When I was growing up in South Africa, during the 1960s, the cane was in widespread use for corporal punishment. Not only was it used pretty freely in schools, but many families kept one at home for use on their children’s bottoms.
Up to about the age of maybe six or seven, most of us got a traditional spanking over our mother or father’s knee, mostly on bare bottoms. But when we got to a certain age – particularly boys – our discipline was mostly handed over to our fathers and the cane was very common.