B is for Blue Apron and
Belated Thankful Sunday
Recently, I had a post titled Wally's Blue Apron Experience. It was a post about the Blue Apron meal service that my son, Wally, had received as a gift. However when Lili at Creative Savv saw the title, she thought it was about an actual blue apron that Wally had. You know the kind. One usually made of cloth worn over your clothes to protect them from getting dirty.
Well, today's post is actually about a blue apron. It's one my mother made for me when I was a little girl. I'm not sure how little but little enough that I was not yet in school. It was gathered with big pockets and tied around my waist. I wore it when I helped my mother.
My favorite thing to do while wearing my apron was to make pies with her. I had my own little pie pan and I made a little pie while she made a big one. Hers was usually an apple pie and mine was usually a tart with a cinnamon and sugar filling. During this time, she taught me how to make pie crust using Crisco and ice water and how to make it turn out nice and flaky every time.
I also wore the apron when I helped to hang out clothes. My father put up a little clothesline just my height and the washcloths were my responsibility. The big pockets of my blue apron held the clothes pins and my mother taught me how to shake the cloths out and hang the corners together.
Recently, we found that little blue apron while we were cleaning out the house that my parents lived in for over 55 years. As with many other things we have found, the blue apron brought back good memories and some ponderings. How did my mother do it? How did she have time to do those things with just me. She had three other kids to worry about and a husband who worked long hours. I know that it would have been a lot faster to do these tasks by herself. But instead, she did them with me and made me feel important.
So for the time I spent in my little blue apron with my mother, I am thankful.
What a sweet memory. It's amazing the apron has survived for so long. I like to think that the time your mom gave to you as a child was echoed back to her in her later life.
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite sure why the apron is in such good shape because many other things she saved are falling apart. The apron is in good enough shape I will probably give it to one of my grandnieces or nephews to use. And that's after I have washed it.
DeleteYes, I think she was sewing the seeds for me to become responsible, caring person. Or at the very least to hand over the laundry and cooking to me while she was at work when I was a little older. (I'm using singular pronouns, but it is the same for all of my sisters.)
Thank you for sharing your wonderful memory. Your mom probably had no idea she was creating memories with you. My childhood job was washing and bleaching the clothes pins, and hanging the wash cloths and handkerchiefs until I was tall enough to hang the towels. Unless it was raining and then we used a collapsible rack that was short enough for me to hang everything.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that my mother was not thinking that she needed to spend some special time with me. She was just doing what came naturally and/or it may have been a way to keep me quiet while my sister was taking a nap.
DeleteI'm curious why you washed and bleached your clothes pins. Did you leave them on the line all of the time? We had a clothes pin bag that we carried in and out and the pins never needed to be cleaned.
I love this. What treasured memories! That is so neat that you found this in your parents' home. They kept it all of those years.
ReplyDeleteI had a little blue apron, as well. Mine was in blue gingham, and I believe that I still have it in a box of childhood things.
Maybe we can form the little blue apron club. :)
DeleteSuch lovely memories to have come up while doing the hard work of clearing their house. I love the idea of you hanging the cloths on your own little clothesline. And thank you for the memory of cinnamon sugar pie crust. My grandmother used to make those with the leftover dough.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if everyone makes the cinnamon sugar treats or if that's a southern thing?
DeleteWhat a lovely little apron and such wonderful memories! Thank you for sharing them with us. You were your mother's little helper! I have red and white checked/gingham apron my mother made for me when I was an adult and she made a matching one for my daughter, too. I still wear mine and I have kept my daughter's one for her.
ReplyDeleteI bet you and your daughter were cute when you were wearing your matching aprons. :)
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