GRANDMA'S APRON

Mama's in heaven today but sometimes I picture her here.  If I visualize her from my childhood, my memories of her include a fresh, crisp apron over her dress. Both my grandmothers wore them too. Mine hangs like a decoration by my laundry room. My sister-in-love, Dianne, made it for me years ago.  She even cross-stitched my name in the text on the bib.  Back then my kitchen decor was Williamsburg blue, country dotted swiss and geese. Many today don't even know what an apron is. So here's the history of the apron.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few and it was easier to wash aprons than dresses. Also aprons required less material and were made from recycled feed sacks. Aprons 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 autumn her apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. Grandma sat her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

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.

Susanna Wesley, mother of 19 children, used her apron uniquely.  Charles and John, with their siblings, observed as she flipped it over her head, signaling her time alone with God.  They knew not to interrupt Mama when she was under her apron!

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that old-time apron that served so many purposes.

The government 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.

Notice that Medium is size 14-16.

My decorative apron hangs nostalgically.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Ya'll come!  I've got a frozen apple pie in the freezer!