Aprons and Doilies

I wish I wore aprons but I don't. Actually I don't spend that much time cooking except for the holidays or Sundays. I could use that for an excuse but truthfully, I don't own any aprons. Not a one. Martha Stewart wears aprons but I'm sure they're designer brands.

My grandmother's aprons were basic all-cotton. They went over the head and tied in the back. Some had a pocket-type thing in the front that served like a catch-all as she worked about her farmhouse kitchen while being interrupted by other chores or distracted by children or totally caught off guard by things that needed fixing right then. Those aprons resembled the things carpenters tie around their waistline holding different sized nails. Hers held everything from buttons to pencils and whatever else came her way. Doctors have their white coats. My grand mother had her aprons which were hung on a hook behind a door leading from the kitchen to the dining room. A few were kept for good; a few saved for the holdiays.

I don't have any doilies either. I wonder if anyone these days do. I don't remember them that much in the farmhouse. It was my mother who starched and pressed the knitted table coverings. It was a painstaking, time consuming process just to end up with very stiff coverings that sat on end tables underneath plants or lamps or whatever she chose. I don't know where she found the time to starch her doilies. Looking back I'm glad she did. I always thought they looked nice as did my grandmother in her cotton aprons.

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