Dear Lorraine
To continue the story of walking home from school...
I can remember quite clearly myself, Gillian, and her brother walking home on a hot but cloudy Summer's day.
I had gone to school in just my school blazer with my gaberdine over it, but both Gillian and her brother were supposed to be wearing thick coats under their gaberdines. It was so hot that we were sweltering before we donned our coats, so both her brother and I decided not to wear ours.
Gillian was quite happy to wear our coats to save us carrying them. (I did not know at this stage about her liking to wear lots of clothes).
She firstly put on het own thick hooded coat with my balaclava under it, the hood pulled the balaclava over her forehead a bit, but it did not seem to matter to her.
Next went on her brother's dufflecoat, hood up and all toggles fastened, and the flap closed across her neck. It was a bit of a pull to fasten the strap, but we managed, and she found it a bit difficult to turn her head.
Next came her own gaberdine with the hood up. This time we could not manage to fasten the top button for the bulk, in spite of our efforts.
Next came my gaberdine. We were struggling to get her arms down the sleeves of this one, and all the sleeves bunched up a bit, this made it hard for her to bend her arms.
Next came her brothers gaberdine! He was a bit bigger than us, and so it was not too hard to put that one on.
By the time we had finished dressing her, we were sweating. Gillian looked like a Michelin Man! We got a few funny looks from passers by, but as we approached anyone we walked a bit quicker to leave Gillian behind so that nobody thought she was with us. (Were we rotten or not?).
We decided to walk home the quicker way across the fields that day, but on the way we met her Mum. She was carrying two dark grey plastic macs, one each for myself and Gillian's brother, and a red rubbery mac with a hood for Gillian.
She looked at us and saw Gillian struggling to keep up, dripping with sweat, and told us off. Gillian (bless her) spoke up for us from within the hoods and said that she was alright, and asked her mum if she could wear all the macs. Her mum refused to let her, but she did allow her to keep all the other coats on and put on her own mac (the red rubbery one) on top of the others. We had to put the plastic macs on, and we sweated our way home.
Gillian stripped off her coats when we reached outside our house and I had to put the gaberdine back on with the plastic mack on top so as not to get in trouble with my mother. I went straight back out to play after that still in my coats but without my blazer.
Gillian's Mum must have spoken to mine, because it was mentioned in conversation soon afterwards, though in a jovial manner.
I think that the hottest I have ever been was maybe a year or two after that when I used to attend Sunday School. It must have been about 100 degrees that day, or at least it felt like it. I was in my balaclava and gloves, blazer and duffle coat inside the School. I was sweltering hot. In fact it was so hot that nobody else seemed to be wearing a coat at all. Afterwards on the way home, I was walking behind another child I knew, who was dressed in shorts and a thin top. On the way however, I met firstly my father who was carrying my gaberdine, he stopped and made me put it on. He then carried on towards where I had come from.
A couple of minutes later, I met my older brother who was carrying my plastic mac. He made me put that on and headed off after my father, leaving me to struggle home.
I got home and I could hardly walk with exhaustion. Mum met me and I was almost in tears. When I told her that I was so hot, and she saw that I had taken down the hood of my dufflecoat and removed my balaclava, she told me not to be so silly, put my things back on, fastened the plastic mack back up and sent me back out there after a cold drink. I felt so silly, until I bumped into Gillian who was wearing a pvc mac over her coat, - with a hat (but no hoods up).
Best regards
Malcolm
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