Spanked Growing Up (SGU)

[sarah thorne]

Originally Posted by persephone

just a side note, i searched around a bit more and found a cute spanking reference in another beverly cleary book (these were staples in my childhood), "ramona and her father."

"ramona," said mr. quimbly, "my grandmother used to have a saying. 'first time is funny, second time is silly, third time is a spanking.'"

ramona looked down at her placemat. nothing seemed to go right lately.

When I saw this, I remembered clearly from reading the book the scene that caused Ramona's father to say such a thing to her. (I was a big Cleary fan too.)

Anyway, in the book, her parents were going thru some financial trouble and had to cut back on a lot of things (like meat - they had to eat tongue instead - ick) Ramona knew her parents were tense, so to lighten the tension one night at the dinner table, she asked someone at the table to "pass the tommy-toes". It made her parents smile, since 'tommy toes' was what she had called 'tomatoes' when she had first started talking.

However, like most kids her age (about 8 or so, in the book) she overdid it, continued to use the silly term until her father said what persephone had quoted above.

I only remember this specific reference to spanking from her books. Everything else I remember from Cleary's books were subtle, like the kids knowing they were 'gonna get it' or the parent's saying, 'do you want to get it?' For instance, in one book (may have been the same one) Ramona is throwing a fit in her room, lying on her bed and yelling. Since everyone ignored her fit, she decided to kick the wall next to her bed with her shoes. Her father then had yelled from the other room that she better stop kicking the wall or she was 'gonna get it'.)

sarah