This is a revision of a story that I posted here previously. But my research of the hourly rainfall rates reveal that it was raining much harder from 11AM to 2PM that day. The middle portions of this three hour period covered the school lunch hour. Respective rainfall rates for the hours were .30 of an inch at the 11:00 hour, .40 of an inch at the noon hour and .40 of an inch at the 1:00 hour. I know that I and my raincoat would have gotten much wetter given that going home and coming back to school after lunch would have been in heavy rain. Other students would have had the opportunity at lunch to change into heavier and more waterproof raincoats for the afternoon from their morning rainwear that might have only been able to withstand moderate showers. This was a serious raincoat day!
November 8th is an epic day to recall two record rainstorms that occurred in the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan Area in 1972 and 1977. The 1972 rainstorm came on a Wednesday, the day after the Presidential election that year. The 1977 storm came on a Tuesday, Election Day, thoroughly soaking voters, students, and commuters all in their raincoats. I was in the 4th grade for the 1972 storm which poured down 4.50 inches of rain nearest my hometown. Five years later in 1977 during my 9th grade year 6.73 inches of rain was measured at Newark Airport. In New York City the final rainfall totals were even heavier! Both days found the students and teachers dressed in every possible combination of raincoats, boots, hoods, ponchos, and slickers. Both storms were absolute slicker soaking deluges and I remember walking to school in the morning with the rains starting to come down more heavily with no letup. We arrived at school during each of these historic rainstorms with our raincoats and slickers streaming wet, but fortunately not yet soaked. Yet! Some of the teachers who were wearing trenchcoats that were less protective were already soaked through just coming into school from the parking lot as the rains built up to their predicted day-long drenching.
Specifically, the day of the November 1972 storm was forecast to be one with wind-driven heavy rain and somewhat mild temperatures. Although my long yellow rubber Weather Rite raincoat was past outgrown by this point, there was no doubt that I would be wearing a raincoat that day, it would be the tan zip-lined dress all-weather raincoat that I typically wore to church. The weather had been pretty balmy all through that fall and there were not many opportunities to wear my raincoat thus far in fourth grade. My mother saw no need to zip the winter liner in my raincoat which in fact had been removed since the previous winter. (Rainstorms when they were happened during the previous spring in the 3rd grade and now in the fall of 4th grade were generally heavy and almost tropical. This particular storm would remain true to form.) And, in fact, my raincoat covered me more fully without the liner. My mother turned her attention to getting a raincoat and boots out for my younger brother who had just started school. He was to wear a reversible hooded rubberized canvas bench warmer raincoat which was a popular style at the time. And my mother immediately took notice that my younger brother had the added protection of a hood. Obviously, she must have started to think about what to provide me with to keep my head and shoulders dry. Umbrellas were not a good option for younger students in wind-driven rainstorms.
I don't know at the time whether mothers either dreaded or enjoyed the prospect of a terrible rainstorm on a school day. Unlike now, there was never a question as to whether or not schools would open for a flooding rainstorm. Consequently, there was basically never a question about what you were going to wear when the rain was forecast to be heavy or just steady. Older children and teenagers were told to wear their boots or rubbers, their raincoat - in short – to wear everything! Dress school clothes for young men and skirts and pantyhose for young ladies were covered in full raingear. On rainy days, whether you walked the whole way to school or took a bus (which was likely going to involve extended waiting out in the weather) you knew that you were going to be relying on a raincoat for protection.
Younger students in elementary and junior high school required more strategizing outfitting them into their raingear. Some of our raingear was outgrown; some of it we were just growing into. Bad weather on a school day brought out the best in the ability of mothers to prepare, to adapt, and to improvise. The forecast of an expected record soaking rain sent mothers right away to the telephone, consulting with one another and exchanging ideas as to how to dress their young charges for school. In the 1970's, suburban towns were street after street of neighboring school children, most of them needing to take a half-mile and up to a full mile walk to school. Raincoats had to be worn often enough in New Jersey so that mothers over time became familiar with the wet weather wardrobe of every kid in the neighborhood. The start of a day with either continuing or predicted heavy rain sent mothers to closets pulling out boots, raincoats, ponchos, long rubber rain slickers and helmet hoods - even lending their own women's dress raincoats to junior girls or boys - putting wet weather clothing in any and all workable combinations in the hope of keeping their kids dry for an all day downpour! A neighbor probably suggested that my mother pull out the yellow rubber helmet hood from the pocket of my old slicker to give my head full covering and some degree of protection over the shoulders of my tan all-weather coat. You could surmise the mothers' thinking about me: "his raincoat might soak through if the rain gets really heavy later on, but with his rain boots and rain hood we'll give him some protection for the long walk home in the afternoon." Dress pants and a warm jersey provided a further protective and a possible quick-drying layer if the rains really broke through my raincoat.
Stepping out of the house, the rising balmy winds were billowing through the length of my raincoat and quickly traced many wet rivulets of rain over my raincoat as well. My raincoat was getting wet but was not soaking through. I was glad that my mother left the liner out of my coat as both my raincoat and the helmet hood off my old slicker were keeping me warm enough. (Rainstorms in New Jersey in early fall and later in the spring were often warm and sultry and students often detested the raincoats which could make you feel overheated.) Approaching the school, I happily noticed that everyone was coming up the sidewalk fully attired and covered in raingear. We absolutely needed to be in our raincoats as this rain was becoming more serious and the rubber slickers of the students walking near me grew shiny and were glistening wet. You could actually hear the rain pelting at our raincoats. The increasing rain was now definitely wetting our coats, but we were still secure and protected. Then at last, we were inside the school. We made it! A New Jersey school kid became used to sweeping off his or her raincoat and hanging it up on a coat hook as we managed to do it on enough class days during the school year.
The classrooms were warm and almost sweaty and dank as the outside temperatures were rising a bit more and the winds became more insistent. Between 9:00 and 10:00, now that we were ensconced in our classes, the rains began to drive down harder in unrelenting torrents. Our well-dressed fourth grade teacher had to go out to her car to get something for our next lesson. She covered herself in a pale yellow balmacaan raincoat and likewise fully covered and tied an attractive silk scarf around her head and face and ventured out. The rain was now hurricane-like: heavier than any school day we could remember and we watched her silky yellow raincoat soak through in a drenching that made her coat look like a policeman's rubber slicker. She came back into class with her scarf matted and her coat plastered down and soaked so as to now glide down appealingly along her body. The raincoat had just managed to protect this lady. Sliding off her wet raincoat, we could envision ourselves sliding into our raincoats for the lunch recess soon to come. Pouring rain continued drilling at our raincoats when we left school at 11:45 and became still heavier, driving down drenching tropical showers during our lunch break. Despite the balmy temperatures, my mom now brought out the winter liner for my raincoat from the closet and zipped it in to add another layer of protection against this unrelenting downpour. As I put on my raincoat, boots, and the yellow rain slicker helmet hood to return to school, my mom helped turn my collar up against my rainhood. We drove back to school with the rain cascading against the windshield. Pulling up to the long sidewalk where my mom had to drop me off she glanced at the balmaccaan raincoats we were both wearing and she hissed: “Damn! Look at all this rain coming down. Thank God for these raincoats. Damn rain! Make sure you wear everything on the walk home this afternoon: your hood, your boots, your raincoat – everything! It’s going to pour down hard. You are growing into your new raincoat. It’s not like wearing your old rubber raincoat or your new poncho up in Maine. The rain won’t roll off it like a slicker. This coat will absorb some of the rain. You have to learn to trust your raincoat. You’re going to get drenched. Just rely on your raincoat. You’ll be OK. The rain won’t come through the winter liner. Just walk normally and let your raincoat soak! I soak my raincoat all the time when it is pouring like this.. Dad does too. It’s OK. Raincoats are meant to get drenched. Don’t be afraid of the heavy rain in your raincoat. Just let it pour and soak your raincoat.”
I walked up the long sidewalk to the school with the driving rain beating away at our wet raincoats, ponchos, and slickers. I noticed that some of my classmates who were wearing dressier lightweight raincoats in the morning, came back to school for the afternoon session in heavier rubber coats, including some of the girls who switched into what must have been their brothers’ hand-me-down rubber raincoats. These again were rubberized canvas bench warmer raincoats or the long rubber slickers with the brass clasps and helmet hoods that their brothers had worn in heavy rain. Seeing some of the raincoat adjustments on my classmates that had occurred during lunchtime was ample evidence that their mothers also heard an ominous forecast for even heavier rain in the afternoon and evening.The skies were indeed darkening as we went through the various subjects taken up in class the rest of the day. We must have been intensely focused on our schoolwork as we were not noticing the weather outside the classroom windows. The dark leaden skies were preparing to deliver their very heaviest slicker soaking deluge that would drench and soak all of our assorted rainwear.
The rains then came in gust-driven soaking bursts of saturating misery intent on penetrating through and up into the folds of our flowing raincoats, soaking their outer surfaces and penetrating through to their linings. Dutifully, we ended class and with great display swept our raincoats on and got dressed for the deluge, which, would soak our raincoats in a matter of seconds after coming out of the school into the downpour. We hunkered down in this now sadistic autumn monsoon, resigned to rely as much as we could on our raincoats, as we each embarked on our various routes home. I was taking comfort in the protection of my yellow rubber helmet hood which formed a rain-caped barrier around the shoulders of my all-weather raincoat. I was going to arrive home very wet that day but able to stay composed, and of course fully enjoying the pleasure of a soaking school day rainstorm: which I always delighted in.
Otherwise miserable weather always manages to leave you wishing for something, especially extreme rainstorms such as this one. I was thankful for my boots as I was walking home through freely running streams of rainwater on the sidewalk. My soaked tan raincoat was aided greatly by the addition of the mismatched helmet hood. My raincoat truly needed its zip-in liner - not for greater warmth on this 60 degree day - but as an effective barrier to further shield my school clothes from the downpour. That said, drenched as I was, I really wanted a big flowing Weather-Rite yellow slicker to go with the helmet hood. The wisdom of our mothers in dressing us that morning proved a further truth - that raincoats and rain clothes were carefully put on us in the best combination to try to keep us dry, but in heavy rain you still need to expect to get very wet. Raincoats are worn so they will take the brunt of full exposure to the weather as well as to shield us from it. When it’s a "slicker soaker," raincoats in a sense are meant to be soaked! My raincoat was soaked thoroughly and after I walked to and from school four times that day in heavy drenching rain with no let up, I found the zip-in winter liner to be an effective barrier against pouring rain. My raincoat and those of my classmates certainly proved their worth as they glistened with their streaming wetness in the all-day driving downpour.