At the Grandparents’ House, 1957

It must have been a special day for the grandfather to get out his clarinet.  Don’t you wonder what role it played in his youth?  Maybe he was in a marching band, an orchestra, or even a jazz group.  Or maybe he played it everyday day as a hobby. The little girl looks as if she doesn’t quite know what to make of it.

But I’m really interested in the grandmother’s apron.  Did she wear it all day long to protect her dress, or had she just come in from the kitchen to join in the fun?  As I recall, aprons were a generational item in the 1950s.  My grandmother wore one often; my mother wore one rarely.  And I never have worn an apron at all.

Please share your apron stories!

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10 Responses to At the Grandparents’ House, 1957

  1. Juliana @ Urban Simplicity says:

    I wear one pretty often! My mom wears one a few times a year when she’s doing a messy bake or cooking project. My favorite apron for just general cooking messiness is a sturdy chef’s apron I received as a gift from a friend, but for general household stuff, I like my linen Japanese style apron, which covers my whole outfit.

  2. Palo Verde says:

    Maybe generational, but also possibly cultural. My sister-by-different-parents is originally from Scotland and she wears an apron with great regularity. I only do so once in a while and usually when I realize I’m wearing something that ought to be protected.

  3. Bunny says:

    Grandad is playing the clarinet because that is what people did to entertain themselves. My husband’s mother’s family, all fourteen kids, each played an intrument in those days as did their parents. After dinners or on Sunday afternoons after “Sunday Dinner” and church, the family pulled out their intruments and jammed all afternoon. In my family it was voice. My mom sang in the opera, Contralto, and we were surrounded by music, good music of every kind. Our after dinner fun was the kids performing for the adults some of the many Broadway and operatic songs we heard day in and out on the “stereo” a new thing back then. No screens, no silos, just a family sharing good times and traditions. What happens today?

  4. JS says:

    I had to wear an apron for girl’s-only Home Ec classes in the late ’60s and early ’70s. I don’t mind chef’s aprons, but the traditional women’s kind I can’t help seeing as badges of female domestic servitude.

  5. squeakytiki says:

    I still regularly wear aprons, because I’m messy and I know it. But it really depends what I’m wearing underneath. If I’m in old clothes with no plans to leave the house, then I don’t bother, but if I’m wearing something nicer then the apron goes on when I enter the kitchen, Even if I’m just making a sandwich.

  6. Marianne says:

    I have several — one that my sister made for Christmas decades ago, one AFS version, also from years ago and one that I got after taking a cooking class in Japan showing off the Kintai Bridge. Wear them any time I’m doing messy stuff like baking!

  7. Katrina says:

    I put on an apron the minute I walk into the kitchen, which I share with a free-spirited “chef” who leaves crumbs, mysterious liquids, and random blobs of goop on every vertical and horizontal surface.

  8. Abbey says:

    Apron—I once made one out of some lovely cotton. I might wear it if i’m Wearing something out of some very delicate fabric. So really almost never. 🙂 Abbey

  9. Norah says:

    My mom was born in 1916 and always wore a half apron in the kitchen, but took it off when she was done cooking. Her sister, born in 1919, wore a full apron like the one above for most of her housework. I was born in 1957 and never wore one, except when I was a little girl wanting to be like my mother while helping her.

  10. Carol in Denver says:

    I always wear an apron when doing tasks in the kitchen. It drives me nuts to not have one on when I’m working! They should be heavier fabric, as thin cotton doesn’t protect anything, IMO.

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