...of coats and paypackets...

January 4 2012.

I bought myself a new coat today, nice three-quarter navy blue number, and on sale too.

It put me in mind of some of the other coats I had.

My Mum was a great sewer and made lots of our clothes. In about 1956 when we lived near Melling Railway station she made me a lovely dark blue mottled fabric, all different shade of dark blue with just the odd light fleck in it, almost like tweed. Lined in electric blue I thought it was pretty cool the buttons huge buttons were blue/black. It buttoned all the way up to the rounded peter pan style collar.  She must have bought a reasonable amount of fabric because I had a pair of trousers made of the same fabric. Trousers I split the knee in while helping Dad to concrete the front steps. Don’t think I got into trouble.

The next coat I remember was the first one I bought myself with my own money after I started work. A white trench coat, belted at the waist, the ensemble completed by with a black cap and black almost knee high boots. Boy did I feel smart, made me feel like Mrs Emma Peel from the original TV series The Avengers. If you are too young to remember that one I’m sure you could find a clip on you tube. Unfortunately I had no John Steed to accompany me.

Skip forward several years and four children later. Much to the previous husband’s dismay I had gone and got myself a job, on Saturday’s working seven thirty to three pm in a rest home. I remember that I took my youngest child with me to the interview, conducted by the then seemingly formidable Matron, Mrs Hunt. But it was a fait accompli and I had accepted a position as a nurse aid, at Woburn Presbyterian Home, before I told said husband. I loved the work, but that too is another story.  Words were probably said, but I was not to be swayed and began the first steps on the path that ultimately led me to do my nursing training. But this is about my coats, not the educational journey. For the first time in many a year I owned a new coat. A short and I thought very fashionable tan camel model, with quite wide lapels, as and a beige lining. I was very proud of that coat, having bought it with my very first pay packet in a long time.