1000 Aprons – A Lifetime of Work

Posted on July 31, 2013 under Storytelling with 2 comments

They stand on guard as if saluting their owners, most of them no longer with us.  They display every color of the rainbow as they hang in silent tribute as far as the eye can see, with strings fluttering in the gentle breeze.  They reflect the work of two thousand hands; in some cases a lifetime of seemingly endless toil. They represent pride and industry. These are the One Thousand Aprons and they hang majestically on the grounds behind the Motherhouse at Bethany.

With the exception of a handful of extremely talented chefs that I happen to know, most men will only don an apron when wielding barbeque utensils.  This is more for show than utility.  I know a few brave men who will tackle bread making and can whip up some pretty impressive fare, but truthfully, the aprons in this presentation are a reflection of a peerless generation of women from an era gone by.

The creation is the brainchild of Margaret Nicholson, an instructor with the St. F. X Fine Art Department.   The exhibit is called “One Thousand Aprons Waving Goodbye”.  The aprons are hung on continuous clotheslines approximately one kilometer long.

Where do you find one thousand aprons in the first place?  I suspect that every second hand shop, flea market and yard sale was explored over a long period of time.  According to a press release put out by the Bethany and CSM Leadership groups, “the aprons were worn by women for generations but they are a style of garment seemingly passing into obscurity as the women who used them are fewer in number with each passing year.”

My wife and I walked by the exhibit on a Sunday morning.  Neither of us said much as we gazed skyward at the impressive display.  Oh, if those aprons could talk, the stories they would tell.  Each apron has a history and one suspects that each of them bore witness to trials and tribulations, joys and sorrows, pain and pleasure.

These were the aprons worn by women of another era who worked the land and raised large families.  These women did the laundry by hand, prepared home cooked meals and toiled from sunrise to sunset.  Many of them grew up in a time where there was no electricity or running water.  That’s what the aprons are telling me as my gaze wanders from one to another.

The fact that they are hanging from a clothesline is no accident.  Once again, quoting from the press release, “the form of display on an outdoor clothesline symbolizes another form of domestic service and another disappearing household artifact, the clothesline”.  Many of us remember the day when our own mothers hung out laundry 365 days a year.  The only time that it was not advisable to hang laundry in the county was when the farmers were spreading manure.  In the dead of winter, the blue jeans would be stiff as a board coming off the line.

Is there a better smell than laundry dried in a warm breeze?

If you want to get in touch with the past, take a stroll along the rolling road behind the giant water tower at Bethany.  The exhibit ends with the Antigonish Arts Festival in late September.

Advertisement