Tuesday, April 26, 2011

A Lesson in Apron History!


This lesson in the history of aprons has been floating around the web for awhile without an author attached. If you know who wrote it, I'd love to hear from you. Enjoy....

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, 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 :-)

~Author Unknown

3 comments:

  1. This brings back so many memories for me! My aunties were big apron users & I use the ones they handed down to me to this day. Thank you for this wonderful post! :)

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  2. I love this history lesson. And I do remember the apron wearing SAHMs. Though they were not called that back then. Nice to put on an Apron, close your eyes and go back to those simpler days. Or maybe we could use them to hold our i-pods and wipe our computer screens :)

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  3. What a wonderful lesson in apron history!

    My grandma wore aprons and I have a small collection of my own, though I don't wear them. Homemaking can be so joyful and satisfying even if it's just baking a cake or folding fresh, clean laundry. For me, my aprons represent the beauty of these simple and meaningful pleasures in life.

    I think I should start wearing my aprons :)

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