Toy Collection #2

Moving, perhaps, from the sublime to the completely prosaic... here's another paddle in the toy collection. This is what just about every spanko will recognize as the "Cracker Barrel Paddle." The chain sold these, nominally, as a children's toy for around $5.00. They came with a small rubber ball attached with an elastic string, and the game for which this toy was intended involved bouncing the ball off the paddle repeatedly. Not as simple as it sounds.

This probably falls into the category of implements that are sometimes refered to as "pervertibles." Those would be objects that are intended for some entirely pedestrian and innocent purpose -- but which those of us with a kinky bent can easily convert to more nefarious "ends."

A couple of years ago, Cracker Barrel stopped selling these in its stores -- to the great sorrow of much of our community. Perhaps they finally tumbled to the fact that all those paddle sales were not indicative of a huge demand for these "toys" among the children of America? Duh!

As a spanking implement, the Cracker Barrel Paddle is fairly light, but stingy. There's a reason that it is such a popular spanking toy -- it really is an almost perfect size, shape, and weight. It just fits. It fits His hand, and it fits, shape-wise, my butt. For all of its "plain Jane" appearance, these toys are nicely finished with a satiny smoothness that makes them feel good on the skin. Too, all the edges are beveled off, so there are no sharp places that create the danger of leaving cuts. If I get a choice of paddles, the Cracker Barrel paddle is going to be one that I seriously consider.

In practice, we tend to lose track of our Cracker Barrel toy. It seems to have the ablility to sink to the bottom of the toy pile and disappear from view. Sometimes we go for months without thinking about it or remembering that it is here. Then, something will bring it back to memory, and He'll fall in love with it all over again. Classics are like that I guess.

Interestingly, there is very little information about the genesis or history of the wooden paddle ball toy. The conversations flare up in the spanko community about them every now and then, but it just seems there isn't much to say about them when they are seen as what they were intended to be -- toys for children. I did find a variety of newer and even some retro versions out there on-line. Here are a couple of versions that I can remember from my childhood...

swan