I've never been the tidyest of painters...many times, I have traveled to school to pick up one of my sons only to find a streak of red or blue paint in my hair or a brush stroke across my face... i would usually wear my old tried-and-true painting t-shirt & sweat pants knowing the odds of remaining paint-free were not very good...that was..until...my mother made me a lovely little apron.
Daily, I wore it. So often, in fact, my family would often remind me that I had it on ...for fear I would wear it out in public...
It has become a staple in my daily wardrobe...Once, I even had my picture taken for the newspaper in it...
I can't imagine my life without it. Now, my mother has sewn me several, in assorted colors...I wear them while I paint, do housework, walk to the mailbox, check what's happening in the garden...it comes in quite handy for keeping tidy, carrying cell phones, eye-glasses, vegetables, mail & anything that will fit in my big front pockets...
My mother forwarded this charming email ...& I thought some of you might enjoy it, too. Perhaps you, too, love & wear your apron proudly... I don't know who wrote it...but the duties of the apron still hold true today...God bless the Apron...
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...
Blessings and Peace!
