I was born ninety-two years ago in Alabama. My mother mostly raised my sister and me all by herself, sometimes doing housework for other people in order to earn some extra money to help feed us. She wore an apron. In fact, all the women I knew wore aprons. I just assumed everybody wore one.

I do wear an apron most every day. If I get up in the morning and put on an apron, and I don’t go out, I’ll most likely still be wearing it when it’s time to go to bed.

When my husband was alive, I did the cooking and he went to the grocery, because he seemed to get a lot more for the money. I do it all myself now. If I take a notion to it, I’ll make anything I want to eat. I’ll just go get what I need and cook it up. Maybe I’ll cook up some apples and make applesauce. I like applesauce with my toast in the morning. If I do go to the store to get a few things, I will take my apron off, because I don’t wear my apron outside the house.

For me an apron has to be for more than one purpose. When I come home from First AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church, and I’m wearing my decent clothes, I’ll put on an apron first and then make my dinner. I may wear that same apron to do something else some other time.

Long time ago, people weren’t dressed until they put on an apron. When my mother passed, she was wearing an apron.

"I don't wear my apron outside the house." ~ Ada Florence Ashford
December 1909 - October 2005

Text © EllynAnne Geisel