I suppose it all started when I was a very young boy and my mother bought me a new rubberised mackintosh. This was in the late 1920’s when such garments were commonplace. It was a disaster and I hated it on sight and have a hazy memory of making a frightful fuss and crying and refusing to wear it. Some early encounters have far-reaching effects.
My first liking for mackintoshes began when I was at school and I have one or two memories which I will not recount here. Eventually I was called up into the RAF where there was little opportunity to pursue my interest. Soon after returning home, I bought my first Riding Mac and enjoyed wearing it as much as possible. At this time, the early 1950’s, mackintoshes were very much in evidence and reasonably priced. Some may remember that when clothes rationing ended after the war, single texture mackintoshes were among the first items to be coupon free. This probably gave a boost to sales. and most women wore one when it rained. Some, the more enlightened ones, even wore a mackintosh in fine weather. After a while, I met a young lady who seemed to be very nice and a suitable ‘catch’, but unfortunately had no mackintosh. This obviously could not go on, so I offered to buy her a ‘raincoat’ and this was accepted. We went shopping and bought a fine red rubberised satin Delby coat with a matching hat. This was a great success and she was happy to wear her new mackintosh on most occasions when we went out together. In quite a short time the rubber at the shoulders parted company with the satin backing and the coat was duly replaced by the shop, but by now the need for a mackintosh was well established. After a while we decided to get married, and this was the beginning of a great relationship in which the rubber mackintosh played no small part.
This was over fifty years ago and during this time we have never been without
mackintoshes in spite of the difficulties in finding them and their ever increasing
cost. My wife has had all types of macs over the years, including Telemacs,
Dannimacs, SBR, South Bucks, Kingfisher, David Marsh, and long and short Riding
macs. One very elegant mackintosh which we remember was in a fine yellow double
texture silk of unknown make. In the 1950’s Telemac brought out a very
smart selection of fashion macs which were most attractive. However, about 1960
everything changed and proper macs practically disappeared from the shops to
be replaced by rather drab coats made of polyester or something similar. This
proved to be the end of the mass use of rubber mackintoshes by the general public,
although they took a few years to completely lose popularity and become rarities
on the High Street. My wife usually had more than one mac in use at a time and
currently has two in daily use. My own wardrobe usually consists of a long or
short riding mac and a single texture mac of some description. If one has an
interest of this type, the important thing is to view the macs as ordinary articles
of clothing and not to be afraid of wearing them in public, wet or fine. It
is also very necessary to make one’s likings known to any prospective
wife or girlfriend at an early stage in the relationship, as something like
this could lead to difficulties if not brought out into the open in good time.
