Aprons and More Aprons.

Loved the apron blog from Jeni and even though the aprons I was familiar with did not gather eggs and other things they still had many good uses. They looked pretty, maybe saved a spot on a dress or blouse. Yes I did wear dresses back in the olden times. A few weeks ago I was going through some of my storage boxes and found aprons that Grandma Merriam and I made. Grandma Merriam wore house dresses even when she helped Grandpa fill his wooden boxes for the men who worked for him to fill candy machines. You will have to ask Grandpa Don about those days or maybe even your Dad (Dan) might remember. Grandma and I would make aprons for the Christmas bazaar at our church and also for Christmas presents. If they were made out of gingham check she would cross stitch or sew rick rack on with embroidery floss. I always found great fabrics at a "dime store" in downtown Des Moines. The fabric department was in the store basement and had great fabrics but mostly flat folded. I also remember that fabric was never cut but tore so that it would or could be stretched straight. How times have changed. My friend Mary and I went to a Lutheran Historical Musuem in Altenburg about 20 miles north of Cape a couple of weeks ago. They were having an apron display from those ladies in the community who had kept their aprons and wrote stories about their use. Many of them had recipes on the information sheet. Among the aprons hung on a clothes line held up with wooden clothes pins were just every day aprons, fancy aprons used by the ladies who served at weddings and receptions, several seasonal apron designs especially Christmas designs and heavy aprons wore by men serving beer at weddings. There was also a small cookbook published containing the recipes and pictures of some of the display. There were many pictures and artifacts of the activities in this community that centered around the old Luthern church built shortly after the Germans emigrated to this area of Southeast Missouri in 1839 and the town was named after Altenburg, Germany. A local banker in town who never married and had few relatives left his estate to have a musuem built to house the many items that had been collected from families over the years. The musems is built onto the old school house building. I know the lady who has been curutor since the inception and she has done a remarkable job especially since she is not Lutheran but since has become a member of the church by the museum. She has many seasonal displays including quilts, Christmas Trees (40 last year) and other special displays of interest to many people. There are many old churches especally in this area along the Mississppi River of different denomitation. This is the area where the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod was founded. Many of the residents of the area are decendents of those who came in 1839. A local Cape doctor who also is a photographer had a workshop with some of the children at the Altenburg Lutheran school and their photos were displayed in the old school. Those photos are being sent to Altenburg, Germany and he and a group of people are going there where he will do a workshop with school childen there. Course you may or may not know that John is Lutheran and his grandparents came from Germany but settled in the St. Louis area. Hope that you will enjoy reading this bit of history of Southeast Missouri. Come see for yourself sometime.