Rainwear Central Rainwear Forum

For an enthusiast such as myself, I lament the passing of the nylon pakamac in the younger generation. So it was such a treat for me to see both a mother and her teenage son in matching nylon pakamacs, both of the button fastening and collar style.

I was walking past the museum in the Civic Centre in Cardiff a couple of weekends ago, and came upon a mother and son on a typically rainy autumn day, she in a beige traditional nylon mac, and the son, around 14 years of age, in a navy blue one, both buttoned to the neck. I can't say he looked to be overjoyed to be wearing his, particularly as his mother also had him wear a matching nylon rainhat with a rim. She meanwhile had a plastic rainbonnet on. They joined the footpath that I was walking on and I was fortunate to be able to walk behind them en route to the university for a good 10 minutes. I might have been wrong but the young man's mackintosh appeared to be in good condition, and I wonder if it had been newly acquired. I shall never know, but I can't deny being tempted to commend the mother on her choice of clothing, and ask her were she purchased it!!

With the weather deteriorating, at one point she stopped to speak to the boy, and after a pause, she fastened the top two buttons of his mackintosh that had previously been unfastened, and straightened the previously crumpled and untidy collar, before folding it over neatly.

She was no more than 40 years of age, was very attractive, but had a stern demeanour reminiscent of my own mother some 30 years earlier

Alas I had an appointment to keep, but retain a forlorn hope of seeing them again - it's a small world after all!!

Is this story still doing the rounds?

a rainwear urban myth?

BTW, I remember seeing images of the typical nuclear family (parents plus two teenage-ish kids - boy & girl) depicted wearing shiny yellow raincoats and the packaging of the really shiny raincoasts I used to love looking at (and trying on when I thought no one was looking) in K-Mart during the late seventies and early eighties. I remember wondering why I never, ever saw anybody, much less a family kitted out in the raincoats in public! LOL

Sorry if this is a tall tale in your mind, but this is exactly what I witnessed

mason wrote:I remember wondering why I never, ever saw anybody, much less a family kitted out in the raincoats in public!

I have seen such a family here in Germany, but only one time. It must have been in 1994/95 in a shopping center in Dessau. Father, mother and two sons were wearing yellow-blue und white-blue reversible Friesennerz raincoats. They also had wellies on their feet. It was a great sight.