Friday, August 22, 2008

It pays to clean! Finding vintage aprons and more

We tried to sell our house about 9 years ago and in the process, I boxed up a lot of extraneous stuff (gee-you'd never know it now! LOL). Well, those boxes have been in storage in one of our garages and I thought, it's time to go through those and can probably get rid of most of it. But I hated to just throw them away without taking a peek! I had a HUGE box marked "Sewing Room", and found lots of baskets, momentos, some fabric, lots of pictures, a box of greeting cards (can you believe they are almost 50 years old!! )
and THESE:

Yep--5 vintage aprons! I don't think they are from Grandma (you would think I'd remember if they were), but they look exactly like the ones she wore--actually BOTH Grandma's! And I'm starting to think they really had the right idea after all. I ruin more clothes by spattering something on me. Is it my age? my belly? or just getting sloppy? Who knows, but I've taken to wearing an apron ever time I cook now. Here is a little poem I got through an email. I have no idea of the origin of the poem. If anyone knows, let me know!

The 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, 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 woodstove.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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Karen, great collection of aprons! Now that you are wearing them to cook, you now have ample back up! Woo Hoo!

Evelyn aka Starfishy said...

Those aprons look exactly like my very favorite apron! I get comments on it ALL the time and am going to trace it out to make another one. I love, love, love an apron - keeps my clothes clean. That was a good find of yours!
Cheers!
Evelyn