ROBYN'S RAINCOAT - Part 4

[Collector]

A final part to my story... not part of the "Robyn Story" , but with a result that was to determine future outcomes...

As previously told, I now had Robyn’s green rubberised coat in my possession, and enjoyed wearing it clandestinely where I could, but could clearly not wear it to school… and as I had handed back the navy blue nylon boy’s raincoat that mom had bought me to the shop where we had bought it, I effectively did now not have any day-to-day rainwear. I hoped that the blue coat’s absence would not be noticed, but eventually Mom picked up that it was missing and I had to ‘admit’ to somehow losing it. She was not amused and again chewed me out, this time for being irresponsible and not taking care of my things – she told me that I better had find it and find it fast!

So now I had a problem. The one option was again to buy a new raincoat from the shops, but this would be very expensive. Could I try and get a second hand one from somewhere? And then a brainwave! What about the school lost property shop? Surely I could find a suitable replacement at least, maybe even one that looked the same as the raincoat I had returned and then Mom would not be any the wiser. (I was getting quite devious when it came to substituting raincoats!) This seemed like a good idea and at the first opportunity I went there to ‘find’ my ‘lost’ raincoat.

The lost property room was in an old storeroom at the back of the school and was run by some of the PTA mothers. The place was full of all kinds of junk: bags, various items of clothing, sporting equipment and one had to rummage through the piles yourself...

It took quite a bit of sorting. There were about ten raincoats there, some old and tatty and some too small, but I was in luck – there was a navy blue nylon raincoat that looked just like the one that I had previously It was just a little smaller. After paying a small ‘fine’ to the lost property lady it was mine. All I had to do was remove the inside label with the previous owner’s initials marked on (which I did with a razor blade) and as far as Mom was concerned, my mack was back! I was off the hook...

But when I was in the back of the store, I had come across two other raincoats. And there is no prize for guessing what type they were; one was a classic old navy-blue school mackintosh with blue rubber lining, and the other a nylon coat, grey with a brown rubber lining. The nylon coat was missing all of its buttons and was stained and dirty but the blue coat seemed in perfect condition albeit a bit small (I had quickly tried them both at the back of the store, out of sight of the lady).

During the week I found myself continually thinking about these two coats. By this time I had realised that although having Robyn’s coat was still first prize, I was only now really discovering the myriad of pleasures that rubberwear afforded, and owning another rubberised raincoat would be very desirable, especially if it were one that could be worn in public... and it was then that I realised just how TOTALLY and insanely addicted I had become! But it didn’t stop me…

So the following week I planned another visit to lost property (it was only open at lunchtime on Wednesdays) to pick up another coat. I just hoped that the lady who was there last week would not recognise me and become suspicious. But it was closed and nobody was there. So I went to the school office. The secretary said it wouldn’t be open today, but I could go and help myself - and handed me the keys to Aladdin’s cave…

Inside, I immediately sought out the navy-blue rubber coat, but it was missing. Damn! Had someone else claimed it? All I could find was the tatty grey nylon coat – so I carried on searching. And Bingo! - there it was - the blue coat was hidden under a pile of clothes! Needless to say I took both. The bonus was that I didn’t even have to pay anything for the coats – I offered the secretary my ‘fine’ but she wasn’t at all interested - so they were totally free and gratis!

During the rest of the day at school the two coats virtually burnt a hole in my schoolbag! I kept on wanting to look and touch! I could hardly wait to get home and almost ran there all the way. There I had the first opportunity to closely examine my ill-gotten gains - both of them were dirty, dusty, old and musty but smelt and felt so delectable! As mentioned before, the grey coat was in a really bad condition but after an intense scrub and rinse in the bath it looked much better – and buttons were eventually sewn on again...

The blue rubber coat was a real find and had a small bonus in that there was an old-fashioned type of sou’wester rain hat in one of the pockets, also made of blue rubberised cloth.

So in the end, I had three rubberised raincoats to select from and wear. On some afternoons alone at home I wore all of them on top of each other (plus the hat) - all very hot and humid during the summer! Of course the wonderful thing was that I could now wear either of the two ‘new’ macks to school without risk and although (as far as Mom was knew) the blue nylon mack was still my ‘official’ raincoat, I had very little need for it – the genuine rubber mackintoshes had effectively taken over! Of course when we moved away from Dave and Robyn the following year, I could wear all three coats in public quite openly…

And so this is how I started my “collection”. The two ‘new’ macks eventually perished after much overuse and were trashed, but amazingly, Robyn’s has survived - I occasionally take it out, but cannot wear it as I have grown considerably in size since then! Other items have been bought over the years and I now have about fifteen raincoats, rain jackets and trousers, capes, etc.

Although I consider myself to be absolutely normal in all other aspects, ever since the fateful day that Dave offered me the loan of Robyn’s raincoat, the wearing of Mr. Macintosh’s Magic Coat’ has continuously afforded me a somewhat bizarre and deviant level of private pleasure.

And THAT is the final episode in the story of Robyn’s Raincoat…

[hotwilly]

Thanks for your stories. HW

[cammacg]

Absolutely brilliant. Thank you for sharing your memories of several super rubber lined macks.

[Collector]

There's more to come...

And photos as well!

C

[hotwilly]

There's more to come...

And photos as well!

C

Good show!
Thought this was last installement
Thanks

[mrbassman101]

Thank you Collector for posting this account.
Truly enthralling -almost like being there!
Robyn's rubber raincoat sounds like a
wonderful item of clothing - the stuff of dreams?

[neil]

Many thanks for these excellent stories.You write really well.
Now I'm looking forward to the photos.
Coats like these were a bit before my time(alas!)