I thought I would submit them here first to see what you think. Please feel free to leave any comments you would care too.
Aprons and Bonnets
When I think of my Grandmothers I think Aprons and Bonnets. They both wore them. The only time I remember my maternal Grandmother (Ma Swift) took off her apron was to go to bed or to go to church or when we had company. She didnt wear the full apron. She only wore a half apron which mean it tied around her waist and there was no top on it. I never remember the top of her dress being dirty though. She would make her own aprons. I suspect Ma Swift only wore the half aprons because it took only one chop sack to make an apron.
Now, before you ask chop sacks in those days were made from printed material and they held chopped up feed for the animals. After the feed was emptied she would wash up the sacks and use them to make some of our clothes.
One chop sack would make a blouse or a skirt or apron and two would make a dress. White chop sacks were used to make undergarments. She would save the scraps for her quilts.
Aprons were used for many things. When we would go to gather eggs she would gather the eggs in her apron. If we went to gather apples she would have an apron full of apples. If she went to the garden the ripe vegetables would be in her apron.
If she was stringing beans the ends and strings went in her apron before being dumped in a bucket for the hogs.
One of my favorite memories about her apron was the pocket. Her aprons always had a pocket on the outside and one on the inside. When her apron got dirty she would wear it inside out and she always had a pocket. That pocket held all of her valuables, her handkerchief, a bobby pin or two, maybe a safety pin, or a loose button. The inside pocket held another handkerchief with loose change tied into the corner. Her paper money was under her straw mattress.
Whenever I got into trouble and my mother was after me for something she would hold out her apron and say "Get under my apron tail" and then she would wrap me in her apron so I didn't get spanked.
My Granny Holloway always wore the full apron and she always wore a bonnet wherever she went. Her dresses were always long sleeved. She made all her bonnets too. I can remember her with a brown paper poke pattern and a pair of scissors cutting out a new bonnet from one of those chop sacks.
The best part about my grandmothers were they were very close friends. They spent a lot of time together and if one was picking blackberries or making apple butter or working in the garden you would find the other one there too.
They loved to make soap together. Even with an age difference of twenty years they were more like sisters than like in-laws.
And with that I will be back when I find my bonnet!
That's it for today!
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