Is this the Greatest Invention Ever?

Mike

Well-known Member
Location
London
Grandma's Apron

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-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.

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 never caught anything from an apron…But Love. (Author Unknown)
 

Yep I've read that before Mike...all very well if you had a grandma that came right out of Enid Blyton or Mark twain....LOL..but it's a nice story and true of a lot of grannies somewhere I'm sure..
 
My mom always wore a House Dress.... in fact she referred to it as her apron.. She had a whole bunch of these.. all different prints and she usually wore the same one around the house for a week.. I never once saw her in pants, jeans or slacks.


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Yep I've read that before Mike...all very well if you had a grandma that came right out of Enid Blyton or Mark twain....LOL..but it's a nice story and true of a lot of grannies somewhere I'm sure..

My Granny wore one and most of the story
fits her.

Mike.
 
I love to hear stories about my husband's grandmother. They were very close. It's funny that this set of grandparents had the same names as us. Loved his Granny Annie! She was a 'healer' and she also taught him to love flowers and all their proper botanical names.
 
I still use an apron in the kitchen. But not for all the things that were listed here. (I don't bring in kindling or wave to the men-folk to come in for supper. What century was this thing written in, anyway?)
 
My mom wore an apron only while cooking and used to drape it over one particular chair when she was done. They were pretty things she would pick up at the church bazaar. Her apron was very special to me and I kept it after she passed away.

These old time grandmas must have needed them more because life was a lot messier in the old days and out on the farm, especially with those wood stoves. These days, cooking is a lot neater with less stirring and and spraying and splashing about of food. I have a nice apron someone gave me, but I never use it.
 
My mom wore an apron only while cooking and used to drape it over one particular chair when she was done. They were pretty things she would pick up at the church bazaar. Her apron was very special to me and I kept it after she passed away.

These old time grandmas must have needed them more because life was a lot messier in the old days and out on the farm, especially with those wood stoves. These days, cooking is a lot neater with less stirring and and spraying and splashing about of food. I have a nice apron someone gave me, but I never use it.

I wish someone had told me this before I spent the last half hour cleaning guacamole off the floor, the cabinets, my shoes, my pants legs, and the refrigerator. Of course, I don't think an apron would have protected me from fumble-fingers and dropped bowls.
 
I still use an apron in the kitchen. But not for all the things that were listed here. (I don't bring in kindling or wave to the men-folk to come in for supper. What century was this thing written in, anyway?)


LOL I agree... :D Both my mum and gran wore aprons for cooking but not the same scenario as the OP>:D
 
I wish someone had told me this before I spent the last half hour cleaning guacamole off the floor, the cabinets, my shoes, my pants legs, and the refrigerator. Of course, I don't think an apron would have protected me from fumble-fingers and dropped bowls.

I think you'd have needed a plastic body suit - it wouldn't have kept those food spots off my ceiling either. But I must try waving my apron at the men-folks outside and see what happens LOL. :D
 
My Granny was fantastic around the kitchen, she conjured
up some great food, I am biased, between a coal fired range
and the new fangled "Gas Cooker".

The apron came in very handy, but we had nothing to do with
Farming.

Mike.
 
I've heard that women usually wear aprons when they reach the age of 40. Not only that, a head scarf, a coat with brocade lapels and carry a wicker basket. :D
 
My grandmothers, aunts and mother all wore aprons, as did I. My favorites were cobblers aprons because I really liked that the whole bottom of it was turned up and stitched to use as pockets. There were aprons and then there were aprons...aprons that looped or tied around the back of the neck and covered the tops of the dresses, then tied again at the back of the waist. Then there were "dress" aprons that we used when expecting company so that we could set the table, carry food to the table, clear the table, and remove in between times to join company. Aprons for everyday use still were ironed, but our dressy aprons had to be starched, too, back in the day when the starch was cooked on the stove.

I bet we used those aprons for everything mentioned. We also used them for wiping our hands if we had to stop washing dishes for a minute to do something else. I for sure used mine for gathering eggs, apples, stuff from the garden. If someone came to the door during the day, we'd run to the kitchen to take off the apron before answering the door. For whatever reason, answering the door while wearing an apron just wasn't done:)

We used the fabric from flour sacks or chicken feed sacks to make aprons, tablecloths/napkins and school dresses for me. My mother rarely wore a house dress but both my grandmothers did and so did my aunts, and they usually sewed their own. If they bought one, nonne of them would have dreamed of "wasting" their money on a house dress without pockets!
 
So did we, Cookie! An apron in 8th grade. We only went to home ec once a week in 8th grade, and it took the entire semester to make that apron. When we got to 9th grade, we made a gathered skirt, then a blouse, then pajamas. It took the entire semester of going to class every day to get those things done in 9th grade.

Funny thing was that I already knew how to sew by the time I got to 8th grade. We had to only do what our instructor wanted us to do in class. Mostly, I was bored. In 9th grade I was sewing party dresses (never did attempt a prom gown). I never tried to sew a coat but did sew simple suits.

The second semester of 9th grade we cooked. I already knew how to cook so mostly I was bored in that class, too.
 
I had Home Ec in 9th grade and made the apron too...we used to make fun of the teacher......little did we know, I'm sure you all remember how smart we were at 15.....:rolleyes:
 
Yep ......we did the same - and we used to make fun of the teacher too..... we might have been in the same home ec class, except I was in B.C. And yes, I was a real smart alec (as my mom used to say) too when I was a teenager.

I got my own second hand singer sewing machine later and began making my own mini dresses.
 


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