest here, believe me I am, but I do sometimes
wonder sometimes what planet people like good old Uncle Ray arrived
from. Some people may say this is just a good old-fashioned way of
making your children tow the line and perfectly acceptable. Remember
the older (” ohhhh the decline in moral standards) generation in the
streets giving us their memories of how they were stuck up a chimney
and thrashed daily with the buckle end of fathers leather belt. How
all this was done just as a character building exercise, how they
knew where they stood in those days, how they respected their parents
and teachers for taking such time to beat ten bells of shit out of
them, how they were seen and not heard and that classic line “It
never did us any harm”.
Ok allow me to go through these old sayings
1The decline in moral standards——I personally fail to see that
there is a decline in moral standards today. Children seem to be a
lot quicker minded, a lot more creative, and do not have the fear of
being clumped every moment of their waking day for making little
mistakes
.
2Children knew where they stood in those days——-That’s an easy
one, do as your told or you will get a clump, of course they knew
where they stood they were frightened of their parents.
3 How they respected their parents and teachers for taking such time
to beat ten bells of shit out of them——–Well I’m sorry but fear
is not respect, never has been, never will be. The people I have
always feared I have always feared end of story. A little bit like
the bigger and more of a bully the person is the more respect you
must show them. Ive always taken the course of action of keeping out
of these peoples way.
4 It never did us any harm ——yea right, the people who use to
come out with this one were the people that always seemed to be
fairly bitter about something or other, be it the state of the
country, Margaret Thatcher, or possibly how long they had to wait for
a 71 bus to take them four stops further on their free bus pass.