Good article, Dave. I remember in one of the papers I believe The Washington Post, there was a Dear Beth. About ever week or so there was a kid complaining about being spanked by his parents or stepparents. The gist of the letter was more of the embarrassment factor, and it just made me wonder if it was written by someone on board.

Great job.

B

Very good article. I use to read "The Katenjammer Kids" cartoon in the newspapers. That father always was spanking, all at one time, his four boys ( I think it was four boys). I was curious about this cartoon, as early as five years old. There were written articles, at the time, since spanking was quite common and was never considered an erotic "sport".

I first discovered there was a "spanko world" when I came upon Mr Magazine in the late 60s, that others shared this fascination/
I was never much subject to cp myself at home, and none at school, although I did see other kids get it , in grade school from teachers or our lady principal. In high school I started imagining and thinking about how I would love to see some of the pretty, snooty girls that were my classmates get that principal's paddle used on them- when they wearing gym clothes. There were gym uniforms, but the girls were also allowed to wear their own shorts if they chose to- and many wore short or tight ones, that called attention to their bottoms.
I later discovered other magazines with spanking,and paperback novels when I visted larger cities with adult bookstores, and reading old newspapr comics I discovered the Phantom, Superman, Mark Trail and other comic spankings.
But before the ' Net- it was not easy,

I was struck by your penthouse story, Although I do not remember the article you refer to, there was always at least one letter to the editor that referenced spanking. I would buy the rag for my hub and scan for the spanking letter before I handed it over.
You are right, It is certainly easy now. We are a strong community, are we not?
Great Essay
IC

Great article!
I remember that my spanking interest was started early on by a children's book that was about a family of bears living in a zoo (Munich or Austria I think)
In one of the chapters the "heroine" a young bear called Mary was spanked by her Grandfather for some misdeameaner or other.
I kept that book for years (I would love to be able to find a copy now) and reread that story many times. It shows how much of an impact it had on me, the fact I remember the character's name 40 years on.
Of course I was also an avid reader of the Beano.

Thank you for such an engaging insight into your spanko journey. It's amazing, sitting here in the library with its18000 texts, and forum and magazine, to think how excited (and I mean electric jolt excited!) we got over the smallest reference on paper back in those days, whether real or fictional or pseudo-real, and how each brief glimpse added a tiny piece to a slowly growing jigsaw.
Thanks again - it is always fascinating to hear of others' experience.

I clipped out any of those "Dear Abby" or other similar letters from the newspaper and still have them. Unfortunately I don't think the Library can use them due to copyright considerations.

Good recollection. Two sources of possible spanking material that I used to look for from the pre-internet era were the public library's index of periodical publications (subject: corporal punishment), and comic books.

Tiptopper mentioned "Dear Abby" and similar letters requesting advice about spanking. I have MikeD's old collection of these going back to the 50's and I am going to publish them as soon as I figure out how I want to deal with that copyright question.

There was an advice column in the US newspapers called "Helen Help Us" that contained a steady flow of spanking letters - I can even recall there being one period that the columnist referred to as the "great spanking controversy" period due to the many spanking letters. Most were from girls being spanked by parents but a few were from girlfriends and sometimes even wives who were spanked. It was my first introduction to a lifelong obsession.

I read this before with a comment. How very true about looking for interesting articles on the subject. Very difficult before the computer age.

Thanks for opening up about when you discovered you were interested in spanking. I really don't remember when I became interested in it. It is strange, when I was punished as a young child I hated it, but loved reading about it and watching a tv show - that was different. I really think it was the humiliation factor for me rather than the pain.

Great article Dave. I am not far behind you at age 58 this year. I really enjoyed your trip down memmory lane. I have been interested in spanking since before pre - school and also have no idea how or why but I have also been fascinated with it my whole life. Mr Magazine was also my first introduction to the spanking literature and I also was very excited at the start of each month waiting for the next issue to appear.

I also remember my first days on the internet, I believe it was 1992 or close to then. My friend at the time the late Ed Lee of Nu - West told me with regard to women who are interested in and want to be "disciplined" he said "they're out there, you just have to get on line". Well Ed, you were certainly right my friend, they were and still are out there. Unfortunately, my prison straps have been idle for a while now but I have a motto, "never give up" Anyway, great reading Dave.

Excellent article! I also fondly remember the Penthouse letters. Since they were only spanking literature I knew of at the time, they figured large in my early adulthood.

Fascinating article, thanks for sharing your experience. Even though I'm only in my 20's, I could relate to much of your early journey. I remember wondering how soon I'd be able to check out certain library books again without drawing suspicion.

The very early Janus magazines used to carry a regular column called 'Letters from America', and a common theme was letters from teenage girls complaining about the severity of the spankings they received at home, or complaining that, at 17 or 18, they were too old to be spanked, particularly on the bare bottom.
A remarkable number of the letters complained particularly about being spanked by their step-mothers and their fathers refusing to take their side - which reflects your memory of the 'Dear Penny' column. When I read them I always hoped they were true but strongly suspected they were made up by the editorial staff (who must have had some fun dreaming them up!).

I can relate to a lot of that, with minor variations; e.g., MR magazine was my first source of spanking letters. All in all, a very authentic account.

There were letters about spanking in Dear Abby and/or Ann Landers also. I remember a coupe of them, but don't remember which sister's column they appeared in. One was from a woman with two small boys. She told of how, when one of her boys misbehaved, she would show them a strap, which would let the misbehaving boy know he was going to get a licking. The spankings were administered on her husband's bowling night, and she said she gave them on the bare bottom. The other letter was from a woman who had promised her son the spanking of his life for damaging a neighbor's property. She wanted advice on how to go about this. Should she bare her son's bottom, and should she use a hairbrush? The answer was, keep his pants up, use your hand, and look for better was of disciplining than spanking in the future.
I also remember a letter in Penthouse which affected me a great deal. Someone wrote that when he was in the sixth grade, he had a pretty, young teacher who made frequent use of her paddle on her student's backsides. Somehow he had made it through the school year without getting a spanking from her. After the last day of school was over, he waited until the other students were gone and confessed to her that he was curious to know what one of her spankings felt like. She understood as she had a male teacher she wanted to spank her when she was in school. She had him tell her of the naughty things he had done over the year, pulled down his pants, turned him over her knee, and spanked his bare bottom with her paddle, Keep in mind, Penthouse pays people to write such letters, and most or all of them are fiction. I did not know this at the time I read the letter, and believed every word of it.

I think most pre-Internet spankos started out thinking there was something uniquely wrong with them when they discovered that they are fascinated by spanking: craving it, administering it to others, or both. It was a pretty lonely time, hiding a very embarrassing personal secret. The author of this well-written account proved to be more of a sleuth than I was, and found out quicker than I did that being a spanko is far from a unique event. Indeed, there are probably millions of spankos in the U.S. alone.

The Penthouse magazine was for many of us was our first encounter with corporal punishment. Physical discipline which led to red and sore bottoms in the home or a girlfriend's apartment.

I'm sure the letters in Penthouse opened up a whole new world for numerous readers now here in the library.

Penthouse and related publications such as Variations & Mr. Magazine certainly worked for me.

Alberto Vargas' way of illustrating the female form in many issues of Playboy, never totally without some fabric to heighten sensuality, was a formative introduction to my erotic imagination.

Although I don't remember if I had seen by then more than a couple of Penthouses or Playboys, my first dive into spanking occurred in a dimly lit store that had several rows of paperbacks. It had those magazines, too, but I lacked the huevos to purchase them at that age, perhaps 13. I was probably looking for science fiction when an all-white cover caught my eye. The title: The Story of O.

A quick glance hooked me; the contents were ... oh, my! Adding a couple of sci-fi books to cover my real purchase, home I went. Here I am decades later.

Roald Dahl's 'Boy' was what did it for me - remember reading that in school and reading the caning scenes over and over...