[Farmgirl]

I can attest to the fact that switches are still being used, or at least they were when I was a kid in the late 1970s. I was born and raised on a farm in south central Illinois, which isn't exactly the 'deep south,' but it also isn't urban where parents were supposedly more 'enlightened.' In any event my grandmother, who raised me, was partial to switches, because I suppose they were more commonly used during her own youth.

My grandmother was 'old school' when it came to discipline, and she used a switch on the backs of my thighs just as described here. I also wore cutoff jeans a lot as a kid, making my bare thighs more accessable, and the switch was most often used on me if I didn't come into the house when called, or when I 'forgot' my chores. If I saw my grandmother coming with switch in hand, I knew I was definitely "in for it."

Less commonly she used it inside the house, where I would have to bend over the sofa arm. In these circumstances I often had to take down my jeans and get switched four or five times on my bare bottom. Looking back, I think that if the choice was available to her, grandma thought my bottom was a better target than my thighs. I would be hard pressed to say, though, whether it hurt more there or on my thighs! (I might add here that I also had kitchen implements used on me at various times, such as wooden spoons and spatulas, and they definitely hurt worse than a switch!)

The switches my grandmother used were willow and very swishy, not rigid at all. I'm sure a more rigid one would have hurt a lot more. I remember on two occasions finding the switch in the broom closet and throwing it away, only to have another one magically appear when grandma thought she needed it. I never knew where she got them, because we did not have any willow trees on our property. All in all, though, I would have to say that for a kid under the age of ten, the willow switch isn't a bad implement for a parent to make a point with. It stings like the dickens and gets a kid's attention really quickly, but does no real damage except for a pink stripe that quickly fades.