Barbara J. Hamby

Fun with Email

As I may have mentioned previously, my extended family participates in an ongoing email round robin that includes all of my sisters, all nieces and nephews who choose to join, and some cousins who like to be included.

Today my youngest sister forwarded a history of the apron that included photos of two apron patterns from the 1940’s. It’s probably unlikely that today’s youngsters know what an apron is or what a colorful history aprons have. Maybe if any have seen Gone With the Wind, they’ll remember Hattie McDaniel as Mammy, with apron and headscarf decorating her ample body.

We had a lot of fun exchanging emails about aprons, patterns and hairstyles. My daughter-in-law wondered how the rolled hair on top of the model’s head in a pattern picture was supported. I remembered that the device was called a “rat” and one of my sisters remembered it was constructed of cloth wrapped around tightly rolled cotton. Our mother wore one for some time. I suppose its size and shape reminded someone of a rat.

Talking about the hairdos of that era (40’s), reminded my sister that Toni home permanents were starting to come into use. I remember how awful the solution smelled and that my mother insisted that I roll her hair as tightly as possible, even though I feared I was hurting her. She had small cysts on her scalp and I didn’t realize until years later when I grew some myself, that they were not sensitive or painful.

Anyway, it was a fun walk down Memory Lane.

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