Dear
Lorrainefrom Mick
Dear
Lorraine
I had a letter from an old friend of mine recently with whom I shared an enthusiasm for riding mackintoshes in our childhood and teenage years which we have both kept.
She encouraged me to write to you as she knows that I had a number of experiences that might be of interest - so here goes.
I was brought up in the 1960s on the edge of the Lake District which as you know is a very wet area. I had a father who was a Master of Foxhounds, my mother was a keen rider and I had an elder and a younger sister both of whom were keen on horses. As a matter of course I rode as well. At that time there was nothing waterproof on the market except SBR or rubberised cotton. With five riders in the family the house was constantly covered in riding macs. At worst we all had two of them; often more. My mother never threw one away until it was quite worn out and if my elder sister,Lindy, had grown out of one it was simply put aside to wait for Samantha, who was three years younger than me and five years younger than Lindy to grow into it. Nevertheless we always had one new one to keep for best - going to show, hunting, etc.
At that time riding macs were made by a lot of firms, a fair number in the North West where Manchester was the centre of the mackintosh industry. When we had to have a new mac my mother would take us to the local saddlers where there was a whole rail of them in all sizes and at all prices. We always had the most expensive as they were fitted with what was called a "storm tab" on the collar which buttoned across our chins to keep the rain from dropping down our necks. My mother never bought a mackintosh home for any of us or for herself or my father until the shop had had an extra button sewn on to make the tab fit more tightly. These mackintoshes also had very high collars and very flared skirts to make sure they fell well over the knees and round behind the saddle. There is nothing of that available nowadays.
My parents never had to tell us to wear our macs because if we didn't the Lake District rain just soaked us and we got very wet and uncomfortable. Almost throughout the year the house was seemingly covered in riding macs, often wet and always giving off that strange aroma that only comes from them. Things started to change a bit as we grew up and first Lindy and then I as soon as I went away to school at Sedburgh thought we knew best and would decide when we needed our macs and when we didn't. This did not go down well with my mother who found herself faced with wet riding clothes to be dried when we had not worn our macs.
Things came to a head one half term. Lindy and I were both home from school and I was jokingly telling my sisters how I had been caned for some misdemeanor. Sedburgh was a tough place in those days but my parents , though they had never done more than slipper us occasionally, were all in favour of corporal punishment. They had taken a lot of trouble to send Lindy to girls school where the cane was used and later Sam went there as well. In the sixties this was unusual but not unheard of. Our mother said that perhaps we needed a good beating when we didn't wear our riding macs in the rain and we thought she was joking. We soon found out that she was not. It was a damp morning but not actually raining and we all went riding together. Lindy and I did not put on our mackintoshes but Sammy wore hers. We got wet - she didn't. Mother was furious and that evening our father gave me a good whipping with a riding crop and spanked Lindy hard with a gym shoe. He said it would be worse if any of us, including Sam, got our clothes wet again.
Samantha was impossibly smug and Lindy and I set out to get her comeuppance. It took us until the end of the following holidays to succeed but one day when she was going to a show and we weren't we persuaded her that the weather forecast was really good and told her not to bother to take her riding mac with her. In fact we knew that the forecast was for heavy rain that afternoon. When our mother asked Sammy if everything was in the lorry she assured her it was - but her riding mackintosh was not. That evening she was told to go upstairs after supper and to take her dressage whip with her. She was twelve at the time and very tomboyish with a bottom that seemed ready to burst out through her trousers. My father gave her six hard cuts with the whip on her bare buttocks and we laughed ourselves to sleep. Not very nice.
However from that day on none of us ever failed to wear our macs when there was the slightest threat of rain. Does the fact that a house full of riding macs id also full of riding whips have a bearing on the fact that your web site has so many references to chastisement? I wonder.
Sad today that today these waterproofs are never seen.
Why don't you get a pretty girl rider to wear one of your macs from stock, get on a horse in the rain and take photos of her? Surely that would boost your sales. Dark Horse have some lovely shots on their web site. If you go on the web you will find a place called Crackenthorpe Stud who have some lovely riding mac pictures. There seem to be two girls there who ride and they seem keen riding mac wearers. As the stud is at Appleby you ought to be able to arrange something!
Good luck and if you need more stories let me know on your site and print the reaction of your readers to this letter.
Mick.
Dear Mick
Lovely nasty story, thank you so much! It seems the very worst punishments in your household were reserved for failing to wear macs, and I'm sure this is just as it should be.
I think may be the stud you refer to has updated its web site - ? Can't find any proper macs there myself. But Dark Horse - yes, they have some really lovely ones, and make them too! Glad to do the photo shoot you suggest - if it could be arranged.
Of course we need more stories! Please, please.
Here is space for visitors to leave their comments, which as usual I will put up as they come in. What I generally find though is that people often enjoy a lot but don't choose to write a comment - so please don't think that if there aren't a huge number of replies there isn't huge appreciation for your story - I'm quite sure there will be.
Best
Lorraine
A house full of riding mackintoshes must have been paradise on earth!
I remember in the early 1960’s my father took advantage of a closing down sale and bought a riding mac for me and himself. My father brought mine home, wrapped in brown paper, and I tried it on in the lounge. I was totally unprepared for what was about to hit me! I unwrapped the brown paper and tried on the mac. Up until then I had been blissfully unaware that such fabulous garments existed. The feel of the cool double texture fabric, the sound it made as I put it on and did up the buttons and belt together with the slight scent of rubber seemed just out of this world. Luckily the mac fitted perfectly or my father would have taken it back to the shop! I remember stuttering “This should keep the rain out.”
Shortly after this initiation I left home, together with my riding mac, to start my first job in Birmingham. I was still absolutely fascinated with my mac and would often put it on indoors and wear it in the rain at every possible opportunity. However being young I felt shy that someone would know my secret, someone would know what pleasure I was experiencing in my mac.
Time passed and last winter I realised I needed a waterproof raincoat and eventually I plumped for an Osborne which is very similar to a riding mac. Is soon as I put it on I felt exactly the same as I did 40+ years ago. I even made trips to the shops in the rain to buy papers I didn’t want just so that I could wear my new mac! Can it be, therefore, that a riding mac is the key to eternal youth?
The one negative is that my wife thinks it is dreadfully old fashioned and that I look like some relic from a bygone era. Does anyone out there know where I could buy a stylish double texture mackintosh to preserve both my youth and my looks?
Roger.
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