APRONS

A lady from California posted an email to a group of friends. It is about aprons.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they 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 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. .....

People 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 !!

Michigan adds: I used to have about 10 aprons, but one by one, they have all disappeared except for one. The aprons were all my mom's and grandma's and several of them were made out of feed bags. When they were little tykes, my grand kids used to love to put on one of my aprons when they were helping me in the kitchen or helping to clean the house or creating a masterpiece out of paper, paste, crayons. And invariably, they would say....."grandma, can I wear this home? I'll bring it back." Well, I think one or two may have come back at some point, but then the next time one of them was over, it went back home with them.

From California: Feed bags; boy does that bring back memories. When I was small my mom used to make clothes for me from feed bags and flour sacks. She also made dish towels and pillow cases. Remember when nothing was wasted.

From Old Trunks: my favorite story about apron making happened to be in eighth grade. We were to make aprons in Home EC class. We were to pick out a gingham check and bias tape to match/compliment. I bought black and white check with red tape. The apron was gathered at the waist and had three pockets, which were trimmed in red. While other girls were sewing their fingers, I was plotting to get that apron home and have mother's machine to use.

Mother didn't want me touching her machine. Instead, while I was in the barn feeding stock, she did the apron. She was SO MAD when she got a C+ on the garment!

Memories spark on one word, isn't it fabulous!!! I bet everyone of us can go to an old picture book and find a photo of someone in an apron!

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