I spent my very early years in New Hampshire but in the early 1960s my dad landed a new job which caused the family to up sticks and make its home in Alabama.
My own parents were extremely liberal and never laid a hand on me. Spanking was something I had heard about, of course, but never really come across. However, of course we’d moved to the Bible Belt, where sore bottoms were not at all an unusual experience for misbehaving children. My classmates would occasionally talk about a whoopin’ they had got off their mom or dad.