Aprons

   Aprons

   by

           Jack Monte Jones       

I don't think most kids today even know what an apron even is or have seen one being worn by their mom or grandma. 

 Not only do I have aprons that belonged to my grandmother and great grandmother.. but I have pictures of them wearing them.

 The principle use of my great-grandmother's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material.

 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, she 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, she walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

Aprons were used to set hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Now their granddaughters set theirs out on the countertop to thaw.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

We might go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.   But I don't think anyone ever caught anything from those aprons - but love