Chelle Summer

That Cooking Girl

Michelle Rusk

Chelle Summer aprons were inspired by the aprons Mrs. Rosales made for Megan, the main character of my novel, That Cooking Girl, fictional story that takes place in Albuquerque about a woman who ends up doing a weekly cooking segment on local television to replace someone who was fired. And that’s just half the story! The other half involves an actor named Nate and a rebuilt motel on Route 66.

Back to aprons though– Mrs. Rosales is Megan’s neighbor and she offers to make an apron for Megan to wear while appearing on her weekly cooking segment. I heard once that George Burns said when he and Gracie Allen were doing “The Burns and Allen Show” on television, women were often sending letters and commenting on the aprons she wore so then women started sending new ones that they had made for her to wear on television.

In my story, while Mrs. Rosales had a stash of cottons that she used to make the aprons, Megan always wearing a new one, mine are made from vintage fabrics, usually tablecloths that are longing for new life. I used to worry about the stains on the tablecloths, but one Thanksgiving (long before I was making aprons), I said something about a stain on a vintage tablecloth I was using that day and my neighbor commented that it was part of the story.

The prints, the fabric that has held up often for more than fifty years, and the stains are all part of the story. The story yet to be told is the new apron I’ve created and that I hope someone will create new memories (and food!) while wearing.