LORNA LUFT
ME AND MY SHADOWS
A Family Memoir
Lorna Luft
Pocket Books
1998
(P 77)
(Speaking of an incident with her then infant brother
when Lorna was
three years old.)
Overcome with pain and anger, I began scratching his face …
I had
really done it. I got the spanking of my life, and my mother was
too
angry to speak to me for days afterward.
(P 81)
My parents felt very strongly about good manners. Liza
and Joe and I
were always told to be very polite, especially to adults. My
mother
was determined that we be respectful and well behaved. She
detested
what she called the "B.H. [Beverly Hills] Brats," and
she would give
us a sharp remark and a swat on the bum if we were rude.
(P 140)
(Speaking of her nanny Mrs. Chapman, and Mrs. Chapman’s
daughter Dawn.
Lorna is about 11 here.)
… If I ever said so much as "Don’t do that"
to Dawn, Mrs. Chapman
would punish me. She never punished Dawn, even when Dawn broke
things.
… When somebody got hit, it was usually me. Mrs. Chapman
knew how to
make me wish I’d kept my mouth shut. She usually hit me with
a wooden
ruler, sometimes raising big welts. She would always hit me on
the
back of my legs, the tender skin right below my bum. That way the
hem
of the dress covered the marks, and they didn’t show. She
hit me often.
My mother had spanked me with her open hand occasionally when I
deserved it, but never anything close to this.