Documentary Corner: 1992's 'Lessons of Darkness'

I was born in 1976, so I grew up in the age of spanking. It was not applied liberally. In fact my sisters were never spanked, not because of a gender imbalance but because they were both much better behaved.

I can say now that I only got it when I really deserved it, which was determined not so much by the infraction, but by my intransigence about the righteousness of whatever I’d done. I was ‘hard headed’, as they said then, but my ass was soft.

There was only one level of punishment that went beyond spanking. It wasn’t being ‘grounded’ exactly, that was more about denying a kid access to some event or party where there would likely be cake.