'Pacamacs'

The little triangular field just across the lane from the our barn now has stock in it again.
Towards the end of last week Heather came and loosed a ruck* of ewes and lambs out. The lambs are little scraps of things and seem so vulnerable. The weather could have given them a better welcome - we've had rain and wind since their arrival.

However if you look closely you'll see that this one has a coat on - something not disimilar to the old-style pacamacs.

The Pacamac was (and here I quote) 'in vogue in the 1960s. The precurser to the cagoule, it consisted of a large sheet of coloured polythene, cut and moulded into the shape of a coat, pliable enough to fold very small so you could keep it handy in your pocket and if it rained you could pull it out, put it on and spend the duration of the shower looking like a Durex Fiesta. The Pacamac had two drawbacks. First, it wasn't waterproof, and second, it made you sweat so much there was no point in wearing it in the first place. The modern equivalent of Pacamac wearers are people who wear transparent plastic raincoats with transparent hoods, obviously with the sole intention of imitating a large packet of crisps.' Also on Google I found a vaguely pervy German site - something to do with 'funplastics' where Pacamacs had found a home....but we'll gloss over that.

I don't remember the Pacamac as being even remotely vogueish - more an item of derision and to be forgotten on our school's 'Field Day'. (To be found lacking a Pacamac on Field Day meant banishment from the school sports' field - which was OK by me.) I suspect those who thought it vogueish then have since migrated to Bournemouth and wear them still.

Anyway these little lambs have coats on to keep the rain and wind at bay. They don't know they look silly and rustle like crisp packets. They'll grow out of them soon.

(*note the use of the vernacular here to describe putting a dozen sheep in a field. A local touch.)