By Kevin Williams
This poem was sent to me by an Amish man named J. Schwartz in southern Indiana some years ago. He sent me a couple of poems but I "Googled" the verses from one and it came right up. No, I'm not accusing him of plagiarizing. Recipes, things, stories, get passed around and who knows what form they take. I'm pretty forgiving on stuff like that. Still, there was a second poem in the batch that he said he wrote that I googled and can't find anywhere, so I think he probably did write it. I googled exact phrases, phrase variations, etc and couldn't come up with anything. Now, watch, one of you will say "Oh, yeah The Apron, that's the most famous poem from the 1950s" or something. But I can't find anything about it.
Poetry is popular among a segment of the Amish, both male and female. I've read some pretty awful poetry and some pretty good stuff. It's way of expressing oneself and in a culture that doesn't do a ton of that poetry can be an important outlet for the Amish. Here is...The Apron, is it original or did I just goof in Googling?
THE APRON
One day I went to Grandma’s
And she was wearing something funny
When I asked her what it was she said
“Why it’s a cooking apron, honey.”
You wear it when you’re cooking
Soyou don’t mess up your clothes
When I asked if I could have too
She replied “Well, I suppose.”
So the next time I went to Grandma’s
She had a little surprise
She told me to turn around
And to close my little eyes
She had sewn me a little white apron
With hearts of yellow, red and blue
And as she put it on me, she whispered
“Now you can do some cooking, too.”
I loved that little apron
And it wore itall the day
When we made some special cookies
And even after when we went to play
I wanted to take it home with me
But Grandma said “no” it should stay
So I left it in the drawer by hers
For our next big cooking day
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