General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe History of 'APRONS'
Enjoy
I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principle use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids..
And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.
Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma's aprons.
REMEMBER:
Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.
They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron - but love
madaboutharry
(40,224 posts)I don't wear them though, I collect them.
frogmarch
(12,160 posts)It doesn't have a bib, just a skirt with a little hand towel sewed into the waistband. The apron is pink and white checked cotton.
I can still see her running out of the kitchen drying her hands on the little towel when I wailed "NO!" from the living room as Walter Cronkite broke into my soap, The Edge of Night, to say that President Kennedy had been shot.
Mom buried her face in her apron and cried and cried. She'd come to love JFK, even though she didn't vote for him when he ran the first time. She was afraid that if he won, the pope would tell him what to do.
Whenever I come across the apron while looking through old family things, I remember Mom crying into it.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)I have my aunt's apron. She made it herself and was so eternally (and famously) practical that it's apparently indestructible. I'll probably leave it to my daughter some day.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)MineralMan
(146,333 posts)Paka
(2,760 posts)...over the years. Some from both my mother and grandmother and a few I made myself growing up in the era of aprons. I still use them and one in particular that I have with multiple pockets. So handy to have in the kitchen.
What a lovely post!
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)And I DO remember going out to the coop with her, pulling the eggs out from under the hens, and placing them in her apron. She held the corners of it so it was pouched.
Awesome. Thanks for the memory.
Hope all is well with you!
Javaman
(62,534 posts)otherwise my clothes would be covered in food.
trof
(54,256 posts)Yeah, we like aprons.
nice post
thanks