As a boy growing up in the 1950s, I attended a small private school. One day, when I was 11, I got into serious trouble for disrupting class and I was ordered down to the office of Mrs Haney, the principal.
Upon my arrival at the office, Miss Tracey – the principal’s secretary – sat me down and explained what was going on. She told me she had put a phone call into my mom to inform her that I was to be paddled, and that as soon as my mother called back, I would be taken into Mrs Haney’s office to be punished.