Another favorite memory I have is seeing my grandmother, Guelita, wearing an apron while she rolled tortillas or filled tamales.
My mother also wore aprons while cooking and cleaning. Seeing aprons just brings me a feeling of comfort, a knowing that important work is being done to make a family comfortable and happy.
I found the following about aprons years ago.
“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 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.”
I absolutely LOVE aprons! Frilly ones, pretty ones, practical ones. We have a big drawer in our kitchen full of aprons, most of them handmade. When you come to our house during meal-time chances are you’ll be given an apron out of that drawer and then you’ll be put to work. Housework just seems to be more fun when dressed up in a cute apron and good music is playing in the background. They also make great capes! 😀
Do you use aprons?
I love your web site! Thanks for all the things you post. I am 75 years young and have used it for Easter ideas for grandchildren, remembering favorite things in my life. Thanks for all you do.
You bet I use aprons! I tend to be a sloppy cook and use them to protect my clothes.
I love to find these lost treasures of information. There is something so comforting in those ideals of what women do. It sounds so romantic in a way and yet in another way it feels like a calling to me- I am drawn to it. Love aprons. Thanks for sharing!
I have been playing around with a pattern for an apron style just this week. A bit of a mash up of a few styles. I hope to have time to make it soon. The whole family received aprons for Christmas! I really love the fair trade versions I found for the girls and me.
Awe, I really like the first picture with the lady in a red shirt. It reminds me of my grandma and her blue apron. She would always wear it when we were making bread dough. I wonder if she’d like a new apron, I should get her one for her birthday.