Some of these letters sound fake, but newspapers were eager to believe them. In 1937, a widely circulated AP story told of a club formed by women advocating marital spankings. “Spare the hairbrush and spoil the wife,” they asserted. Six months later, another widely circulated story reported that the club now had 59 national chapters and young girls were opening an auxiliary, “Daughters of Spanking Parents.” Forgive me, Sir John. Please understand that, when it's so easy for someone to go on the internet and (in effect) write fiction, honest witnesses sometimes get suspected unjustly. I do in fact have some evidence which seems to support your account in general terms. (I hope everyone will understand why I'm going to keep it to myself for the time being.) But there are other things which don't quite seem to ring true. He returned, closing their bedroom door, carrying their short brown leather discipline strap. Folded over like a belt and stitched together, a split on the curled end doubled its sting. It appeared innocent, but she'd experienced its punishing power. After Viennese shortbread accompanying rose-petal panna cotta, she drew Mrs. Davenport aside while their men chatted. Her discreet stinging bottom had lasted an hour, settling into a pleasant promise. We’ll see,” Vera said. “Perhaps if you are very, very obedient from now on, I’ll save you that disgrace. Still,” she added, “you can’t be let off scot-free. Fetch me Lucille’s paddle,” she demanded, sternly. “It’s time I got to work.”

The imperious demand: “What do you think you are doing?” suddenly snatched me from my reverie. “You were told to clean this place up!” Vera had entered the room without my noticing. The spanking message boards are full of nostalgia for classic film spankings, but stark differences in how to take them. “I enjoy some of the old clips as well,” writes one, “but I have to say that I’d have a problem with a mainstream movie that implied that it was somehow ok to discipline a woman for being ‘bad’.” I was not pleased by this interruption, nor Vera’s imperious attitude, but I suppose since Lucille left Vera her business, it was only reasonable she would have to spend time with the documents and records in Lucille’s study, at least until she was able to transfer the whole lot to her own apartment.NOTE FROM THE ORIGINAL: My favorite stories are about the beginnings of spanking relationships. This piece is an unauthorized sequel to a special favorite of this type that appeared in the fiction section of the Disciplinary Wives Club titled, “Guess Who Runs This Household” by Ralph. My sincere compliments to that author, and I hope he does not mind that I have written this sequel. Taking both dice with shaking fingers, she clutched them in her clammy fist, her eyes imploring him to determine her fate. She trusted his decisions. Lucille left it to me, along with a complete, and I do mean complete, description of the relationship she had with you for the past few years. In addition to her business, she requested I take over other matters in her absence. The original of this document, in your handwriting, was left to me to use as I saw fit to ensure you did not revert to your old, bad habits. After seeing how you’ve dishonored my sister’s memory by letting her home turn into a pigsty, I’m sorely tempted to just send copies of it to your boss and everyone else you know and be done with it… and with you.”

With a bitter grimace, she twisted her wrist, casting her fate. The final die slowed, bumped its partner, settling on four. And modern science seemed to support the idea as well. In 1939, the Boston Globe ran a piece by a Northwestern University psychology professor who presented case studies to get to the bottom of the scourge of nagging wives. One case involved the college-educated woman, a habitual marital problem because husbands need to feel superior and wives can’t be happy unless inferior. But there is a solution, the Globe said:

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Rising, pumped full of respect, she said, "I'm sorry. I'll be an absolute delight tonight. Thank you for strapping me. I'm sorry you needed to. Thank you for only using our discipline strap." Do you recognize this?” Vera demanded, thrusting a photocopy of the confession and spanking contract I wrote at Lucille’s direction eight years ago. Now, I want you to copy this document in your own handwriting. And your work had better be neat and legible if you do not want me to motivate you further.” With those words, she shoved a second copy of the statement and confession I wrote for Lucille those eight years before, but where the words “Lucille” and “wife” appeared, Vera had amended the wording to read “Vera” and “sister-in-law.” In my copy's version, Fiona Tonkin is dragged to her spanking by her skirt. Her expression of resignation to the spanking just prior to being placed over her stage Mother's knee is classic! It could be the carrying under the arm in other performances may explain why a guy in 'drag' was cast as the Mother? (Even I'd consider dressing in drag for that role, & that's really saying something!) Perhaps it would have been a bit much for an older female lead to carry the naughty little imp to her fate so a male was cast? Just spaculating. Given her lengthy attitude, it was a just punishment. Ache would deepen, disciplining her for several days.

I began a half-hearted attempt at straightening things up, but I couldn’t get into it, and I ended up sitting mindlessly on the couch in front of the TV for most of the rest of the afternoon. There wasn’t anything interesting on, but it didn’t really matter. His hardness drove her pride sky high. Her sex soared up the window, lifting her mind over the city. Flying on his flawless love, she flung her arms wide against the glass, and screamed, "I love you." There was not a doubt in my mind she meant what she said, and I scurried off to Lucille’s study, where her wooden paddle hung behind the closet door. I had no problem finding it; I’d been sent to fetch it often enough by my late wife. And I realized I was shaking with dread and the slightest dawning of sexual arousal that often accompanied these situations, at least in the beginning moments before the reality of a spanking took over. I wept openly at the loss. Lucille was my rudder, my anchor—my disciplinarian, yes, but also my wife, guardian and lover. Although all of our friends knew Lucille was in charge, no one ever knew the details of the agreement and relationship we shared, at least not in full. I found I was lost without her. My performance at the office suffered significantly, and in my depressed state I ignored the solicitations of our friends, finding little remaining joy in life.Maybe the stars really believed what their industry was selling. Real marital spankings gave rise to screen ones, but with all that attractive celluloid action, it’s hard to imagine the influence didn’t extend the other way as well. In life, things could be just as dire. “Do you think a man should spank a nagging wife or suffer in silence,” the Toronto Globe and Mail asked the public in 1938. One man endorsed spanking: “I have seen some terrible shots made at the eighteenth hole on the golf links just because it was getting late and players were worrying what their wives would say when they got home. Such things should not be.”