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Review by Etta Wilson
When did you last see a woman wearing an apron in her home? About 45 years ago, anyone watching the "Ozzie and Harriet" show could have seen Harriet wearing one in her idealized homemaker role. During the 1970s, an apron was a regular part of Jean Stapleton's costume in her role as Edith Bunker on "All in the Family." But today's Murphy Brown, with child or without, has yet to appear in one of these protective coverings. Has the apron become an out-of-date badge of motherhood?
If so, Patricia McKissack restores the image in her new picture book, "Ma Dear's Aprons." She uses aprons to call to mind what single mothers did to support their children at the turn of the century. McKissack had inherited several aprons from her grandmother and great-grandmother, and bases the story on her great-grandmother's experiences as a domestic worker. It portrays a young boy's perception of the days of the week by looking at the different aprons his mother wears for the work to be done each day -- a blue one with deep pockets for clothespins on Monday, a yellow one to cheer her as she irons all day on Tuesday, etc., to the flowered one for baking on Saturday.
For women of that day, "the apron was a convenient, all-purpose tool, used to carry wood and kindling, to gather eggs and vegetables, to wipe their brows in the noonday sun, or just to hide a special treat for a willing helper," McKissack writes in the Author's Note. Technology had yet to develop washing machines, dryers or electric irons, not to mention central heat and air.
Scattered through the week -- and the story -- are little bits about Ma Dear and David Earl that tell us much more about the rich relationship between mother and son than about the chores that made wearing an apron a necessity. At bedtime, Ma Dear pulls a clothespin from her pocket, and it becomes a brave soldier standing at attention "who died fighting out West" (the boy's father). As Ma Dear and David Earl go to clean a mansion, she takes a piece of string from her apron pocket and teaches him how to make a Jacob's ladder.
"In my own way I tried to redefine the apron as a symbol of strength and courage," McKissack says. "I'd like for my readers, especially single parents and their children, to feel that 'family' means unity, and in unity there is strength."
Floyd Cooper's soft, warm illustrations capture the bond between mother and child so well. Cooper tells us that he used his wife and young son as models for Ma Dear and David Earl, and on many pages, our eyes are drawn to the faces of the two characters. In his muted backgrounds we see oil lamps, a dish cabinet, wash tubs and a grand piano of the period, but the focus is always on the mother and son.
McKissack doesn't believe in "going back to the good ol' days," but she does think we should know our past and treasure what is worthy of being remembered. She comes from a long line of storytellers.
"When our family comes together they ask for the same stories over and over," she says. "Now my grown children have begun tellling their own."
"Ma Dear's Aprons" is a dear book, whether you wear an apron or not.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
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