"Wear your raincoat!"

[joe]

I hope that members will be able to view the link below this image from a December 1982 episode of Square Pegs starring Sarah Jessica Parker who is pictured in a long Weather Rite Rubber Raincoat with the brass clasps in her school hallway on a torrentially rainy day. She plays a freshman in high school named Patty Greene. She is extremely bright and witty but she detests wearing glasses for her extreme nearsightedness and tries to go without wearing them later that school day without success. She stumbles later on at school causing her friend (also wearing a long yellow rubber hooded reversible raincoat) to fall over her. The friend suffers a broken bone in the fall.

The episode is entitled: "It's All How You See Things."

Many of the students have resorted to wearing their raincoats to school that day. I can't decide which of the raincoats I like the most in this opening scene or which ones bring back the most memories. I wore all of these raincoats at some point during my own school years. The red headed student wearing the long beige raincoat is intriguing as well. She wears it over jeans and, I think, cowboy boots. We only see her from the back but she has the attention of other boys standing at the school lockers. I'm wondering about the following:

1. Is it her own raincoat or is it borrowed from her Mom?

2. Is it her dress-up coat that she is wearing to school mostly because it is raining so hard that day?

3. Did her Mom make her wear the raincoat and was there a good argument between them about having to wear it that morning before she put it on?

Do you have similar memories of days pouring down soaking rains and of going to school when you and many of the other students were wearing raincoats? Did you have to wear a raincoat borrowed from another family member? Was there an argument about it?

I surmise that few of us would argue if we were back in school and having to wear our raincoats on a day of drenching deluges now.....

[slicker-lover]

Sarah Parker also made a movie, Somewhere tomorrow, in 1983, where she is wearing a reversible slicker. nice find

[Bill_P]

I love how their slickers glisten from all the water buildup. Love this show. I had been looking for clips from this episode for years online, and finally found the whole series for sale on Amazon, so I bought this episode on instant video so I can watch it anywhere.

[Bill_P]

Also I can't believe that back in the day when this show first aired I thought Amy Linker's Lauren was cute, while Sarah Jessica Parker was an ugly duckling. But then again I was only 12 years old, so what did I know?

[slicker-lover]

this is ep 12 or 13, depending on the guide. the first 10 eps, of 20, are on youtube, and the others on torrents. I don't remember this series at all, and I should.

[frederique]

Does anyone has found the full video please?

[joe]

Indeed, Sarah Jessica wore a Weather Rite raincoat with aplomb. Can you just see her gritting her teeth, and simultaneously dipping her arms into and sweeping the long rubber slicker up over her back to walk to school in an all-day downpour? No sooner out the door as the rains pounded down were you fully reliant on the protection of the rubber raincoat.

The memory of such days when everyone in school was covered so totally in full rain regalia (preferably the yellow slickers) will stick with me always. The rubber coats never looked or draped better than when they were glistening so wet after prolonged exposure to heavy rain on our walks to school.

In high school, girls could look appealing in very wet trench coats that showed some evidence of soaking through. Some students in the mix wearing long traditional beige raincoats (especially when they gotten somewhat wet) made the glistening rubber slickers appeal all the more.

[merv]

think we have been down this road before Joe, its probably wiser not to put pictures of children on a fetish site. people could get the wrong idea

[Bill_P]

Another rainwear related Amazon instant video purchase I made was an episode of the Nickelodeon series "Clarissa Explains it All", starring the lovely Melissa Joan Hart, who, in this episode's opening is clad in a yellow Weather-Rite slicker, a glossy yellow vinyl rain hat, yellow wellies (which were a rare sight in the USA in the early '90s when this show first aired), and a yellow umbrella. Screen caps below:

[joe]

When I worked in New York in the 1980's these slickers were worn by some women commuters particularly when the rain was forecast to be "rain, heavy at times" and indeed it was pouring. The long yellow slickers, which were perhaps a holdover from college days, were trusty and reliable when the weather was nastiest.