Grandma's Apron

The Girls Club Mother/Daughter Banquet theme this year was "The Apron".  Everyone came wearing an apron and we enjoyed hearing "apron stories."  One apron was over 55 years old, made in 6th grade sewing class.  Another apron, worn by an 85 y/o lady, was made by her mother.  What this elderly great-grandmother remembered most about this apron was using it to catch frogs!  Two sisters with their daughters came in matching aprons all made by their mother/grandmother with buttons that came from great-grandma's button basket.  The aprons the girls and I wore were all made by Grandma (my mom).   The "prettiest" or "fanciest" apron was a toss-up between the one I wore and the one Anna wore.  Both received many complements.  Either way we came home with a geranium as a prize!  The ladies were all fascinated with the hardanger needlework, many of which had never seen it before.

Mom's beautiful handwork that won us a geranium.  Thanks, Mom!

This little poem or essay was placed at each table:

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)