Hello!

[neil]

I recall a few children wearing gaberdines when I was at primary school,but they were quickly becoming obsolete and I never wore one.
I was never disciplined by my mum with wearing hot uncomfortable clothing,but have always done so myself for as long as I can remember.
There was a back way I could walk home from school and sometimes I would take this route dressed in a dufflecoat with the hood up and a blue nylon pacamac over this.
Later,hooded parkas became my thing-they still are 40 years later!
I love hearing stories about rainwear and overdressing in"the old days";so,please keep them coming!

[wellyboy]

When I was 18 and left school to start college my mother said I needed an oilskin raincoat.
She brought me to a Primark store and bought me a bright yellow reversible oilskin.
It was really bright canary yellow with an attached hood and zip fastening. I hated it 'cos it was a girly raincoat, yet my mother made me try it on in the shop, zip it up and pull up the hood.
I had to wear it every time it rained going to college where I was the only guy waring one. Nearly all the girls in my class wore them.
But what was really embarrassing was having to wear it meeting friends.
The yellow side could get quite dirty at times and I remember my mother bringing one home for me six months later.
She casually said to me that she had bought me another oilie and had left it in the hall for me to try on.
I eventually grew to like them and now I have three and wear them whenever there is an opportunity.
I recall dating a girl when I was 22 and wearing my mack. She used tease me about it and she would even tell me to bring it with me if we were going for a walk or to the movies. She'd tell me to carry it on my arm if it wasn't wet or raining.
I would love to see those reversibles making a return to the high street again.

[Rives]

Yes i too was made to wear my macs on social occassions too. She had the habit of buttoning my mac up if she felt i wasnt wearing it properly. It was ALWAYS buttoned to theneck , no excuses. Same with the belt. This would often be done in front of my friends.

[disciplinemack]

Thanks, everyone, for your replies and comments. There seem to be a lot of us out there with happy memories of school macs. The old gaberdines were certainly good substantial coats, and under a plastic mac in the winter with snow about they were great.

PolyVC, I like your description of wearing a plastic mac under the gaberdine. I remember a few kids doing that, usually those with strict uioforms at the High Schools, where the gaberdine was the only coat allowed. The plastic mac had to be completely hidden. I also remember others, boys and girls, wearing duffle coats covered with a plastic mac, which stopped the duffle coat being saturated and almost impossible to dry out. I did the same myself after leaving school.

Rives, if you want to chat in a less public forum you could give me an e-mail address to write to - or we can continue here.

Keep well macked up, people - it's raining here as I write!

[PolyVinylC]

Thanks disciplinemack for your comment regarding my wearing a plastic mac under my gaberdine.I think I did this so that no-one would know I was wearing two raincoats though,and I only did it a few times and never when going to school.As I mentioned,I was punished when wearing my gaberdine quite often,and also when wearing the plastic mac.I wore a gaberdine until my early teens in the late '60s,and a few teachers would shake us boys.This also happened outside school. The sister of a friend of mine who was a couple of years younger than me wore a brown hooded gaberdine. We were also friends. I remember getting annoyed with her sometimes and I shook her.Quite rightly she would then shake me!It upset her more than it did me.I have a confession to make here.No-one knows this even now,but I used to shake myself really hard in my gaberdine to punish myself! I doubt if anyone else did this to themselves but I would like to know!

[Rives]

Thanks, everyone, for your replies and comments. There seem to be a lot of us out there with happy memories of school macs. The old gaberdines were certainly good substantial coats, and under a plastic mac in the winter with snow about they were great.

PolyVC, I like your description of wearing a plastic mac under the gaberdine. I remember a few kids doing that, usually those with strict uioforms at the High Schools, where the gaberdine was the only coat allowed. The plastic mac had to be completely hidden. I also remember others, boys and girls, wearing duffle coats covered with a plastic mac, which stopped the duffle coat being saturated and almost impossible to dry out. I did the same myself after leaving school.

Rives, if you want to chat in a less public forum you could give me an e-mail address to write to - or we can continue here.

Keep well macked up, people - it's raining here as I write!

Hello, yes happy to chat here. Mother certainly did know best as far as my raincoats were concerned

[rainweargirl8]

love the idea of young people being made to wear a mackintosh for discipline

[plasticpacamac]

Memories of rainwear in and out of school come flooding back on reading these various postings. The school gabardine raincoat. navy blue in junior school up to age 15, fawn for senior boys (mine was a single-sex school). The gabardine was always kept tightly belted, no sloppiness allowed by my mother. Th plastic pacamac was strictly for out of school wear and not belted. The boy's version was never hooded so if actually raining a PVC souwester was worn which I enjoyed. For economy, both types of mackintosh were bought inititally in extra-large sizes to allow for growth. My gabardine, always tightly belted, when first bought came down to my ankles and for that reason I was teased mercillessly by the other boys,my mackintosh being nicknamed "the skirt" or "the dress". Complaints to my mother about this were punished with over-the-knee, trousers-down bare bottom hand-spankings that were renewed in senior school when the colour of the regulation school gabardine was supposed to change from navy blue to fawn or grey but my mother could not afford that. My ungrateful whingeings were again punished by trousers-down bare bottom spankings up to age 18 when I left school and in later years i lived in constant fear I might shoot my load over my mum's skirt while being spanked, though being thankfully a late developer in that respect, I never did!

[annabell-cagoule]

Growing up in the 79’s the gaberdine had gone by then pretty much, but i remember my mum telling me she was forced to wear one with a plastic mac over the top to protect it, she went to a strict girls school. With me and my siblings we were made to wear orange man alive (C&A i think) over the head cagoules, which i initially didn’t like but then grew to love, eventually when we out grew those we had some second hand nearly new peter storms from the school jumble sale and eventually I was allowed to buy a very fashionable Puma grey white and black cagoule similar to the Patrick ones that have been reissued. These were being worn by all the kids at the time near us as fashion items but i managed to pursuade mum to replace my worn out peter storm with one as i told her it was waterproof and the other kids were all being forced to wear them by thier parents. It worked and I got my own.

Have been into cagoules ever since!

[Cherie]

Cagoules are not really my thing, but I was made to wear an over the head one at school I hated it because when putting it on, or taking it off, I was helpless and the boys teased and hit me. I so wanted to have a zip up front cagoule - not because I liked cagoules but to avoid being bullied. I did get a bit of a thrill seeing girls in cagoules when the front was open and had a shiny lining.

Cherie x