Remember making an apron in Home Economics? 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 also because it was easier
to wash aprons than dresses and aprons 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 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.
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