Grandma Goldie's Aprons

Some people say that something as simple as a fragrance can take them back to childhood memories. For me, it is this apron. And the aprons. If you saw grandma putting on her apron, you knew dinner wouldn't be far away. I had never seen her cook without one. She had a lot of different styles of aprons, usually for bigger meals, she would don a full apron, with the bib going up like a pinafore. An avid seamstress, she made most of them. My mother gifted me with this one last year. To me it represents all the things inherent in my ideas of her; her affection for me, her love of cooking, and her ideals of conventionality that said in those times women wore aprons in the kitchen. Aprons are making a comeback, perhaps for the nostalgia or for purpose, it's to be debated. My grandmother's apron now holds a special place as a piece of family history. This item, in addition to photos and a pineapple doilie that she made, are the only two things of hers that I own. For this reason, they are priceless keepsakes and a link to my childhood. 

So when I got out this apron today to post my blog on this Thanksgiving Day, 2016,  it was a trip back in time to Grandma's kitchen where there was always something cooking and grandma was most likely telling a joke or singing a song while she did it. The holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas at my Grandma Goldie and Earnest at their Muskegon, Michigan home were some of my fondest memories. I spent my first Thanksgiving there when I was five in 1959 after moving here permanently from Texas. Although it wasn’t a large kitchen, it had the usual 1950’s appliances, and she had her electric mixers but still often used the hand mixers.  It was a place that throughout my childhood, her house remained much the same except for the occasional moving of furniture.  Most every memory of Grandma's kitchen is pleasant; the large oak table that the whole family would sit around; uncles, aunts, my cousins, with grandpa sitting in the “captains” chair at the head of the table. This was no ordinary table – nothing like the imitation wooden ones they make today. This was an immense, solid oak table, large enough to accommodate twelve people, with two leaves in the center, which was needed when all the family was gathered. 

Goldie and Ernest Cummins W/Junior

 

Her plates with their golden wheat design decked it out with red and white cloth napkins. Her mixing bowls were the same wheat design. The large, rectangular tablecloth that adorned the table at special dinners, was hand-crocheted by her, in her favorite pineapple pattern. I laugh now when I think of always getting to sit in the high red chair with the steps that, being the littlest, always got to sit in in order to reach the table; and watching the eyes of the black and white kitty-cat clock move from side to side on its smiling face and the tale swish back and forth keeping the time on the dining-room wall.  I can see the spirits of my uncles, now passed on and my aunts, my favorite cousin and sometimes partner in childhood silliness, Mike also gone now; my mother and us four kids sitting around that table, laughing and enjoying food and deciding who was going to get the leg of the turkey (I always wanted it, but of course, could never finish one) and whether anybody was going to have room for pie. What a question! Of course we had room for pie. Ah, the pies! My grandmother was an excellent cook for the staples; but her cakes and pies were truly a joy; pumpkin, mincemeat, lemonmeringue, apple with golden brown cinnamon and sugar crust and my favorite;cherry.  It was heaven.  It was home. It was love.

Any ordinary meal at her house was big doings; the table had to be set and the dishes brought out and placed on it. She would make her homemade soup, stews, dumplings, freshly baked bread, cinnamon rolls, roast beef with potatoes and so much more. Even if it was a "pie" day; dinner was always served with dessert, even if it was just jello or pudding. But often it would also be homemade donuts or sticky buns with crusted brown sugar and pecans at the bottom would make your mouth water, or fresh baked bread (oh, the aroma!), or pancakes on a cold winter morning served with real maple syrup; Goldie made all with quickness, expertise, and of course, love.  The apron reminded me that to her I owe much, and I have never had the chance to tell her, as she passed away in 1965 when I was 15; even though we sometimes had differences. She could be stern, and no nonsense, would tell me I was fidgety when she was trying to watch her shows (I was) or yelling at my cousin Mike and I when we ate the grapes in the backyard before they were ripe; "You'll get a bellyache!" (we did). But all and all, she was kind to me and was especially kind when she let me help her cook. It was a wonderful teaching experience for me, showing me how to crack an egg with one hand, which I still have never mastered; and how to beat the egg whites for angel food cake just so or else the batter won’t mix properly and other kitchen magic she had learned with years of practice.

These are the times that to me feel like home. My memories of Grandma's kitchen are happy ones and remain forever etched on my memory.  While things change over time, families grow up, have families of their own; it is this sense of family that enables me to know that no matter what, whether we eat turkey, chicken, or whatever, its family and the memories of the love shown to us that is important.  It is these memories that fashioned my ideas of how I wanted to incorporate holiday traditions when I had my own family and what traditions I thought were important to pass on. 

I hope that you and your family have the opportunity to make memories and share laughter, stories, memories and love as we begin the holiday season.  hope you enjoyed this post. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Marie