This is in the style of book illustrations commonly found in the 1950s and 1960s. When I first saw the small thumbnail version of the image I was immediately excited by the fact that the father figure had a cane in his hand and appeared to be threatening his son. Very disappointed when I clicked to see it full size!
3 comments:
I still have a'Noddy' book from my childhood which shows Big Ears with a thief over his knees, trousers down and being spanked for stealing. It didn't seem at all extraordinary to me at the time. Old Tom
Summertime, an' the livin' is easy!
Oh my! Well observed, James, and thank you kindly for your continued posts. Your Blog is a real companion & compendium in these times.
How happy & bucolic this scene, already! I more than remember it the first time around, James, being born late 1950s - in my own childhood, suburban garden in Atlanta, & also in those rosy, cute picture books & comics, as Old Tom recalls. And I'm talkin' both BBQs & spankings, James!! Exactly like this. A picture paints a thousand words eh?!
Oh my! Where is Spotty the dog, already, James ? :-)
This picture makes me warm & happy, but it's also visceral & iconic. I have no brother but I had a lovely lil' cute sister (she is now nearly 60 already, ha-ha!) Father is back from his business trip. And there is my God-fearing, attractive, inspirational & super-strict mother, tending the plants & thinking about her regular "Church Moms' Coffee Morning" at our house next week. All the moms talked about spankings. And we daughters did too, trying to listen-in on conversations. It was all so normal. Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not recall naughty steps or time-outs gotten invented in the 1960s, James ha-ha ?!
Mom was kind & caring but Oh my, so real fierce when cross. And yes, as you know, there sure was a cane, James, mom kept it in the downstairs cupboard. The typical Southern strap or razor strop or paddle were common in the 'hood; but not in our house. And so the chosen botty smacker for disciplining me & lil' sis was the whippy-thin, rattan cane: the typical, flexible "Southern switch". Our neighbours gotten to call it a "Biblical switch".
If I told lies or gotten bad, mother fetched the cane & I gotten to meet her in the living room. Up came my pretty lil' 1950s dress, down came my 1950s cotton, white panties to my knees; & my porcelain-white botty gotten whooped as red as a Georgia sunset ! Oh my! That was the punishment. That dreaded, rattan "rod of correction" was only ever applied to our bare backsides. It was like sitting my bare ass on those white hot charcoal coals. That was the idea! Except, Thank the Lord, it was completely harmless & salutary. So far so normal, James.
After two hours in my room, I was back outside, with an extra hop n skip in my step (!!) talking to the elderly, pious neighbours about my spanking (they sure heard my squawking & wailing, already!) over juice n cookies...& BBQ fare!
All so real, idealistic & vintage, James. Corporal punishment was a fact of life & nothing
but routine & normal. Great picture. Great memories. Everything is vintage at my age, James :-) God bless, thanks.
Brenda xx
It looks like the boy might be getting a couple of sizzlers but not the kind you were thinking of!
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