Apron: Fashion Accessory?

I was looking for an interesting pattern (free pattern...yes, I am just that cheap) for an apron and look what turned up. The woman who wrote this back in 1926 took her aprons seriously!

Did you ever stop to consider how many different kinds of aprons there were? A great, big, roomy, coverall apron for mother when guests are expected and important things are happening in the kitchen. A wee bit of a lace apron for the person who is in charge of the tea-urn at five o'clock. A smart bungalow apron to make household duties seem pleasant, and a rather petty apron with deep pockets for the sewing room. And, of course, sweet little aprons for the kiddies—gaily colored and bound with an almost grown-up regard for smartness.

You see, there are really so many interesting kinds of aprons that the subject deserves a lesson all by itself. We're going to teach you little important points about tea-aprons and work-aprons, children's aprons and chafing-dish aprons. And when you are all finished with the lesson, you are actually going to make a pretty apron for yourself.

It sounds like something out of a simpler, safer and happier time, but every generation has it's burdens. The women who were sewing aprons in 1926 were just a few years away from the Great Depression, child birth was a major cause of death for women, and people still routinely died from smallpox. I need to remind myself of these things when I yearn for simpler times.