I loved this, sent to me by Judy from ‘Someotherland’. To go with the piece there’s a photo of my late mother taken in the 60’s outside School House, Blundell’s School, Tiverton, Devon when my late father was the housemaster. She probably wouldn’t be very pleased to see this photo online but it’s all in the interests of the apron! Clearly the apron referred to below is American, but it still invoked lots of memories!

“I don’t think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Granny’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 childrens’ 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 Autumn, 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. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.

Granny 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.

But I don’t think I ever caught anything from an apron – but love…”