Son and daughter

Dear Lorraine

One of your correspondents in the "covering up" pages tells of her daughter and herself being wrapped up and hooded. She also commented that boys seem less interested in wearing their hoods and scarves.

My son who is now fifteen went to school on his first day in a traditional gaberdine mac which had been handed down to me from a friend, whose daughter had worn it at her private school and outgrown it. My son insisted on having all the buttons done up, and also on having the hood up and fastened with the little buttoned tab under the chin. As the weather grew colder, he asked if he could wear a scarf, just like someone he had seen somewhere or other. It appeared that he wanted the scarf tied over his mouth and nose, outside the hood, with a knot at the back. He was quite insistent about wearing his coat and scarf this way for months, and only in the summer could I persuade him to leave off the scarf - but he still wore his hood up.

Later when he outgrew the gaberdine I got him a duffle coat, which he wore with the hood up, and his scarf, and he remained hooded and scarfed until he went to the High School, at which point he began to dress more conventionally - peer pressure, no doubt!

My daughter, three years younger, would not wear her scarf or hood unless absolutely forced into them, and would come home sometimes soaked and freezing. When she went to High School, however, she became friendly with another girl who likes to be well wrapped up, and within a week or two she asked me if I would buy her a really warm anorak and waterproof trousers to wear to school. I was surprised, but she asked several times, and so we bought a pair of trousers by Regatta, and also a waterproof jacket with a fleece lining, to her delight. She has worn these to school every day since October, and often wears them at weekends too. Three weekends ago she went shopping with her friend, wearing her waterproof outfit, complete with the hood up. When she came back, she had bought a pair of Blue wellingtons with pink spots, and a heavy balaclava which covers her up to the eyes. Over it she wore a scarf, tied across her face outside her hood just as her brother did. When I asked if she wasn't too warm she replied that she was warm, but it was great to be able to wander about with no-one knowing who she was, and she was going to wear the whole lot to school. Apart from the wellingtons, she has worn the whole assemblage every day, to and from school, and also has been out with me fully muffled up. Doubtless a parka next - but I'll wait for that to happen.

Christine