Tina at The Quiet Home shared a post this morning that reminded me of a promise I made to my sister S which I will now fulfill. At our annual family gathering in November, my mother handed us the following poem and asked us to read it to all of the family following our meal. She thought it was translated from dutch, but she was not sure where the source came from. I promised to make a copy for my sisters, but will post it here for all those who love aprons.
For the girls in my family, enjoy Grandma's Apron:
Grandma's ApronI 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~all images found online)
The Beauty of the Apron
by George Goodwin Kilburne
by George Goodwin Kilburne.
Mrs. Sarah Canon, Wearing a White Apron,Watching the Chickens Eat Their Feed
The Milkmaid by Jan Vermeer, 1658
A Young Woman Picks Flowers in a Country Garden,and Stores Them in Her Apron