Do you know the history of the apron. The principal use of the apron was to protect the
dress underneath, ah... but there is so much more to it. In Grandma's day she wore an apron because it was easier
to wash an apron than dresses and they used less material. Before that, an apron served as a potholder for removing
hot pans from the oven. The apron was wonderful fro 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 same 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 after she brought
in the chips and kindling wood (yeah, Grandma did that!) From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. 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 eat.
It
will be a long time bfore 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.
