They would always drag me into their house to call my parents or walk me back to my house and tell my Mother or my Daddy what I was doing and whether I got my butt busted for it yet. If any one of the neighbors did this, you could expect another spanking before you even got through your own door very far. My parents never complained about a neighbor spanking me much less thought about suing them. I never would talk back to an adult who was punishing me for fear of making it worse. As I recall, the spankings never really hurt too much with the exception of hurting my feelings. Several swats to my posterior always kept me out of trouble for at least three or four days. I know there are those of you who are appalled at the thought of an adult spanking a child. Remember. It was a different time. Nowadays you can't lay a hand on your kids even if you wanted to. The child might call the State on you if you do or someone might witness the spanking and make the call. Most laws are so loosely written as to not allow a parent to correct a child with corporal punishment such as a swat to the butt. Don't misunderstand what I'm eluding to here. I do not believe, in any way, in physically abusing a child. I do believe, however, that a swift swat to the behind is certainly an attention grabber to a child to let them know what they did or said is not acceptable. I suppose it goes back to the Spare-The-Rod mentality of my parents heyday.
That
thought grew into another. When did children loose their respect for
elders? Was I on the road singing somewhere and missed the loss of
respect for adults by children? I pondered if it could have been the
result of technology or was it that all the adults just stopped
caring? Maybe it was the technological growth that caused all the
disrespect children now exude towards their elders. I remember
having a remote control for our television in our house in the early
sixties. I know that some of you already knew when remote controls
hit the market and some of you just “Googled” it. While the
first remote for television, introduced by Zenith Radio Corporation was a wired remote nicknamed 'Lazy Bones' (because it was shaped like
a cartoon dog bone), most households couldn't afford one. It wasn't
until the Mid-Sixties when a remote control tuner or television set
slowly began to ease down in price into the average household's
affordable range. My parents were fortunate enough to have their
first remote around 1961. I believe that was when my Daddy initially realized he could pop me on the back of the head and tell me to go
adjust the volume or change the channel. (Oddly enough for some of
you trivia buffs out there, television had reached less than half
the world in 1961 and there are still countries today where TV is not
available. Tell that to your teenagers and enjoy that look of horror
and disbelief spread across their faces. While they're distracted by
their thoughts about no TV, pop them on the back of the head and tell them to go
clean their rooms. Good luck with that.) I guess the first remote
control TV we actually had was purchased in the early Seventies and it was a Color TV! It
sure made my life a lot easier. No longer did I get slapped in the
back of the head and told to go change the channel. Any time I got
smacked back there afterward was referred to as the 'Dumb-Ass' slap.
It was used mainly to remind me to respect my elders. At nearly fifty-five years young, I still duck
when my Dad reaches behind me for something. Go figure!
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