Aprons I have known and loved

When I was about two, and living in New York, my mom and dad read "Little Bear" to me. Many years later, I read "Little Bear" to my two children in Sydney. Mother Bear wore her apron a great deal of the time. I liked that.
When I was about eight years old and living in Herzliya (Israel) I read a series of books titled "Nilly's Diary" by Maud Frere, illustrated by Nadine Forster. I believe that in the original French it was known as "Le Journal De Veronique." One of my favourites in the series was "An Afternoon At Ricky's Place."

Nilly and Ricky were best friends. In my mind, I was always Nilly, and I simply adored Ricky. I actually loved Ricky at first sight solely because of the red and white checked trousers and the two pony-tails. Ricky rocks.

Ricky and I really knew how to have a great time, and we always wore our aprons while we were having our fun.

In those days, wherever I went, I was always accompanied by my beloved dog Toosh-Toosh. But he sometimes got terribly jealous of Ricky's cat, especially when Ricky's cat had her kittens.

As you can see, Ricky and I always took our aprons off when we ate our culinary creations, and we always put our aprons back on when it was time to clean up.

Ah...the good ol' days....what fun we had! How I do miss Ricky. I wonder where she is now? Maybe I should google her...well have a look at this...I found some pictures which seem to point to Portugal, and it seems she may be living under the alias of Arlete. I wonder if she's a blogger?!

When I was about eleven years old, I lived in London and found a new friend - Sue Barton. Oh, Sue, your apron was always bleached a perfect white, it was never wrinkled, or twisted, and sometimes it rustled a bit. You wore it when you were a student nurse, senior nurse, superintendent nurse, neighbourhood nurse, staff nurse, rural nurse and visiting nurse. But probably not in that order. When I was eleven I knew the exact order of those books, but now I find it harder to recall.

Gosh, we had such a good time giggling about Doctor Barry. Of course, now you're married to him, you lucky lucky thing. But I never felt jealous, no, because I was right there with you on your very first date, your wedding day, and the birth of your three (or was it four?) beautiful children.

Looking back, I was far too young then to understand why the blurb at the back of "Neighbourhood Nurse" asked "Was she wasting her valuable training in concentrating on being a wife and mother? Did her attractive young husband, so involved in his own busy life as a doctor, really understand?" I just thought that handsome Doctor William Barry was such a dreamboat....ok, I admit it...I may have had a teeny tiny crush on the doctor.

Oh, my apron days, my beautiful apron days. How things have changed.

And thus, Apron Week must come to a close.

Let us untie our aprons, launder then, iron them, fold them, slide them onto the linen-cupboard shelves, and move on.

Thank you, and good night.