Thinking about aprons, changes in the kitchen and so on.

 I found this little article about aprons: 

“The History of 'APRONS'

I don't think most kids today know what an apron is. The principle use of Mom's or Grandma'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. 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, 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.

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

REMEMBER:

Moms and Grandmas used to set 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 - but love.”

I’m thinking it was aimed at an American audience, judging by references to fall, the porch, menfolk working the fields and hot apple pies left on the window ledge (oops! the window sill) to cool. All very much Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. But much of it rings true for the UK as well. It doesn’t mention the kind of wrap around apron / coverall that housewives wore in the UK, and which I still saw housewives in Galicia wearing in the 2008+ years that we were there all year round. The sort of garment you would see in Last of the Summer Wine, worn by a stout older woman with the arms folded, indignantly for some reason, under her ample bosom, sometimes indeed seeming to hold up her ample bosom. No, the article was accompanied by photos of very 1950s looking trim young women with figure-hugging aprons - all rather Madmen!

Me, I still wear an apron when I am cooking or baking. I like to have somewhere to wipe my messy hands if I need to attend to some other matter in the kitchen, such as answering the phone. Places like IKEA and Sainsbury’s Home section still sell them, especially around Christmas time when you can acquire a festive version. I suspect, as the article more or less implied, that many people don’t wear an apron because they don’t actually chop vegetables and stir sauces and get messy. 

I think I might be showing my age. I’ll just nip off and make some mushroom soup.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!