I’ve been looking through all these photos for one I recall of a child in a raincoat but as I can’t find it I shall attempt to draw a picture from memory.
The raincoat was made from stiff black rubber coated cloth and was oversize as the purchaser always had aspirations of seeing it useful for more than one season and a child could thus grow into it. It came accompanied by a hat of similar material which may have gone by the name of a sou-wester. It had a down sloping brim elongated at the front to form a sort of visor with a much greater elongation at the back to carry water away from the coats collar. Worn with short gum boots in civilized (town) conditions or barefoot - shoes in a weather proof bag - provincially, it turned the child into a sort of mini vulcanized tank.
The pitfalls of this garment were numerous. The sown seams were not waterproof so that in prolonged heavy rainfall the child began to experience a warm wetness, first in the armpits and then down the spine till eventually it progressed via crotch and crack to stream down inner thighs giving the child the sensation of having wet himself and provoking the feeling that that was what he wanted to do. Overall though the child was warm as the coat worked like a modern wetsuit does. When the rain stopped and the sun came back however, the black heat absorbing rubber took only moments to turn the coat into a sauna. The child had to quickly remove it least he suffer instant dehydration and go into a coma. Instant removal was not as easy as it sounded. The hot rubber was inclined to stick around button holes and belt buckles and any panicky force was likely to tear the warm fragile coating.
Returning to this garment at the end of a days school say, when once more the skies chose to open, the still wet interior was icy cold and the garment itself like a personal Esky. It mattered not that the day had been fine and sunny, the black rubber kept the wet in even better than out. It took a good week of fine weather for the cloth to be once more dry and warm and during this week care had to be taken to avoid even further pitfalls. If the coat were folded during this slow drying so that rubber surface was against rubber surface there was a risk that it would stick and then peel when unfolded. Care had to be taken then that the coat was hung to dry, preferably on a hanger and thus it took up almost as much space stored as worn.
These garments aged quickly. The second wearing was noticeably not as smart as the first. The second season it was well on its way to the raincoat cemetery. No matter how much care had been taken pieces of rubber had peeled and some had perished. Seams had given up, buttons were missing and button holes torn. It was still an OK pretence for limited light rain but if the heavens open again this season as they did last the best laid plans of the aspirational purchaser would be wasted and the child would need a new oversized coat to grow into.
Do any of you have this photo or is it just a false memory.