(This story is true. Comments welcome)
When I was 10 years old, my father contracted tuberculosis. His few remaining years were spent in a chest hospital. We lived in a small rural town, Money was tight but I don't remember going without. People were very kind. I remember finding a big sack of sugar on the front porch one morning. That was typical of the generosity back then. Those people had survived the Depression and the Second World War. Their sense of community was very strong.
Mum decided to take in a lodger. The board he paid helped the family budget considerably. Danny was in his thirties, and worked on the railways as a shunter. At home he fixed fuses, repaired my bike and even dug a vegetable garden. I helped him plant it out. He was a godsend to my mother and me.
Danny did not approve of learning and was suspicious because my nose was in a book every chance I got. He tried to get me interested in more manly pursuits. He took me fishing but I cried when we caught a fish so Danny threw it back. Sometimes he took me with him to shoot rabbits on a farm nearby. I hated the slaughter but enjoyed the delicious pies and stews Mum made with the meat.
Most nights my mother went to visit Dad at the hospital. Danny stayed in until she got back. That was when our lodger used the bathroom. He had a habit of walking to it from his room, completely naked. I'd look up from my book, fascinated by the sight of his big penis with its bush of curly black hair. Danny's magnificent buttocks looked like they had been sculptured out of the finest marble.
One night, when I thought our lodger was safely in the bath, I went into his room and looked through his things. Anyway, Danny caught me. He sat me on the bed while he got dressed. His penis swayed from side to side while he looked for his clothes.
As soon as he was 'decent' our lodger sat on the bed beside me. He made me stand up and his big hands soon pulled my pants and underpants down. Then he put me over his knee and spanked me on the bare bum, long and hard. His hands were big and strong from working outdoors. I wriggled and yelled at the ferocious assault on my rear but Danny just upped the tempo and swatted my orbs even harder. I was totally focused on the incredible hurt being inflicted on my small rump. Danny did not hold back and I was a sore and sorry little boy by the time he'd finished with me. He gave both my smarting bum-cheeks a gentle squeeze with his huge hands as the signal my punishment was over. I was still snivelling when Mum came home.
"Caught him touching my things", Danny told her, matter-of-factly, "So I smacked his botty". Our lodger was always very respectful so used the term 'botty' in front of Mum. It had been 'your little arse' whild he was spanking it.
My mother blinked but then said 'Good for you!".
After that, as well as all the other useful chores our lodger did around the house, he also smacked my botty whenever Mum asked him.
One Sunday Uncle Roger and Auntie Sarah came to visit. Their son Jamie was 10, same as me. The women went to the hospital while my uncle and Danny sat outside in the sun. Jamie and I kicked a ball around. We'd been warned to keep it away from the house but we forgot. The ball got kicked through a kitchen window.
The men were rightly very angry with us. Danny, always helpful, went next door and got another pane of glass from a kind neighbour. My uncle, Jamie and me swept up the broken glass. Danny found some putty and soon had the window as good as new.
Jamie and I had to pay a penalty. Uncle Roger unlooped his belt from his trousers and wrapped the buckle-end around his right hand. Jamie dropped his shorts and underpsnts and lay across a padded kitchen stool. My uncle laid into my cousin's little bare behind with that heavy belt. Broad rivers of red scorched Jamie's pink flesh. Knowing I was next, fear turned my stomach into knots but the budding scientist in me noticed how that belt flattened Jamie's buttocks right out on impact. Then they bounced right back up again. Truly nature's 'shock absorbers'.
Ten good licks with the belt and then Jamie was allowed up. He hadn't moved or uttered a sound but tears streamed down his face.
When I was in position with my bare behind sticking up in the air Danny told my uncle how he smacked me when asked to by Mum.
"Good!" my uncle said, "Boys need a man's firm hand but at 10 he's old enough for the belt. Here, you do it". He handed our lodger the leather.
"One thing more", my uncle said, "Always check his hole to see he hasn't been interferred with. Their are some rum characters about".
Hands separated my twin-globes while both men inspected my secret opening.
"Good" my farmer uncle said. "If he HAD been touched his hole would be so loose you'd be able to see right inside him".
The men shifted their attention to my cousin whose sobs had turned to hiccups. I got another glimpse of his scarlet bottom while the men carefully checked his hole. Then he was allowed to get dressed.
Danny handed the belt back to my uncle.
"A few smacks with the hand are one thing but a belting is something else. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve it but it'd be better coming from a relation. I'm just the lodger".
Uncle Roger was more than happy to oblige. He laid into my backside with his belt. I squirmed and yelled. Tears flooded my eyes. Incredible hurt was being deliberately inflicted in order to teach me a lesson. The belting seemed to last forever. Nothing else had ever hurt so bad. Ten hard licks and then it was over. I was allowed to get up and then get dressed again.
By the time the women had returned both Jamie and I had recovered. Neither the broken window or the belting were mentioned again.
Danny never did take his belt to me. It was his hand that smacked my fast-growing bottom. The ritual was the same except now Danny followed my uncle's advice and always checked inside my bum crease to make sure I hadn't been 'interferred with'.
I was a lucky boy to have a man who cared enough about me to provide an appropriate penalty when I did wrong. Really, those smackings were the making of me even though I didn't think so at the time.
The anti-spanking brigade often use the fact that a spanker sometimes become aroused while spanking a boy and give that as a reason to stop doing it. Well, there was usually an uncompromising male hardness poking into my tummy while I was across Danny's knees. When I became an adult myself I soon discovered that a baby squirming on my lap or even the warmth of a kitten rolling there produced a penile response. There has been no call to ban babies or cats - yet.