APRONS AND CLOTHELINES

I still hold onto the old fashion ways sometimes...like aprons and clotheslines. Something about the nostalgia of simpler times, longing to reach back and hold onto the memories. Today in my efforts to go green, my clotheslines are more than just a cute photograph. And my aprons have actually become a part of my wardrobe as I wear them with everything, even when I am not cooking or painting! Here are a couple writings I came across this week...

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 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, it 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 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.

The Clothes Pin

How much better is it

to carry wood to the fire

than to moan about your life.

how much better

to throw the garbage

onto the compost, or to pin the clean

sheet on the line

with a gray-brown wooden clothes pin!

~Jane Kenyon~