From Morag

I see very little reference to gabardine raincoats in your wonderful site, yet I must be one of a huge majority of women who wore them in our childhood days. Mummy was most particular about how they were worn; All buttons had to be fastened, and the belt properly fastened and the end tucked away. I don't think I ever wore my coat open at the neck, and I was well into Senior school before I was allowed to go to school without my hood up and properly tied under my chin.

In October, I had to wear my "mouth scarf", a headscarf which was folded into a triangle and then placed across my mouth and tied by the long ends at the back of my neck. The front bit was tucked into the neck of my coat before it was buttoned up, and the hood was worn over the top. This remained in place until sometime in May, usually. In November, I had to wear a muffler, a long wool scarf wrapped twice around my face, and tied at the back. This, over the mouth scarf, meant that I was extremely well wrapped up from November to March or April.

One Christmas, when I had just gone to the Senior school, came the rubber mac, which was a red one, again double breasted, with a hood, and a set of buttons down the sides of the hood, three on each side. I asked Mummy what they were for, and she produced a piece of the same material that the mac was made of - rubber coated cotton - and buttoned it to the neck buttons of the coat. She then fastened it up to the buttons on the hood, thus enclosing me in rubber mackintosh from my calved to my head, with only my eyed and forehead visible. It was extremely warm, especially on warmer days in Spring, but I had to wear it daily to school ( a walk of about a mile and a half) and back, every day for the Spring Term. This was the rule until I left school at fifteen, just before the Secondary Modern School opened, with its uniform. The mac stayed with me when I began work in a local shop, though by then the face cover was lest at home.

I still wear a gabardine trench coat, which is always buttoned to the neck, though I have not worn rubber for many years now. I also still keep my head and face covered, with scarves or a hat, and cover up with a hooded plastic mac which has served me well for years.

I hope you don't mind my reminiscences, but they seemed appropriate for your pages. Keep up the good work!

Morag

Dear Morag

Thank you so much for your very nice and interesting letter.

It might give others the idea of writing in about gabardine raincoats - I'm very sorry there isn't more. It would be lovely if we could start a new set of pages celebrating them.

But - I can't stop myself saying - the highlight for me in what you say is (of course!) here you have to wear that red mackintosh with the mouth flap buttoned high across your face! The button arrangement you report is new to me and sounds really wonderful. I know it made you hot, but hot can be sort of nice - ?

Best wishes

LE

 

Dear Lorraine,

Thank you for your reply to my letter.

I spoke to my cousin after I wrote to you, and she remembered the red mac very clearly. It was an ordinary mac, bought for a girl in my cousin's village, and adapted by her mother. Apparently the girl was very prone to colds and chest infections, and her mother decided that being well wrapped up was the answer. It seems that she wore the face cover a couple of times, but could not stand the smell of the rubber. She also grew out of it quite soon, which is why my aunt got it, and passed it on to Mummy for me to wear. My cousin admitted that she would have loved to try it on, but as I am very tiny and slim, and she is very tall and of a medium build, she would never have got into it!

Was it nice? The nice bit was the gabardine, I think. I never wore the red mac on its own, only over my gabardine. In the summer, when I was allowed to go without a scarf, I sometimes had to wear the red nac on wet mornings, over my gabardine and hood. The face cover was very loose then, since it was big enough to to cover my face scarf and muffler, so it wasn't really close against my skin. On those days, though, I was allowed to carry it home, folded, over my arm if the rain had stopped at home time. There were several times when I wore the mac, even when the weather was dry, so I suppose, yes, it was nice!

The gabardine, as I say, was the nice bit. Mummy used to make a bit of a ritual of getting me ready for school in the morning, making sure that the mouth scarf, when I wore it, was tight enough not to slip down, and that my hood was tied tight enough, and pulled well forward. We would hug each other, and she would give me a kiss, and she would always say "there you are, Morag - all well wrapped up safe and sound". That is how I felt - safe and sound, and very loved and secure. Sometimes, when we went to visit my auntie and my cousin, by bus, I would ask Mummy to wrap me up, even when I was fourteen or fifteen - and she would do so, very lovingly and with lots of little strokes of my hair and face with her fingers. These are the memories of the gabardine which are so lovely, and the red mac, if she decided to put it on me, emphasized that, especially when it came to fastening up the face cover.

I hope this answers the questions!

Kind Regards,

Morag