"Worn by pioneers on the westward trail, these aprons were front and center for all the high drama and hard work it took to invent this country.

Homesteading alongside the men, women tucked their dresses into their apron waistbands to clear and plow the fields, then unfurled the apron to carry grain to the chickens, gather eggs and harvest vegetables from the garden. The apron was wrapped around the hands to remove a pan of hot biscuits from the oven, it shooed flies from the table and waved from the porch to signal that dinner was ready. On a single day, an apron might wipe a child's tears, the sweat off a brow, and flour from the hands, plus ward off a chill and hide a rifle."

"An apron is like a woman — the bib is her bosom, the skirt is the lap, the pocket is the purse. And like an apron's human counterpart, it is the variations on these parts that make each one unique."

— "The Apron Book," by EllynAnne Geisel

(Andrews McMeel Publishing, $16.95)