RUBBER MACKED FOR LIFE, part 4, The Seventies

[Tradmack]

The seventies arrived and I was into girls and the predominant culture of the time in my group was to love and leave them. Consequently I went through many short term relationships, some just a can I take you home and some a few further dates. On the mackintosh front I can recall about three or so times they came up in conversation. A girl who I met in the town she was at college, turned up in a gangster mack, the rubberised cotton variety and proceeded to complain about it uttering "Huh waterproof coats eh? " I said it was a very nice mack and it suited her to which she replied, she didn't like it but her mother insisted she wear it. Needless to say the relationship didn't last much longer.
Another nice girl I went to pick up from home on a very wet day, ran to my car without a coat on in the pouring rain, to which i asked "Don't you have a raincoat". Yes she said but I don't like wearing it. A girl who I dated for longer than usual had a lovely pull over the head orange anorak in a soft nylon, she also had disdain for it when I expressed a liking for it.

All this never dimmed my fascination for rubberised rainwear and I continued to increase my knowledge of the fetish scene and my own desires.
As I have previously said, rubber mack literature was very scarce but the seventies improved all that and a few choice publications come to mind.
Firstly in about 1971 the Men Only magazine featured a long and detailed article on Rubber fetishism and clystology which I learnt was rubber tube or pipe fetish. This was great info for me and I realized that I was not alone in my interest. Later with great excitement I sent off for a book which was supposed to be the defining text book on the subject. This was titled "The outer fringe of sex" by Dr. Maurice North. Although useful it was pretty theoretical and miserable in it's outlook stating in one place that the rubber fetishist, overwhelmingly male will be unlikely to find a female partner to share his interest and will be lonely for all of his life. This is only true if a male demands straight away that a girlfriend must participate from the get go in rubber. We all know the fetish is an addition to ones vanilla sex life and not a replacement and needs to be introduced gently.
Another regular standby for rubberists was the magnificent Pussy Cat magazine produced by a chap called Richard Burton. With a lot of colour photos this was the best available at the time although I think Atomage were producing rubber specials then but I never came across them at the time.

By the second half of the decade I was living on my own again and started amassing loads of mackintosh catalogues, brochures and magazines, eventually a large box full. Alone once more I proceeded to purchase rubber rainwear again, very infrequently wearing them out as was my preference. It was a great era for sourcing cheap rubberised macks and jackets. Old hat rubberised, the press called it, what ! my fetish ? Consequently there were loads of macks and anoraks available in the Army Navy surplus and country stores. I found a rubberised nylon 2 piece suit for under a tenner by Campari, later Campri and went through several of these and together with a high waisted pair of rubber pants from South Bucks, I enjoyed my first all night rubber wearing in bed. The local climbing & camping shops sold top quality anoraks, rubber lined by Henri Lloyd, I had one of them too. Tat shops were also selling old mackintoshes for next to nothing with plenty of police, railway and military double textured variety available. South Bucks and Sealwear were another source although the price of mackintoshes started to rise steeply and never came back down as we all know.
I remember reading somewhere that Rubber macks would one day be as expensive as real leather coats, we scoffed at that little knowing that the true rubber item would be at half a thousand quid by now. Shortly Weather Vein and Cocoon came into view and there were probably other suppliers I have used later on like Mac Mac and Weather or Not.
A local village pub had a petrol pump and the Landlord would sometimes be called out to dispense fuel in the rain and one day I caught him sensibly attired in a navy blue rubberised three quarter length jacket. On enquiring where he got it, he told me that the country store in the nearby town had plenty of them in different colours. These were made by Selrigg and were superb in quality and had a very strong rubber odour so beloved of us fets. His wife also wore a rubber lined nylon anorak made by Ultimate. Needless to say I rushed to the store and bought one in orange (why?) and enjoyed that one immensely. So this single life moved on in this manner, dating girls and not revealing my love of mackintoshes to anyone, drinking lots of beer and having fun. All this would end temporarily when I met my future wife to be which as we started to get serious entailed another wholesale clear out of all things rubber. In to my thirties now I got married and macking was suspended for a short time. We are still happily together so it would not be right to comment on our activities just yet.

[BobbyValore]

Great insight into those times, i really enjoy yreading your stories here.

[mrbassman101]

@Tradmack
Thanks for posting Part 4 , it was very entertaining . Rubber macks were everywhere in the SW of England in the 70's . I loved that time .
Wondering what the 80's brought for you ?
Regards mrbassman101