Written by Anne Bouwers
I always remember Mom wearing an apron when we were growing up at home on the farm. It was used mainly to protect her dress underneath. Back in the 50’s women wore dresses in the home.
As we were pretty shy kids, probably many of us hid behind that apron when company came. The apron probably dried many wet hands and many a perspiring brow when Mom was bent over the hot wood stove canning hundreds of jars of pickles, relishes and jams. The pockets were a catch-all for little items like safety pins, clothespins, buttons or puzzle pieces and always a handkerchief kept on hand in that pocket to dry some tears or wipe a runny nose.
The corner of the apron could be used as a potholder for a hot handle on a frying pan or cooking pot. It no doubt carried some produce from the garden and eggs from the chicken coop. Although these days people would go crazy trying to figure out how many germs were on them, I don’t believe any of us ever caught anything from that apron.
There is the memory of lessons learned from Mom’s apron. The Proverbs 31 woman comes to mind—always industrious getting up at the crack of dawn, her hands were never idle and all her children were well dressed for the winter and well fed with home-cooked meals, homemade bread. In the summer we had fresh produce straight from the garden cooked and served at the huge kitchen table. In the fall we harvested the new potatoes which were brought in through the cellar window and put on a wooden trough which rolled them into a huge storage bin for the winter months and there was a never-ending supply of canned food stored on shelves in the damp, cool cellar of that old farmhouse which we called “home”.
Although it was a busy life, it was a good life—a life that was fulfilling, leaving us with a legacy of honesty and hard work. That legacy will last for generations to come.