It is wadded up in a ball in the laundry room – this white apron with a little blue print on it. I think it was made probably sometime in the 40’s or 50’s. Grandma wore it and Mother wore it and, this Christmas, I put it on. I had two reasons: I had come across it and I wanted to wear it and the second is that I forgot until I got two splashes on my shirt and put it on to cover them up.
It fared pretty well, not getting too splattered, although there are two obvious red spots where cocktail sauce dripped off the shrimp I was scarfing down while doing kitchen things.
When I took it off, I just tossed it in the laundry room, and a brief while ago, I feared I should have shown more respect. I think in the future I will take a little more care, just so I can make certain it stays around for awhile; but it is just an apron and Grandma tossed it and Mother tossed it and it was part of everyday life.
It is not a relic . . . well, maybe it is . . . but it is a used relic. I don’t want the day to come when people frame a shred of cloth that came from the True Apron.
I dressed up our table this year, used my crystal. It was the crystal that my parents got as a wedding gift in 1948. When my son-in-law heard that he refused to use it, he was so worried he’d break it. I didn’t tell him the fruit bowl filled with Christmas balls in the middle of the table was over 100 years old being a wedding gift for my husband’s grandmother’s wedding in the early 1900s. He wouldn’t have even sat at the table then. Old stuff full of memories is still meant to be used I think. I’m hoping when I’m old I’m still useful and not just stuck in a corner to be looked at.