The History of Aprons

There have been several things these past few days that have really reminded me of my grandmother. She was just such an awesome woman whom I really admired. My mom sent me this and it just hit home so I wanted to share.


The History of APRONs

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 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.

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.

Isn't that the truth? My grandmother wore aprons and made her own. We would go to Hancock's and buy the cheapest fabric we could find and she'd make them in a day. Sewing is another lost art that I loved sharing with my grandmother. I never had to buy Barbie clothes; my grandmother made mine and they were ALWAYS better! There was a time a while back that I had some of her aprons but I think I'd gotten rid of those... probably after watching one of those "clean up your messy house" type of shows where they tell you that holding on to THINGS doesn't bring the person back and if it's not useful, it's just clutter. Though I understand the mentality... sometimes having a touchstone to take you back down memory lane... well, it's kinda nice. Don't you think?

There are so many "things" of my grandmother's that I remember... I wish I had her old jewelry box... I remember as a girl that I thought everything in there was the most amazing treasure chest on the planet. It was something that held SCREW on ear ring. And mostly clip on jewelry because my grandmother was rather not keen on having someone poke a hole in her ear. I remember her bottom cabinet in the bathroom was full of powder. After she'd take a bath, she loved to just cover herself in powder -- probably why she always smelled so good. We'd buy her perfume for Christmas sometime and she just loved all the pretty bottles but was almost seemingly afraid to use it because it might run out. Her favorite "new" scent was Beautiful by Estee Lauder.

I remember her last Thanksgiving with us... I made her dressing -- she was famous for it -- and they went to bring her "home" from the nursing center she was at. Everyone let her have the first bite.. she smiled and said, "needs more salt." We all laughed... that was the first Thanksgiving that she didn't go all out and just cook for the masses.

Amazing that she would feed an ARMY in her tiny little house... and it was NEVER a problem... and she did it all with ONE oven... a 4 burner stove and not a "formal" room in the house... I loved Thanksgiving at her house... It's so sad that my boys will never know or understand holidays like that again.