300th Post! A Tribute to Aprons and the Sweet Past

OK, I shared this very picture with you in the last post, but I had to share it again because of what was in this morning's e-mails...


Today, don't look at us -- look at that darling green polka-dot apron that is dangling from my neck!


On a wonderful blog, where the Blogger links us to her money-making Amazon links (more about this in a minute), she modeled the apron for us. My BFF and I had to have it! (We adore polka-dots, and like to buy the same things, so that we can think of each other and remember our fun memories. Shannon lives an hour away, but we take an annual trip to the coast. It was on our last trip, where, for the first time, we brought along our laptops. At the same time, we oooood and ahhhhed over her blog, saw that apron, and clicked on her link...)

Amazon was out, unfortunately, but after lots of minutes searchin, we found a gal on Ebay that had two available. Click... and they were ours!

Everyone RAVES about my apron. My daughter saw it and begged me to make her one. So, carefully tracing the apron onto newspaper, I made her a frolicking hot pink one with white polka dots!!!  CUUuU-UuUU-UUuuTE!!!


Anyhoooo, before I copy and paste the sweet email about aprons, let me just say that the Proverbs 31 woman is wise and industrious. Lots of times I will link my bloggerinas to Amazon for books and such. One day my friend saw that and said, "You know, Liz, why don't you just sign up with Amazon and use the link to earn a little money." So, I did. (P.S. I do not know how much you make, or how you can sign up. But... my friend walks me through it, and I am sure if you run over to her blog, leave a comment asking her how, she will reply when she can {she has four kids that keep her busy}. Tell her Liz sent you.).


The one drawback to that is this: My posts could sound more like sales pitches than the truth of what I think about something. Like the Busy Mom's Bible post. What really bummed me out,was that some wondered if it was all hype so that they would buy the Bible and I'd get paid. Kerplunk went my heart when I read that... and I removed the Amazon link. But, I'm hoping I get brave enough to do it again, because I think it's a help to you and a help to me.

I am not going to link you to Amazon or Ebay because I already looked, and neither had this great apron anymore. So sad!!! So, my next suggestion is to go buy a pattern or a book. A good friend gave me an apron book for my birthday, and it is loads of fun. There are lots of apron books out there! Hey, nevermind!! While proofreading  this post, it came to me to simply Google "basil polka dot apron". I had to scroll through quite a few, till I came to the gal who invented it (strange that she was not listed first...). Anyhoo.... Though I didn't see the green one, here she is with other colors - 

http://www.mainstreet-store.com/kd_women.shtml

So.... on to the email I got today.....

I don't think our kids 

know what an apron is.

 (Amazon's picture)

 

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 menfolks 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.

Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma's aprons.

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 don't think I ever caught anything from an apron.

 (Me neither!)