Spanking paddles 30 years ago

What size, shape, and thickness would spanking paddles in homes been 30 years ago? Where would they come from; type of store or homemade?

In the 1980's (USA) you might still find novelty spanking paddles with cute sayings or pictures on them. If the parents went to college there could be old fraternity paddles, possibly marked with Greek letters. Then (as today) there was always the possibility of a substantial hairbrush laying around.

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https://www.somethinggreek.com/products/greek-traditional-branded-paddle

More likely you would have found spanking paddles in homes 60 years ago, not 30. By the 1980s spanking of children had become pretty generally frowned upon. not regarded as effective or proper discipline.Often this is attributed to the teachings of Dr. Benjamin Spock.Often remember people years ago blaming what they saw as lack of discipline among youth on permissive childrearing which they attributed to Spock.
Probably even in the 50s paddles in the home would not have been as common as belts, straps, or hairbrushes as implements of correction.

I'm a child of the 60's, literally starting school in 1965. Most homes did not seem to have a paddle, I know in my home, if dad used a piece of wood on me, it's because we were in the garage whenever he decided to spank me and grabbed a piece of handy 1x4 to use on me. However, he did have an old belt he employed for the purpose in the house.

When I was in the second grade, my teacher had one of those paddles that had had a rubber ball attached to it, but had been removed. This would have been in the 54-55 school year (over 60 years ago.) I bought one of those paddles in a convenience store about 10 years ago. The paddle I bought is 9 3/4 inches long, 4 1/2 inches wide at its widest point, and not quite 3/16 inch thick. I don't know what kind of wood it is made of, but seems very light for its size, weighing almost exactly one ounce. I remember my teacher's paddle was bigger than that, especially thicker, but it may have just seemed like that to me at the time, because I was only 7 years old and much smaller. My 6th grade teacher had a similar paddle. but it didn't look as thick as the one my second grade teacher used, although still thicker than the one I have today. Again, this may just be perception, because I was much bigger at age 11, than at age 7, but still a lot smaller that I am today.
My 7th grade teacher had a homemade paddle, made out of hickory wood. I couldn't give you its exact dimensions but I would guess it was 15-16 inches long, no more than 2 inches wide, and at least 1/2 inch thick. She only gave one spanking with it all year, it front of the class. I described the spanking elsewhere on the forum, and here, I'll just say I'm glad it wasn't me getting spanked. Oh yes, the math teacher that year had a paddle so small, that one of my fellow students jokingly called it an ice cream paddle. That was elsewhere described on this forum, also.

So perhaps the belt was the more typical implement of the day. I didn't know if a family would have a dedicated tool for correction. And if so, what type and where did they get it?

Typically, the spanking implement would have been something they already had, that would be pressed into service, like a belt, razor strop, large hairbrush, bathbrush, or maybe you got sent to cut switches.

I know of a couple of people whose mothers were schoolteachers that had a paddle at school, and a similar paddle at home for their kids. But, I think that was more the exception rather than the rule.

As for 'dedicated too of correction' ? THAT was a thing in my home. There was an old, buckleless belt on the back knob of my parents' bedroom door that was there as a well-understood reminder and deterrent, and there was a certain wooden spoon in a particular drawer in the kitchen. Having special things in known places was meant to act as something of a deterrent so that actual usage was less necessary than threat.

Did other people see the items?

in 1979 i remember visiting a friend of my foster placement at the time who had a paddle on the side of the fridge that had "to hell with psychology" on it. this would have been winnipeg. I have no idea if it was decorative ot not but i remember being fascinated by it. that was the only time that i had ever seen something that was "dedicated" as a spanking tool.