Rarely used these days, aprons were another item that young girls put in their glory box ready for that special day. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few dresses. 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 potholder for removing hot pans from the oven, amongst other things.
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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 sometimes half- hatched eggs to be finished in the opened warming oven or next to the stove.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold Grandma 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 autumn, 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, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the paddocks or doing their outside job ready for dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes. Remember when grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool.Her granddaughters now set theirs on the window sill to thaw. The younger ones would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
MANGLING APPARATUS: The most modern piece of equipment for my ladies laundry in the mid 1800s was the Harper Twelvetree washing, wringing and mangling apparatus. Imagine wearing a long dress and doing the washing as these ladies are doing in the 1860s. They can be seen with the latest invention - a washing machine made by Harper Twelvetree.
It was constructed from timber with fluted work for the purpose of cleansing the clothes in every part. The cleansing process was accomplished by forcing water through the fabric by a concussive power, instead of acting merely on the surface of the clothes. It was noted that the machine was remarkable for its rigid simplicity and for its entire absence of any cog-wheels, flywheels or pinions. The same machine was fitted up with a wringing and mangling apparatus combined. At the time the same manufacturer was also selling a boot-cleaner, cinder-sifter, and a knife cleaning machine which was manufactured at their Imperial Works at Bromley-by-Bow.
