Umbrellas
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#1: Umbrellas Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 6:59 am

Can anybody recall any time when the girls used umbrellas - apart from the punishment walk the Fourths went on in Peggy and references to Mary-Lou (and occasionally other people) losing/managing not to lose hers I can't think of any.

After all, when it rained they didn't go out. So why did they have them?

Liz

 

#2:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:05 am

Maybe they used them on Sundays for church or as sunshades...

 

#3:  Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!! PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:08 am

I guess they may have used them on outings if it rained before they could find the nearest place to shelter. Im thinking for of in the English/Welsh books than the others though... Confused

 

#4:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:48 am

They never seemed to have them with them when the weather turned to horrendous downpours, did they?

 

#5:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:07 pm

That's what I thought, Jennie!

Liz

 

#6:  Author: Miriam, Location: Jerusalem, Israel PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 7:28 pm

When you are trying to run as fast as you can to the nearest barn for shelter, an umbrella can prove a hinderance rather than a help. I'm speaking from the rather more mundane experience of running for a bus - I normally close the umbrella in mid dash.

They could have taken them on the early morning walks in drizzley weather. England and Wales are the most likely candidates for this. Drizzle doesn't seem to happen in Austria and Switzerland.

 

#7:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:47 pm

Do umbrellas even score a mention in the Austrian or Swiss books? They seem to be (in my memory anyway) almost purely English/Welsh items.

 

#8:  Author: Bess, Location: Cambridge UK PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 12:01 am

In 'Genius' someone accidentally pokes Nina with an umbrella while they are on the train with Sir Guy. The culprit says something along the lines of she daren't put it down as she doesn't want to lose it, she's already lost one or two umbrellas. So yes, they had them in Switzerland.

My Mum thinks an umbrella is a ladylike accessory. Neutral My sister and I never use ours, but Mum always makes sure we own one. Rolling Eyes

Walking close together in a crocodile - everyone holding an open umbrella, would be a bit difficult I'd think. You'd bump brollies.

 

#9:  Author: MissPrint, Location: Edinburgh PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 12:36 am

Bess wrote:
Walking close together in a crocodile - everyone holding an open umbrella, would be a bit difficult I'd think. You'd bump brollies.

And if you were walking next to a short person, her brolly would be imperilling your eyes and ears. Some people have a way with umbrellas, and some don't. Why is that? I'm the sort of person who struggles along with the wretched thing flipping inside out and biffing me on the head, and yet other, more elegant souls can manage to look calm and unruffled whilst in posession of an umbrella. I'm sure the ideal that is the "chalet pupil" would be one of those effortless elegance types when it comes to brolly weilding, but suspect that the average croc would contain a few clumsy oafs as well.

 

#10:  Author: Ann, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 7:30 am

Isn't there a reference in And Jo to Guides not carrying umbrellas? I'm at work so I can't look up the exact reference, but I think one of the mistresses comments on the Red Peril and suggests that it can't apply to parasols in Central European countries as the weather is so much warmer than England.

Why exactly weren't Guides supposed to carry umbrellas?

 

#11:  Author: JackieJ, Location: Kingston upon Hull PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:47 am

It's Camp. The three Guiders are discussing it when Jo & Co are under the red peril during the midday rest if I remember rightly, I think Charlie says a Guide shouldn't use a sunshade - and either Nally or Bill point out that Guide's began in England where sunshade's wouldn't be required.

JackieJ

 

#12:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:53 am

I think that the real reason that they had umbrellas was so that they could lose them, thus allowing their mothers to complain about the losses, so that one of the girls could tell them about it on the long train journey.

 

#13:  Author: Kim, Location: Tipperary, Ireland PostPosted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:04 pm

My dears - I despair - what hope is there for you. A lady would never be seen without her hat, gloves and umbrella/parasol (this last depending on the weather).

Thank heavens I live in these days - don't think any of the above would match T-shirt and jeans Wink

 

#14:  Author: caty, Location: South America PostPosted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:08 pm

Cross over here but I seem to remember that umbrellas were a standard item on the packing list for Malory Towers or St. Clares. Presumably the same of all boarding school lists at that time regardless of whether they could be worked into a story or not

 

#15:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:37 am

Kim wrote:
My dears - I despair - what hope is there for you. A lady would never be seen without her hat, gloves and umbrella/parasol (this last depending on the weather).

Thank heavens I live in these days - don't think any of the above would match T-shirt and jeans Wink


LOL, the very idea of it, carrying all that stuff around with you. I'll never forget a colleague telling me that ought not to have worn gloves to a wedding because I didn't wear a hat. As if........

BTW: when I was reading 'These Happy Golden Years' by Laura Ingalls Wilder, I was amazed at all the clothes she had to wear during the hot summer weather, a corset and corset cover, and all those petticoats!

 

#16: Re: Umbrellas Author: Rosie, Location: Huntingdonshire/Bangor PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:45 pm

LizB wrote:

So why did they have them?


Poking people with? Out of interest, did they have waterproof coats/mackingtoshes of any sort?

 

#17:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:50 pm

I always thought that their coats were the long school coats, made from woollen fabric, from the references made to their winter coats.

 

#18:  Author: Róisín, Location: Galway, Eire PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:32 pm

Jennie wrote:
I always thought that their coats were the long school coats, made from woollen fabric, from the references made to their winter coats.


Like a gaberdine? We had gaberdines at school.

 

#19:  Author: Lottie, Location: Humphrey's Corner PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:35 pm

I always thought that, too, Jennie. Although there are references to raincoats/mackintoshes at times, and I always assumed that those would have been those dreadful gaberdine raincoats that I had at school - they kept you dry until they were completely saturated with the rain, they took forever to dry out again, and they were really uncomfortable when the wet hem kept bashing your cold wet sore legs - particularly the backs of the knees!

 

#20:  Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:47 pm

Oh how well I remember that. They always caught your knees before the start of your socks (knee high in winter) and the horrible mottled look your legs had when you got home, or to school.

 

#21:  Author: Alex, Location: Hunts, UK PostPosted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 2:27 pm

When I am in Manchester I take my umbrella out with me every day, and I have to train myself out of the habit when I am back in the Fens.

MissPrint, in order to avoid your umbrella turning itself inside out, always point it into the wind. Also, you are far less likely to get dragged along the street if you do this. Smile

 

#22: Re: Umbrellas Author: Xanthe, Location: London/Cambridge PostPosted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:07 pm

Rosie wrote:
LizB wrote:

So why did they have them?


Poking people with?


quite blatantly the answer... mwahahahaha

 

#23:  Author: Catrin, Location: Wirral (holidays), Oxford (term) PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 6:46 pm

Alex wrote:
When I am in Manchester I take my umbrella out with me every day, and I have to train myself out of the habit when I am back in the Fens.


Sssh. I'm trying to persuade my boyfriend to move to Manchester. He's under the (correct) impression that it rains all the time.

I've just spent a month working on the French/Swiss border and I can confirm that there it doesn't rain but it pours!

 

#24:  Author: MissPrint, Location: Edinburgh PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:05 pm

Alex wrote:

MissPrint, in order to avoid your umbrella turning itself inside out, always point it into the wind. Also, you are far less likely to get dragged along the street if you do this. Smile


Well, I try this, but sometimes there are gusts every way, esp near tall buildings. I'm just not made for umbrella elegance.

 

#25:  Author: Róisín, Location: Galway, Eire PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:26 am

Why did guides never carry umbrellas? It seems to have been sensible that they *should* have, them being prepared for everything and whatnot.

 

#26:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:56 am

Catrin wrote:
Alex wrote:
When I am in Manchester I take my umbrella out with me every day, and I have to train myself out of the habit when I am back in the Fens.


Sssh. I'm trying to persuade my boyfriend to move to Manchester. He's under the (correct) impression that it rains all the time.


It's a lovely sunny day in Manchester today - we don't get any more rain than most of the rest of the UK! Having said which, I never go anywhere without an umbrella - I have a little fold-up umbrella that goes in my handbag! Comes in very useful abroad if it rains suddenly and no-one else has got a brolly with them!

ETA: To fix quotes. Nell

 

#27:  Author: MissPrint, Location: Edinburgh PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:58 pm

Róisín wrote:
Why did guides never carry umbrellas? It seems to have been sensible that they *should* have, them being prepared for everything and whatnot.


I wondered that too, having, as they do, a bit of string to which to tie a stray dog, should they come across one, in one of the many pockets that the guide uniform provides. I'd have thought rain a much more likely contingency than stray dog finding, any day. Well, actually, I don't know if guides carry such a piece of string, but mum was a cub leader, and she always did. The big guide hat would provide some protection from the rain, but what would protect the hat? I'm imagining it to be a felt hat and therefore smelling like damp bunnies when wet.

 

#28:  Author: Joyful, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:06 pm

MissPrint wrote:
I wondered that too, having, as they do, a bit of string to which to tie a stray dog, should they come across one

Our piece of string (in Brownies) was in case our knicker elastic broke!

 

#29:  Author: Miriam, Location: Jerusalem, Israel PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:10 pm

Maybe a guide was supposed to be creative enough to improvise an umbrella from the materials at hand?

(Don't ask me for details; I'm already getting confused working out how an umbrella could be improvised. Neutral )

 

#30:  Author: MissPrint, Location: Edinburgh PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 3:28 pm

I'll tell you who definitely should not be carrying an umbrella; Batman and Robin. I mean, going to a cricket match dressed up is fine, but carrying a corporate golfing umbrella to keep the rain off your superhero costumes, so not a good look. Superpowers should keep you super dry surely. Batman and Robin walking past woolworth at ten am with or without brolly is quite a sight! And sadly, the match has been abandoned due to the rain, without a ball being bowled. I blame it on Batman's umbrella.

Do guides lose their guiding powers if they carry an umbrella?

 

#31:  Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:26 pm

Ann wrote:
Why exactly weren't Guides supposed to carry umbrellas?

I think it's for the same reason that umbrellas rendered military personnel of the same era "out of uniform." Never quite understood the rationale for that, either...

Presumably Guides (and the military) did have some approved form of raingear?

 

#32:  Author: Ann, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 9:51 pm

Kathy_S wrote:
Presumably Guides (and the military) did have some approved form of raingear?


Another use for a neckerchief, I s'pose.

 

#33:  Author: Rosie, Location: Huntingdonshire/Bangor PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 10:27 am

Do we have a definite list of those yet?

 

#34:  Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 2:16 pm

Well, I've compiled the 145 you all generated in 15 minutes and sent the list to Kathye. However, it doesn't include things done later, such as "adorning squirrels," "waving goodbye" and "fashions by Katie & Rosie." Perhaps they could be added as illustrations? Laughing

 

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