Well I was a feminist even as a kid -- for example, I decided I would never change my name to my husband's or promise to obey him just because we were married! [Ask Bill -- I've kept both promises.] But I loved "Slap Her Down Again Paw." We had it on a 78 rpm record and it got a lot of plays at our house.

I was still a feminist in the 70's -- by nature, and because of the way I see the world, and in part because I had a southern Italian father who occasionally really came the heavy over his wife and kids. But. I had a sense of humor about it, which I decided was not true of all the women around me who were just discovering that they had been downtrodden.

I don't sing it any more. There are plenty of other songs. But I never thought that Arthur Godfrey sympathized with the attitudes in the song. I thought he was making fun of them.

And no, things like that aren't funny when they are happening. But the exaggeration in the song is funny. Especially the last verse. That's how I knew Godfrey (and the song) were on my side.

The moral of this story girls
Is don't stay out too late,
Unless you take your shoes off
Outside your pappy's gate.
If Ma don't hear you coming in
she won't lay down the law
And you don't have to worry
'Cause she won't sing out to Paw --

Chorus: Slap Her Down Agin, Paw etc.