I began by asking several ladies to tell the rest of us about their engagement rings – how old they were when they received it, did they go to the jeweller to select it themself or did their fiancée choose the ring and present it to her? A couple of ladies told of how their fiancée had proposed on his knees and others told of having the ring purchased by the ‘lay-by’ system of paying a little each week. Try this idea next time you are with a group of female friends.

The first apron I showed was the 1920’s model – a mauve floral fabric, edged with gold rick rack braid, with a bodice that needed to be pinned to the wearer’s frock. While the ladies admired it, none of them had any stories from this era.

We then moved on in time to the 1930’s apron – creamy calico with bright flowers embroidered across the bodice, pocket and the bottom, it is my favourite apron. It reminded one lady of the kind of sewing she did at school on Friday afternoon and another said her mother wore a similar apron when serving afternoon tea to the vicar. Some others thought that it had been made for someone’s ‘glory box’ and had never been worn.

The 1940’s apron, made from blue and white gingham, with the seams and edges piped with blue bias binding brought forth a flurry of wartime stories – of food shortages and rationing of just about everything. One lady told us of having to sew her own underwear, using buttons to do up both her bra and ‘scanties’ owing to a shortage of elastic!

Green cotton with sprigs of pink buds and a pink and white polka dot frill around the bottom, the 1950’s apron brought forth many stories of new labour saving devices for the housewife – electric vacuum cleaners instead of the trusty old carpet sweeper, washing machines that handled the family wash in a quarter of the time and electric jugs and toasters made short work at breakfast time.

Do you wear an apron when you do household chores like cooking, cleaning and washing? What type of apron do you wear – a pretty, frilly apron in a bright cheery colour combination or a straight and practical ‘butchers’ style in serviceable navy and white stripe?

What memories do you have of the aprons you have worn or seen during your lifetime? What other uses have you used your apron for – a receptacle for collecting the eggs from the chook house, protection from rain, to gather fresh fruit or vegetable from the garden or to staunch the flow of blood from an accident? I’d love to hear YOUR apron stories.

I always advise them to ask the kind of questions that they have always wanted to ask or to ask their relative to write down the answers to prompts like these on the list below.

Stories are made of this

Once you are ready, using a new page, write or type the name, year and current address of the person to who you are directing your attention and add the following sentence openers in dot point format.

Ask your relative to write a sentence or two about each prompt. If they are enthusiastic about this project, draw up another and subsequent pages, which will probably provide a better insight about his/her life.

• Don’t talk to me about –

• The secret to success is –

• Three people I’d love to invite to dinner are –

• When I was a kid I wanted to be –

• The actor who should play me in a movie would be –

• My favourite book is –

As a wee girl, I was involved with this process of country hospitality and loved deciding whether to put the pink or blue cups and saucers on to the cloth covered tray, filling the milk jug with our own fresh milk and placing the sugar bowl and silver tea strainer at the ready. Gran tied a large apron under my armpits, stood me on a stool beside her at the large scrubbed kitchen table and taught me such culinary secrets as how to rub the butter (homemade, of course) into the flour and salt in the big brown bowl.

“Lift your hands up out of the bowl, hen; only use your wee finger tips; stop as soon as it looks like breadcrumbs”, said Gran, who renowned for having that elusive, but  highly praised, quality of  ‘light touch’ in the local Caboolture district. As I grew a little older, I progressed to cracking the freshly laid eggs into the jug of golden buttermilk, before the whole gooey mess was quickly combined with a blunt-ended knife.

“Don’t overwork the dough; just tip it out and lightly pat it until the dough is an inch thick, darlin’, that’s my girl,” she instructed, her deft hands quickly cutting the mixture with a small sherry glass kept for this purpose. “Pop the tray into the oven when I open the door, we mustn’t let the heat escape.”

Impatiently we waited the eight or so minutes for the scones to rise in the old Aga oven, turning into fragrant golden puffs, which were quickly turned out into a tea-towel lined colander to cool a little until I could carefully arrange them on a rose-patterned plate. Clotted cream, several varieties of homemade jam, a plate of Anzac biscuits and some slices of Gran’s Dundee cake nestled beside the still steaming scones on the tea tray. We were now ready to face our unknown visitors.

As the sound of the wrenched hand brake reached us in the kitchen, Gran whipped off our aprons, patted her hair in place, wiped a smudge of flour off my cheek and pushed me forward to greet our guests. “Come in, come in,” she beckoned. “The kettle is on the boil and the scones have just come out of the oven”. Our visitors were often mystified as to how Grandma had known they were arriving, but she’d just put her head on the side and say, somewhat coyly, that ‘a little bird had told her’!

Sitting down together in the comfortable sitting room, enjoying the simple pleasure of a cup of tea and a freshly made scone, was a routine which could be repeated several times during the day at ‘Kia Ora’.  People in the district, friends or family  called in, usually unannounced, to discuss the price of beef at the last sale, the weather (good or bad), someone’s latest marriage or baby, or just to exchange general local news.

Gran often bought and sold her prized Hereford cattle, discussed her cattle breeding program, exchanged recipes or hired new station hands with a scone in one hand and a cup of tea in the other, and followed up with a brisk handshake. She had very little use for contacts or signed documents, maintaining that a firm handshake and an ‘eye to eye gaze’ was all she needed to seal a deal! But she always kept quiet about the turkeys’ role in her country hospitality ritual, and I was sworn to secrecy!

With these simple gestures and routines of warm, friendly Australian country hospitality to unexpected visitors, learned at the knee of a woman whose entire life revolved around family love and open friendship to all comers, I learned that love is best expressed often, in simple words and deeds.

Benefits for Your Children

1. Only you can provide a link between your children and grandchildren to their grandparents and great grandparents – you are the conduit between the eras.

2. Sharing your memories in a tangible way (i.e. written down), gives your family a precious part of you that they can treasure forever and pass on to their children and grandchildren.

3. You’re the best person to tell the story of your life, reflecting on the wisdom gained and the lessons learned along the way.

4. Your life provides young people with a glimpse inside a not-too-far-distant past which seems foreign to them, as they are part of the fast technological era of the 21^st century.

5. The stories you share provide historical accuracy and background about what life was like for you, your generation and the times you lived through.

Personal Benefits

6. Reflecting on your life can help you to realise how much you have achieved and the important role/s you have played in the lives of others.

7. Recalling your early days, and the goals you set for yourself, can help you to realise that many of your dreams have been achieved along the way.

Family Benefits

8. Stories told by your parents and grandparents can be passed on to future generations of the family, thereby adding buds, flowers and foliage to the rather bare family tree.

9. Leaving your life story is a priceless legacy to bequeath to your family which they will treasure forever.

10. Important family health information can be recorded for future family members.

11. Precious photos and memorabilia can be preserved with the memoir, with their significance noted and recorded for the future.

12. Your life, complete with sorrows and triumphs, will stand as a living testimony to your loved ones – adversity can be overcome, sorrow passes with time, happiness returns after a tragedy and that anything is possible if you work hard for it.

13. Leaving your story is a priceless legacy that your grandchildren and future generations will cherish forever.

What legacy will you leave behind? How will you family remember you?

Long gloves. The photos showed long black kid leather gloves and that reminded me of my childhood and teenage years where gloves were part of our school uniform. My mother wore gloves every time she went to town – lacy knitted pearl linen in the summer and either kid or suede leather during the winter. We wore fawn gloves to school and prefects checked for gloves as we left school.

When my friends and I went to balls, we wore long white gloves – over our elbows, halfway up the upper arm if the dress was sleeveless or below elbow if the frock had short sleeves, and our partners also wore white gloves so as not to leave greasy hand marks when we danced, leaving 12 “ between us at all times.

False eyelashes. We often wore two pairs of these at a time in the Carnaby Street era, along with lashings of black eyeliner to achieve the ‘Twiggy’ look. I recall dancing ‘cheek to cheek’ with a man wearing a white tuxedo and being very embarrassed when my eyelashes stuck to his jacket lapel as the music ended.  He thought it was a spider and tried to brush the intruder off!

Classic Look. Both Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn knew that ‘less is more’ when it came to fashion in the 1950’s and Jackie Kennedy favoured the understated classic look which made everyone copy her in the ‘60’s – simple little straight dress, low heeled pumps, bouffant hairdo and a strand of pearls.

Trench Coats. These beige, bone or dove grey waterproof coats were not just worn by international espionage spies but also by those of us who wanted to capture that sophisticated look without all of the James Bond-type of gizmos that went with it. They also kept the rain off!

Aprons. As far as I am concerned, these never went out of fashion, but I am thrilled to see the girls in Desperate Housewives wearing some simply gorgeous aprons. My own collection stretches back to aprons from 1920 and each decade up to 2010 and include some pretty hand embroidered numbers.

What is your favourite classic fashion piece – a string of pearls, a little black dress or perhaps a pair of Levis, a white tee shirt and a pair of penny loafers? I’d love to hear your thoughts about new or old classic fashions.

Let me list some of my special ‘new’ fashion trends.

Long gloves. The photos showed long black kid leather gloves and that reminded me of my childhood and teenage years where gloves were part of our school uniform. My mother wore gloves every time she went to town – lacy knitted pearl linen in the summer and either kid or suede leather during the winter. When I went to balls, we wore long white gloves over our elbows if the dress was sleeveless or below elbow if the frock had short sleeves, and our partners also wore white gloves so as not to leave greasy hand marks when we danced, leaving 12 “ between us at all times.

False eyelashes. We often wore two pairs of these at a time in the Carnaby Street era, along with lashings of black eyeliner to achieve the ‘Twiggy’ look. I recall dancing ‘cheek to cheek’ with a man wearing a white tuxedo and being very embarrassed when my eyelashes stuck to his jacket lapel as the music ended.  He thought it was a spider and tried to brush the intruder off!

Classic Look. Both Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn knew that ‘less is more’ when it came to fashion in the 1950’s and Jackie Kennedy favoured the understated classic look which made everyone copy her in the ‘60’s – simple little straight dress, low heeled pumps, bouffant hairdo and a strand of pearls.

Trench Coats. These beige, bone or dove grey waterproof coats were not just worn by international espionage spies but also by those of us who wanted to capture the casual yet sophisticated look without all of the James Bond-type of gizmos that went with it.

Aprons. As far as I am concerned, these never went out of fashion, but I am thrilled to see the girls in Desperate Housewives wearing some simply gorgeous aprons. My own collection stretches back to aprons from 1920 and each decade up to 2010 and include some pretty hand embroidered numbers.

What is your favourite classic fashion piece – a string of pearls, a little black dress or perhaps a pair of Levis, a white tee shirt and a pair of penny loafers? What fashion styles did your mother wear?  I’d love to hear your thoughts about new or old classic fashions.

Pa Wallace, a huge 6 foot plus man, always wore a waistcoat, and in the pocket he kept   his rabbit’s foot  key ring, which, as well as a large bunch of keys, also held a silver Wallace clan crest and a glass eye on a short chain. He often stroked the rabbit’s foot (which had been treated by a taxidermist and was an intact foot, complete with fur and claws) to bring him good luck.

As a small child, Pa’s keys had a horrible fascination for me, especially when he left me sitting alone in his car; he placed the bunch of keys on the dash board, with the glass eye turned towards me, “to keep an eye on you.” Gingerly, I’d reach up and gently stroke the rabbit’s foot to bring me good luck while Pa was inside, often buying me an ice cream in a cone, thereby convincing me that rubbing the rabbit’s foot really did bring good luck.

Grannie Wallace always placed a silver coin inside every purse or handbag she gave as a gift or passed on to one of her daughters or granddaughters, believing that the coin would bring good luck and wealth to the woman and her family. I have also carried on this superstition mainly because of the joy and surprise I see on the face of the recipient when they discover the silver coin.

She also had a dainty little silver Irish brooch, with a glass-covered preserved shamrock leaf inside, which she loved to wear when she went to the races or to buy more breeding stock for her Hereford cattle stud, as she believed it would bring her good luck.

At the farm, there were horseshoes nailed over the doorways into the barn, the stables, the milking shed etc, turned upwards to ‘keep the good luck from running out’ and I remember stockmen lifting out of the saddle to touch the horseshoe as they entered the barn at the end of day.

What family superstitions have become regular habits in your family? Perhaps Mum throws a pinch of salt over her shoulder when she spills the salt to ward off bad luck? Maybe your family believes that the number 13 is unlucky or you should never allow a black cat to cross your path.

I’d love to hear about your family superstitions and how you came by them.

As a small child, I always had an apron tied under my armpits to help Grannie with jobs such as rubbing butter into flour for scones, using a rotary eggbeater to whip up egg whites for a sponge cake or pavlova, and to help whip up the hot washing up water with a small square of yellow Velvet soap in a wire cage with a long handle.

When I started school, I was introduced to the pinafore or cross-over, which we wore every day over either my summer or winter uniforms. When the temperature rose to over 100 degrees F, a message from the Headmistress would boom through the loud speaker in each classroom, permitting us to remove our pinafores.

Grannie Wallace had a multitude of uses for her aprons, which she had usually made herself on her Singer treadle sewing machine, in her day to day life on a busy farm:

• The bottom was used as a handy pot holder to move hot pans in the oven, or to remove cakes from cake tins to place on the window sill to cool.
• From the chook yard, Grannie carefully carried the day’s freshly laid eggs and sometimes, half hatched eggs to fully hatch in the warming oven of the wood stove.
• When visitors arrived, it provided the ideal place for shy kids to hide behind, peeping out from the safety of the apron skirt.
• Gran often used her apron to staunch the flow of blood from a nose-bleed or an accident, or to wrap chipped ice in to ease a sprain.
• When the weather was cold, reversing her apron, she often wrapped it around her shoulders as she walked down to the milking shed, or pulled it over her head to keep the rain off.

I have many memories of my Gran wearing her apron, and when I speak to groups, I like to wear one of my collection of aprons from different decades from the 20^th century.

Who do you remember from your childhood regularly wearing an apron on a daily basis? Did she wear it every day or only while doing specific chores? Have you saved her aprons? Did you wear an apron at any stage of your life? Perhaps, if you are a man, you wore a leather tool apron? Perhaps you know of an aunt who wore a gauzy ‘cocktail’ apron when entertaining?

I’d love to hear your apron stories. Please post your family’s apron stories here.

Make up your list, comprised of both large and small things, that you wish to thank Mum for, and either handwrite them or type them into a document. What now?

• Buy a pretty notebook and write them directly into the book, under the Mother’s Day 2010 heading, and add new items to the book each year.
• Frame the list in a pretty frame, or make it into a scrapbook page.
• Perhaps you’d prefer to list it on your social networking page for all to see eg Facebook, or you could ‘Tweet’ Mum via Twitter.
• If you’d like to start a permanent record about your Mum (stories from your childhood, stories from her siblings or her grandchildren, photos and her favourite song etc), why not open a private vault in the Treasury of Heritage in which to store all of these prized items?
• Entry to the Treasury is free, and is password protected so that you have complete control over who has access to Mum’s site. Mum could then return to your tributes for 2010 over and over again, when ever she wished.To access the Treasury of Heritage, click on to Annie’s website www.historyfromtheheart.com.au and follow the links to the Treasury. While you are there, why not look at Aunt Ruby’s blogs?

Some other ideas for you to try:

• Make up some small business cards, with ‘World’s Best Mum’ as the job description, decorate the card with scrap book embellishments.
• Write a poem for Mum and frame it for her to hang on her wall.
• Plant a small lavender or rosemary plant in a terracotta pot and make a sign that says ‘Each day you grow more wonderful (or wise or beautiful etc)’ and place it into the pot.
• Frame, in a pretty frame, a special card or letter that Mum wrote or sent to you.
• Make a ‘Best Ever Mum’ book – buy an empty notebook or journal and ask everyone who knows your Mum to write down why they think she is a special, unique person. Fill the book with these written notes, photos of Mum from childhood onwards and any favourite sayings or quotes.
• Make a ‘Mum’s Best Recipes Book’ by inviting family and friends to write down their favourite recipe from your Mum. Scan in a photo of each person beside their favourite recipe and place them all in a folder with plastic sheets to cover the recipe and protect it from drips, drops and spots.

“This year, try using some of these simple, but effective ideas to make Mother’s Day 2010 extra special for your Mum,” said Annie Payne. “Most mothers don’t want elaborate or expensive gifts, they would rather have something with special meaning.”

The Australian women became hives of industry and formed small groups to knit woollen socks, gloves and scarves or to roll bandages made from clean linen. Others baked boiled fruitcakes, studded with Australian dried apricots, currants, raisins and sultanas, which could be wrapped in muslin and packed into an airtight tin. The other great standby for the women at home to bake and pack into tins were Anzac biscuits, made with butter, golden syrup and rolled oats and I still bake them today.

Why don’t you bake a batch on Anzac Day 2010 to mark the 95th landing of Australian troops at Gallipoli? Here’s my trusty recipe, passed down through several generations of my Dad’s family.

Anzac Biscuits
Makes about 25 biscuits and takes about 35 minutes to make and bake.

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup desiccated coconut
125 grm butter
2 tabsp golden syrup
1 tabsp water
½ teasp bicarb soda

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160degrees C (or 140 degrees C for a fan forced oven). Grease oven trays and line with baking paper.
2. Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar and coconut in a large bowl. Combine butter, syrup, and the water in a small saucepan, stir over a low heat until butter has melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in soda and stir into dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
3. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls: Place on oven trays about 5cms apart and flatten slightly. Bake for about 20 minutes and allow to cool on trays before storing in an airtight container.

Anzac biscuits are best enjoyed over a good cup of tea and a chat with family or friends.