iamjanet

Remember making an apron in Home Ec? Remember Home Ec? If we have to explain "Home Ec" you may delete this. I just don't have the energy anymore. Read below.

The History of 'APRONS'

I don't think our kids
know what an apron is.
The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few and because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons required 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..

bearisgray

Still true

erstan947

Gotta love aprons:)

susiequilt

I do remember both my grandmother's aprons!

timepasser

Oh I can see my Grandma now just like she was still here. Thanks for the memories

raptureready

I'm fortunate enough to have a couple of my Grandma's aprons. She had a bunch of them because she put a clean one on every day and sometimes would change them throughout the day. Her's were the full aprons with the bibs. Mom preferred the half aprons. Women also used to use their aprons as a belly cover when they were pregnant. Unless you were really wealthy or someone in your family died you didn't have maternity clothes because you didn't go out into the public during the last several months of pregnancy. Women would wear button front dresses, unbutton them around their expanding bellies and put an apron on to cover the gap. Usually they'd wear two, one to do all the above mentioned things and one to keep their belly covered.

Isn't it funny now how every thing says "weight limit xxx lbs"? Back then if you could carry it, an apron would hold it. From wild flowers and apples to newborn lambs and baby piglets.

carhop

i bought an old one just like my grandmother always had on have it hanging in my sewing room

lovingmama

Thanks for sharing it is lovely and true.

raptureready

LOL Todays grandmas are wearing spandex and heading for the gym, getting tats and riding motocycles, dancing till dawn and going on cruises. Good luck on finding one that will wear an apron.

Well, okay, some of us are quilting.

CarrieAnne

thanks for sharing!