Remembering back 50 years to 1969, I had no inkling as the year began that it would be the year in which I experienced corporal punishment at school more often than any other year. I am referring to a calendar year so this straddled the second and third terms of my second year at Grammar School and the first term of the third year.

In total in 1969, I received school corporal punishment six times, against what I recollect as an overall total of 13, although there may be several more that I don’t remember. If I remember rightly, my record leading up to 1969 was as follows:

1963 1 spanking

1964 2 spankings and 1 slippering

1965 2 spankings

1966 nothing

1967 1 rulering to bottom (heavy board ruler 1st year at Grammar school)

The first of the 1969 punishments came from the French teacher. I had removed a plastic strip from my chair, the purpose of which was to protect the user from the sharp underside of the chair. I was called to the front, told to bring the strip with me, and then ordered to touch my toes, following which he took the strip and delivered three strokes, which stung for a few minutes.

The second came from the Maths teacher. Maths was my worst subject and I was regularly in trouble over this, quite often being given detention, though on this occasion and, as he also did to me on one occasion in the first year, he summoned me to the front, ordered me to bend over his desk and then handed my bottom two hefty whacks with the heavy four-foot board ruler.

The third occasion, and last of the second year, was my first spanking from the headmaster. Our school had a well-equipped swimming pool, and on this day the head had deputised for an absent games teacher. At the end of the lesson we were all instructed to leave the pool, but instead of clambering from the pool as the others had, I swam slowly from the deep end to the shallow end where the changing rooms were situated, only to encounter the headmaster who demanded to know why I had disobeyed him. I replied that I had obeyed him as I’d left the pool, but he countered that I’d done so in my own leisurely way and not as he’d expected. He then added that he would teach me not to disobey him, and ordered me to take down my swimming trunks and touch my toes.

This occurred just after I turned 13 and, although I was small of stature, I was well developed and because one side of the pool was composed solely of glass windows and on another side there was a door with windows, I was a bit concerned at being seen by any female staff, but once the punishment, a severe hand spanking, started, I was just intent on getting it over and remaining stoic. I also realised that I’d actually got off lightly as disobeying the head nearly always spelt a caning. My bottom was still red that evening, but though at the time I didn’t comprehend what had happened, I felt differently after that punishment than I had after any previous punishments, and I now realise it was an early experience of arousal.

The 4th punishment of 1969, and the first of my 3rd year, was again from the headmaster who had started giving me extra tuition in maths. For being lazy, I received one spank across trousers and pants, which was nowhere near as painful as the bare bottomed spanking of a few months earlier, indeed I laughed after leaving his study.

However, one Friday a week or so later I did not laugh when leaving his study. Indeed, my hands were clasped to my bottom as I’d just had my first and, as it turned out, only experience of the cane, administered to my bottom with my trousers down, and just my pants for protection. I’m not going into further detail on this as I’ve written about it previously, suffice it to say that once the pain had gone, I was actually pleased it happened, as I felt like I’d passed a rite of passage and was now a real schoolboy and again I felt aroused, particularly when I viewed the weals in the mirror, which I did regularly until they faded from view five days later.

Two Fridays later, and again for laziness in maths, I was again bent over in the head’s study, this time for what turned out to be a spanking across trousers and pants. It was quite painful and when I returned to class many thought I’d been caned again, as I was wearing the same look that I had after my caning, a look which I might add that most boys wore following a caning.

Oddly, after six times in one year, I never received corporal punishment at school again, although I did come close.

I rarely felt resentment after punishment, I generally viewed it as deserved and just, and I now realise that it shaped me for the future. It’s also left me with a lifetime’s fascination of spanking and the cane, and sometimes I wish I had more than the one experience of the cane to draw on, but at least it happened.

GD