Rainwear Central Rainwear Forum

Priscilla wrote:Interesting as this thread is (no sarcasm intended) I had hoped that it would be an ongoing thread where we describe our first mac, and the pleasure it gave us.

Anyone interested in that direction?

Why not start one and see

good idea. if i may i will start by memories of my first mac.
it was a little blue cotton mackintosh lined with blue rubber and a hood, it belonged to a neighbors daughter who had outgrown it and it was given to me for messing about in. i was about eight at the time when money was tight in those days and things were handed down by friends and family. although a girls mac it was double breasted and could be fastened both ways.
i had seen the girl wearing her mac often and i always liked it on her and i wished it was mine, i was delighted when her mum passed the mac on to me and i loved it. the mac had been well worn and a little grubby from wear but it smelled wonderful. my mother was never keen on me having a girls mac but i was allowed to wear it for messing about outside, i wore my lovely mac as often as i could even in the house. my mother used to tell me off for wearing the mac in the house and she always referred to it as that old blue mac thing.
i grew so fond of my mac and i ended up taking it to my bedroom one day and sitting on my bed wearing it, after a while my mother came upstairs and into my room and saw me. she was really angry at me and demanded to know what i was doing in what she called that dammed mac thing in my bedroom.
mother told me to come downstairs and bring that mac with me so i took it off and went downstairs, my mother took the mac from me and suddenly threw it on the kitchen fire and burned it.
i was heartbroken and in tears as i watched me beloved mac burning to ashes, my mother said no more old mac things but how wrong she was because it started a lifelong love for macs.

The earliest mac I remember having was about 1977, at the time I was about 7 years old. It was a very bright shiny Red Plastic mackintosh with white cotton interior lining, deep pockets with the flap over the top and a stiff high collar when it was turned up. The main point I remember was the smell which was an intoxicating new vinyl odour so strong that if I was in the living room I could smell my mac hanging up in the hall near the front door.

As if that was not bad enough - I don't think I disliked wearing the mackintosh as many children wore them, but it was being seen waiting in the line in class to go home at the end of the day that I hated, as it was such a bright colour and most of the other boys were wearing the new Adidas style cagoules then either dark Blue or Purple i think they were, but I had a matching Sou'wester with thick canvas tie tapes which used to hang down the front of the raincoat and on a windy day would fly up and sting my face when they were saturated. Normally I had Yellow wellingtons to make sure that if someone missed the Bright Red mack, then they would certainly see the Bright Yellow wellie boots.

My sister had a Navy Blue mack with White spots which I originally liked better than mine as it did'nt stand out so much. I really did hate wearing this wet weather gear until I started having a lift home with one of the younger female teachers. She was a friend of my mothers and twice a week she would take me to her house until my mother finished college.

One particular day it was absolutely horrendous with gale force winds and rain which did not let up all day and night. I was having a lift home with her dressed in my embarassing raingear which I dreaded her seeing but when she came out from the staff room she was wearing a long Yellow Rukka style PVC mac which although it has a hood she had on a Red Souwester and green wellies. I have to say that from then on, seeing her dressed similar to me and with her telling me how smart I looked it never seemed so bad when wearing my raincoat and hat. Although I think she was quite young, she seemed to have the very sensible aura that women teachers had then back in the 70's and not dressing for the wet weather would have been a completely alien concept to her.

If only teachers chastised school pupils for not wearing sensible raingear these days !

I think the first real plastic mac I had was a girl's semi-transparent white one bought from Woolworth's when I was about four. My parents were well aware that I loved that sort of plastic material because I was always playing with any that was around, wrapping myself up in it and sometimes pretending to wear a nappy and plastic pants.

As it was the "unenlightened" early 50's, I imagine now that they must have been acutely embarrassed by my behaviour and torn between outright repression and indulgence-the latter in the hope that I would "grow out of it". Subsequent evidence indicates that neither course of action would have produced that outcome!. I guess that the mac was ought in an attempt to channel my "obsession" down a more "legitimate" avenue. While I would still easily have fitted into plastic pants at that age, and for some years afterwards, buying more of those when strictly speaking they had become "unnecessary" would, in those days, have been a step too far.

My first mackintosh was the blue rubber lined one I have mentioned on another post. If I was going out I wore it every time no matter the weather. The English climate being what it is my mother did not take any notice that I wore it in high summer. The cool feel of the rubber on my arms and legs (this was the time young boys wore short trousers as a matter of course) was delightful and the strong rubbery smell given off by the mackintosh was wonderful. Even now just recalling it is making my penis stir. Back then as a seven year old although, I did not understand what a fetish was, I was hooked on rubber and mackintoshes. Now in my sixties I have had decades of enjoying rubber and mackintosh play.

Not my first purchase but one of my very favourite early purchases was a red hooded rubberized satin mack with a very full skirt beautiful gold buttons from Kingfisher. Treasured and cared for. I still have it today. Another favourite, also red rubberized satin with a beautiful attached hood was from Aquasprite. Why are rubberized macks so very expensive today? I am fortunate I can wear my macks without too many sidelong looks although there are folks that look a little askance when I wear my heavier rubberized macks. By the way I am female so don't have the complexes that some of my men friends have. Take care and be safe. Jan

my first pvc mac was a shiny white rain slicker from Wippete in the U.S., which I bought before a river rafting tour.
It was a solid shiny mac for Ladies, but seemed to be worn unisex.