#128 GRANDMA'S APRONS

                                                             GRANDMA JEAN

This is a favorite photo of my Grandma Homuth-- at the dining table of her newly-built home on Arthur Street, Harriston. In front of her is a home-cooked, no-nonsense dinner of mashed potatoes, peas, meat & gravy. And she is using one of her many teacups. My Grandpa carpentered the wood cupboards behind her. Did Grandma, a seamstress, sew those bold floral curtains? The photo has a cozy, lived-in feel; it's not staged, just a photo of her everyday life. 

To me, the photo is a quiet tribute to Grandma's domestic competence: a woman who fed people, kept routines, and created a sense of order and comfort. Hers was a  kitchen where people lingered, talked, and felt looked after; her Christmas shortbread cookies cannot be replicated as much as I try. Grandma's expression is calm, composed, and quietly attentive The photo underscores her sense of steadiness and a woman capable, self-possessed, and kind without being showy.

Her hair is softly permed and silver grey, a very mid 20th century style. The pearl necklace and her glasses add a gentle formality. She's dressed in a navy, short-sleeved polka-dot dress and a practical apron patterned with large blue leaves. I always picture my grandmother in an apron--aprons instantly signalling "I've been busy and I know my way around my kitchen".  

 I love this Facebook post from Sassy Old Ladies.

                                                        THE APRON

 I don't think most kids today know what an apron is. The principle use of Mom 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 pot holder 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 sometime even half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when 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 for dinner.

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

                                                                More family aprons

Great Grandmother Ann (Harper) Werth & Grandma Jean

JEAN OLIVE WERTH                                                                                                                                        b. Jun 12 1892 in Pilkington Twp. Wellington Co.                                                                                         m. Frederick F Homuth (1889-1983) on Aug. 31, 1916 in Elora, Ont                                                        d. April 17, 1959 in Harriston, Ont                                                                                                          my paternal grandmother