Paddles on sale in shops

People mention school paddles of old, but also parents using paddles. Were such implements (specific to corporal punishment) sold in stores in decades gone by?

(In France, until the 1980s martinets, a kind of flogger, were openly on sale in certain stores, with intended use for spanking children. Later, hypocritically, they were sold for allegedly disciplining dogs. I've not seen any on sale in stores since perhaps 2005.)

I recall when, in the '50s and '60s, some stores sold paddles, mostly as novelties or souvenirs, and usually inscribed with something like "Board of Education." I think most serious paddles were made by the user or someone else. The principal in my elementary school had a couple of paddles (one smaller, one larger) in his office that he had made. And knew how to use by all accounts. I was never a recipient but loved hearing about those who were.

Rayme: But these novelties paddles where usable, right?

Do you know when this stopped?

Wouldn't people nowadays just go to a sports store and buy a table tennis paddle? Or if they were into oversized stuff say a cricket wicket maybe? (I've never seen one so maybe I am a bit off on this particular sport). Or maybe look around for fly swatters for the gentler kind of paddling? I've seen fly swatters in all shapes and sizes (and colors) and they seem useful enough I'd think. I have several in house but only use them for their advertised purpose.

Agracier: Never tried a plastic fly swatter - it probably stings on the surface but none of the effect of a paddle. Yes, there are lots of paddle-like implements, including ping-pong paddles, some cutting boards, and wide, flat hairbrushes. ;-) But here I was asking about devices meant for punishment and sold explicitly for it (like these "board of education" items).

But here I was asking about devices meant for punishment and sold explicitly for it (like these "board of education" items).

I would assume you could find these in a sex shop?

Agracier: Nowadays perhaps, but I'm asking about regular, not sex shops, in previous decades. Like in France today you find martinets in sex shops but they were on sale in 'bazars' in 1980s.

Wouldn't people nowadays just go to a sports store and buy a table tennis paddle? Or if they were into oversized stuff say a cricket wicket maybe? (I've never seen one so maybe I am a bit off on this particular sport).

Agracier, I believe you are thinking of a cricket bat. These are essentially piece of willow not greater than 38 inches in length and not greater than 4.25 inches in width. Their construction makes them quite heavy, typically up to 3lb. This means they will transfer substantial energy into what they hit, and would be unsuitable for spanking with.

I once had someone come at me with a cricket bat, and he certainly did not intend to spank me with it!

Agracier, I believe you are thinking of a cricket bat.

I'll be the first to admit I know little about sports apparently ... 😃

Agracier, I believe you are thinking of a cricket bat. These are essentially piece of willow not greater than 38 inches in length and not greater than 4.25 inches in width. Their construction makes them quite heavy, typically up to 3lb. This means they will transfer substantial energy into what they hit, and would be unsuitable for spanking with.

I once had someone come at me with a cricket bat, and he certainly did not intend to spank me with it!

On the other hand, a ping-pong paddle is fine for some playful spanking, but it's a bit small and light for serious paddling and the ease of the spanker.

Pecan: I think I saw"novelty"paddles in a few shops in the 90s. I did pick some of them up (who could resist?) and they would be quite serviceable.

Rayme: In the 1990s? Sheesh. You'd think that by then paddling children would have been socially unacceptable... What kind of shops were these? Which state?

Any reference to a cricket bat always puts me in mind of this scene from the movie This Is Spinal Tap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3nuI4oEal0&sns=em

My parents never had a paddle, but I remember many from school and from other kids places. Most looked like they were homemade and were various sizes and shapes. The worst one I ever got was from a gym teacher who used an old, very large sneaker to administer swats. They were usually with your gym shorts down and just wearing a jock strap. It was also rumored that the girls gym teacher had a similar apparatus that she used on their butts.

Found an old ad on Tumblr:

http://veralsi-spanks.tumblr.com/post/130297353331/ad-from-1926

I had a mechanical drawing teacher in Jr High school who made a new paddle every year for his classes. You screwed up in class, you got the paddle; then you had to "autograph" it. Males and females were equal opportunity victims. At the end of the school year, he varnished the paddle, put the school year on the handle and hung it up for all succeeding classes to see.

A good question. Almost every teacher that I can remember from elementary school through high school had a paddle. Never occurred to me to wonder where they got their paddles. In high school, I heard that the shop class teacher made paddles but never saw one being made when I took shop. Most of the paddles looked the same to me so either someone was making them for teachers or the teachers were using the same pattern. When you are about to get paddled, you don't pay a lot of attention to what the paddle looks like and whether it looks like some other paddle that you got swats with. Some teachers displayed their paddles in their classrooms but I can't claim that I took a good look at them or tried to compare them. The big difference that I remember is that most paddles were solid wood and a few were solid wood with holes drilled through them. We were scared to death of the paddles with holes. Some principals used those and almost every coach or gym class teacher that I remember used a paddle with holes. Some females teachers had them more than male teachers that I remember but I wasn't taking a survey when I was in junior high or high school.

Some dads had and used paddles from their fraternity days in college but most dads probably made their own. I think that our Dad made his own. I remember seeing wooden paddles on sale in a store only one time. It was a small hardware store in one of the towns that we lived in while I was growing up. Went to the hardware store with my Dad one Saturday. There was a stack of wooden paddles on a shelf and several more hung on a long nail or something like that next to the stack. Two sizes maybe. Plain with no holes. I took a look and hoped that my Dad didn't get any ideas about some punishment that he had forgotten about.

I cannot recall seeing paddles for spanking kids in shops for a long time. A few years back while touring in Virginia, there was an antique store that sold leather straps clearly labeled for spanking. There was also a gentleman from I believe Pennsylvania who advertised the sale of paddles for spanking kids that he handmade.

I recall Board of Education paddles on sale in gift shops up to about mid 1980's

I grew up in Florida in the 60s-70s. A lot of stores from department stores to hardware stores that sold spanking paddles. They had sayings on them "Board of Education" "Applied Psychology" "Heat for the Seat" etc. They were also in most roadside souvenir shops. That was a smart move on the part of the shop owner as after hours of "are we there yet" I'm sure a lot of parents were impulse buyers lol. My Dad was. We were driving to GA when I was about 10yo. I was being a real brat. We stopped at a Stckeys for lunch and he bought a paddle. He used it in the parking lot before I got in the car and then he put it on the back seat. I was VERY well behavef the rest of the trip!!

Growing up we had a huge wooden paddle with holes in it, 3 to be exact, and it was varnished. I have no idea where it came from. My brothers were spanked with it but I wasn't. When we were cleaning out Mom's house that was one of the things my brother wanted. It probably had a lot of memories for him, lol.

The last time I remember seeing a kid spanked in school was when I was in 7th grade which would have been 1984. I don't remember ever seeing anyone spanked in elementary school but I had heard that in the other 6 elementary schools in the area did. Mine probably did too, but I just never saw it. Also my elementary school was a bit different, we had a better class of kids I think at my school. That sounds really stuck up, and I don't mean it to. My elementary school was a mix of all the farm kids, all the country club (rich) kids and my neighborhood which was upper middle class. When we graduated in 1989 we had 10 valedictorians and 22 salutatorians. 8 of the valedictorians and 19 of the salutatorians came from my elementary school. We were just good kids.

Anyway, I saw maybe 10-15 kids get spanked during my two years in junior high. I believe they were all boys too. For some odd reason seeing them get spanked always made me nervous, and not in a good way either. Kids at that age can be so nasty to each other too so when word got out that someone got spanked, that kid was made fun of for a long while.

To get back to the topic. We had a hardware store in my town, and it was one of those mom and pop stores, wood floors, you know the type. I do remember seeing wood paddles on the walls hanging up. I also think you could order special ones but I might be wrong. It was over 30 years ago and I have sometimers. LOL.

Mashie

Mashie, when you said a "seeing a kid spanked in school", did you actually see the kid getting the whacks, or do you mean you know about one getting paddled?

As far as I understand (it's difficult to ask about such issues without appearing to have a prurient interest), paddling existed in my mother-in-law and father-in-law's highschools, but they were done in some kind of school official's office, not in front of other students.

I can relate to your "nervousness" about seeing other kids getting spanked. I definitely wanted my schoolmates never to learn that our mother spanked us on the bare, to avoid being mocked. I for instance did not want my sister to talk about it in school. The thing is, talking about my spankings would have been tantamount for her to admit she was also spanked on the bare, so I guess self-preservation dictated her to avoid the topic. Plus, my sister and I were at that time very close, she was a bit of a tomboy.

It would be lovely to see many things on sale in shops , paddles bonnets etc . The only trouble is when purchasing the courage to go in to the shop to purchase such items !

Mashie, when you said a "seeing a kid spanked in school", did you actually see the kid getting the whacks, or do you mean you know about one getting paddled?

As far as I understand (it's difficult to ask about such issues without appearing to have a prurient interest), paddling existed in my mother-in-law and father-in-law's highschools, but they were done in some kind of school official's office, not in front of other students.

I can relate to your "nervousness" about seeing other kids getting spanked.

I know the question is directed to Mashie, and I'm very curious to hear her reply, but I thought I'd offer up my experience too:

The predominantly Irish nuns that ran my grade school in the American Midwest were definitely exhibition spankers. Paddlings were almost always done publicly in front of the whole class. I received more than my fair share that way. There were two paddlings I remember witnessing that were administered to a number of boys at an assembly in front of the whole school for some high profile offense. I don't remember the exact misconduct that resulted in their punishment.

These public displays, I'm sure, were intended to add to the humiliation of the recipient, as well as to set an example of consequences thereby effecting the behavior of the audience. It was common when we were young (up to age 8 or so) for boys to have their britches taken down and girls to have their skirts turned up so that the swats were taken by a bottom protected only by under garments. Added humiliation and pain being the intention no doubt. No bare bottom spankings were given as I knew it.

I remember a few haughty girls who had no empathy at all, but for the most part, witnesses typically sympathized with the punished, feeling bad for their publicized plight. Silent condolences were offered with glances and gazes. Some needed to divert their eyes at times. There were tears shed by both victims and witnesses. Most of them were rather stoic and some even vicious, but on the rarest of occasions even a paddling nun was known to show a damp eye.

In uk saddlers shops were often source of good quality paddles but Havant seen them on sale for long time apart from sex shops only ones have them now are ann summers women shops

I don't remember ever of hearing anyone in my elementary or high school being spanked, it was only in junior high which for us was only 7th and 8th grade. Your question was did I actually see them get spanked or did I just hear about it happening.

Well the one that came to mind last night when I wrote my first post was one i actually saw with my own two eyes. I worked during a free period I had because I hated study hall, as a clinic helper. Which meant that I would go to the clinic during that period and do whatever the nurse needed me to do which often meant running notes and what not up to students or teachers or other staff members. And if a student was sick I got to help out the school nurse with that too. Gosh, I haven't thought about that in 20 years probably. Anyway, while I was out delivering something I walked by a spanking in progress. There were two teachers there and a student. He was bent over holding the back of his knees, and I would assume his head was against the locker. I am not sure if his head was actually touching the locker or not, but I am guessing it was.

I was trying not to look at him getting the spanking as I walked by. I didn't actually turn my head or anything, but I sure had my eyes pointed in that direction. I basically saw 3 whacks being given and after I turned the corner heard 2 more. After giving it some thought, I remember a few others. I heard them but didn't see them. I remember that both times it was boys. The teacher left the room and always came back with another male teacher. Then they took the kid out to the hall way and shut the door. It was an old school and they had those little windows above the doors that opened, and they usually were open. So we could hear him getting spanked but I don't remember being able to hear what was being said.

Both times the boys came back in and they were red faced and look like they had either been crying or got teary eyed. I also remember that we all looked at him as he was coming back into the room but as he got closer all of us looked away. Also when they came back in from that the class for the rest of the period was odd. There was a weird feeling in the air.

Also after I thought about it last night my memory started coming back of just how many male teachers had paddles hanging on their walls, most signed by their receivers too. Oh boy, those were the days, lol.

Mashie

Switchablesusie said,

I like riding crops.

Yes, so do we, very much and we own 2 of them. Mmmmm

Before I sign out just one more thought. I always have to laugh at you guys, meaning everyone from the adult babies buying diapers or to the vanilla housewife buying KY jelly. I hear it all the time about how embarrassed you are to buy naughty things. I have to be 100 percent honest with you, no one cares! Not the people in line in front of or behind you, not the person taking your money or the bagger or whoever. This isn't the 1950's anymore, you have no reason to be embarrassed, ashamed, or feel like you are being judged, I can assure you, you are not. Now if your 12 inch dildo falls out of your purse at church Sunday morning and rolls down the isle way finally stopping at the preachers foot, well then you might be judged a little. But I can also tell you that most of those prudes would secretly be jealous of you anyway. So trust me, be who you are, do what you want, make yourself happy. Stop giving a shit what others think. You will be a lot happier, and it is usually quite liberating to be free. Just sayin.

Mashie

Most of them were rather stoic and some even vicious, but on the rarest of occasions even a paddling nun was known to show a damp eye.

Yeah sure, I just bet some of the nuns had damp eyes ... classical thinking goes that paddling and public punishments by nuns or religious orders were a way of sublimating other more natural urges ... but then it comes out nasty ...

.... classical thinking goes that paddling and public punishments by nuns or religious orders were a way of sublimating other more natural urges ... but then it comes out nasty ...

For nine straight years, kindergarten through 8th grade, I was subjected to those nuns' corporal punishments on both the receiving and witnessing end. There were dozens of spankings each year. I saw a full range of emotion from the old girls. Some obviously enjoying themselves on occasion, most commonly one would have her jaw set in consternation with the physical effort. On a few occasions a particular nun's anger bordered on rage. Only twice do I remember two different nuns emotionally upset to the point of welling up as they dished out the punishment. I'm sure those two were experiencing very different feelings than the ones that my classmates and I shared.

A few years into it most of us boys learned to take a stern paddling or caning like a champ.

A few years into it most of us boys learned to take a stern paddling or caning like a champ.

Yeah, you learn to take it like a champ indeed, not much choice otherwise as a child.

But perhaps in some countries there were probably just too many corporal punishments and paddlings if not whippings and what not (besides all the other religious entitlements and privileges) and then the result is people growing up to be politicians with a very deservedly and understandable anti-clerical bent ... these kind of things do not endear nuns and religious orders in people's memories.