A schoolboy's first caning

My first experience of the school cane came when I was aged 11 in the early 1980s. Before then, I'd been slippered and spanked but managed to avoid the dreaded cane. Four of us had been caught in an out of bounds part of the school fields by the Deputy Head. He took our names and we thought that the most we would incur would be a detention. However, the full horror dawned on us the next morning, when we each received 'Order Marks' at registration. These light green slips of paper meant just one thing - an automatic caning. We we told to report to the Head of Year at the end of the school day.

Only one of our group had been caned before and he told the others what to expect. We had all heard the rumours about it being given across the bare bum, but
he assured us that this was not going to happen. However, to my dismay he said that even across your trousers the cane was unbelieveably painful

The prospect of a whacking ensured that I spent a miserable day. Try as I might I just could't get the thought of the cane out of my mind. When the appointed time arrived we were called in as a group for the usual lecture about our bad behaviour and then told to wait outside until our individual names were called.

I recall being really scared by now as my friend Andrew was called in. We heard the crack of the cane and soon Andrew emerged looking very
red in the face but not in tears. I was called in next. I tried to brace myself, but my legs were like jelly as I walked up to the master's desk. The thin cane looked
quite harmless lying there on the desk, but I was soon to realise that it was anything but!

I was commanded to bend over a chair and heard a whooshing sound as the cane descended, followed by a crack as it found its target. At first I wondered what all the fuss was about. But a moment later the searing pain which tore through my buttocks made me realise why the cane was so dreaded. I hardly had time to steel myself for the second stroke which landed on almost the same spot. Christ, it hurt! Luckily the punishment stopped at three strokes but that was quite enough, believe me..