Tartan

Since her pins were black, I wonder if they were to remember someone who had passed? I keep a safety pin on the zipper pull of my wallet in case of emergency.

IAmCatOwned

It started with having babies. Most everybody used safety pins to close diapers and they kept having babies. As kids got older, Mom's still needed safety pins and it was handy to have it on your apron. My grandmother had some black safety pins, but my Mom said she never had any (my Mom was a safety pin apron wearing mom).

Donna Yount

I remember my grandmother use to have a extra pin on her strap of her slip, when we needed one, she had it.

Lois-nounoe

My aunt did that all the time. Course with 11 kids in the house I guess she needed an emergency pin for rips and tears. I sure would like to know if the static thingy really works! I literally have to touch metal everytime I move during the winter! No one wants to touch or be touched by me then! Even touching the plastic door panels in the truck I get a shock if I happen to touch one of the screws in the door. Grocery carts are good too if I take off my jacket and hit the cart!

Peckish

I'm also fascinated by the "static" explanation and wonder how that works. When I wear my Crocs I zap everything I touch.

Sounds like safety pins were women's equivalent of duct tape, lol.

lillybeck

My grandma always pinned her apron to her dress front rather than put it around her neck. It was probably more comfortable that way.

Mona Marie

you never know with kids when they would need a quick fix.

KatFish

My Grandma always had some pined to her aprons too and I never knew why. My Mom always has some safty pins in her purse for emergency clothing malfunctions.

BarbaraSue

My grandma had a saftey pin on her apron at the waist and pinned a hand towel on it, or a wash cloth on it to have something to dry her hands on instead of her apron. she said she didn't like to get the apron all wet. but she would use that towel to shine apples, take smudges off of silverware, etc. She sometimes pinned a clean hanky to the top of her apron.

My other grandma would put her hanky up her sleeves, or under her bra strap if she had no pockets. Don't remember her having pins on her dress or apron.

svenskaflicka1

i remember having safety pins around all the time when i was little. mom had them on her apron, in any given drawer, in a special little glass dish on her dresser. more often than not, they were for the potential broken bra strap, but they came in handy. and i remember them being sold on cards, and the little ones were called "beauty pins", because they would keep the top of your slip from showing over your dress, they would mend that strap, or temporarily fix that garter that wanted to give out. and they sold them colored--most often brass or gold, but the black ones were to use on your navy blue or black dresses/slips/underwear. they were as common as hairpins were, back then.

my youngest daughter fell in love with the bigger ones as a fashion statement when she was a teen--big safety pins, and duct tape on everything!