Pretty in pinafores

I can only find two photos of people in aprons of any sort in my collection. The first one is of two little girls in their lacey pinafores, probably to protect their good dresses while they played. They do look very sweet and innocent, and their pinafores look so pretty, perhaps they wore something else over them when they were really up to mischief! These two sisters, christened Bessie Irene and Flora Euphemia Forbes, were born in 1888 and 1889 in Canterbury NZ and became seamstresses in their adult lives. They were very close and seem to have always lived together.  Like so many women of their generation, their opportunities to marry would have been greatly reduced, due to the sacrifice of so many of their male contemporaries in World War 1. To me they were my maiden great aunts Bess and Flo, who've featured in previous posts of mine, for example Sepia Saturday 191.

The photo below shows my mother Jean and her friend Colleen, doing a spot of housework in their aprons. Jean is cleaning a shoe and Colleen appears to be hanging something on the tree. Perhaps they had also been doing some cooking in their aprons. Both these ladies now reside in aged care homes and are in rather poor health, but back in 1946 they were young, vivacious and having fun on holiday in Dunedin. I believe they met as students at teachers training college in the 1940s and have kept in touch ever since, despite Jean moving from NZ to Australia in 1956. The large brick building that can be partially glimpsed in the distance is Knox College at the University of Otago in Dunedin.

For  posts on perhaps rather more dedicated workers in aprons and other takes on this week's theme photo above, just head to Sepia Saturday 206. You may or may not find some there!

7 February 2014  - More apron photos spotted, perhaps in more ways than one!

A few years later, my mother and Jocelyn Ward, another old speech therapist friend of hers, are at Waikuku Beach, Canterbury NZ on the Labour day holiday weekend and rather strangely appear to be wearing aprons back to front! Maybe because they were sitting down on a dirty floor to do a spot more cleaning?

Jean and Jocelyn wearing their aprons back to front for some unknown reason

 A few years later, Miss Mischief in Cambridge was carrying on the apron wearing tradition, although  probably not doing any cleaning, in fact probably the opposite was true.

 And finally, here's one of father Ian, manning the garden BBQ in Canberra, in the early 1970s, stylishly attired in his cap and apron.