When Jan Jerdee wrote a program on aprons for Albert Lea’s sesquicentennial in 2006, she thought she’d present it around town for the year and that would be the end of it.

But she was asked to do it again during Minnesota’s sesquicentennial, so she added stoves.

“It’s taken on a life of its own,” Jerdee said of the program, “150 Years of Aprons and Stoves,” which she presents with the help of Alyce Jacobsen, Carol Wolter and Shirley Chryst.

Last Wednesday, they presented their program at Trinity Lutheran Church Women’s annual guest day. It was the 25th time they’d done it.

Jerdee said she chose aprons because the sesquicentennial committee was looking for ways to include nursing home residents in the celebration.

“When we looked at the demographics in the nursing homes, there are a lot of women, so we to tried focus on the heart of the home — and that’s where we got aprons,” she said.

The idea, she said, was to trigger memories of the kitchen, mothers and grandmothers.

Jerdee said she worked on writing the program over a couple weeks’ span. “The Internet makes it easy, and I have books about older things,” she said. She added trivia about Albert Lea and things people remember.

She said there are now seven different versions of the show, depending on where they present it (there is now a special version just for Iowa) and who can make it. Kelly Schultz has been known to fill in for one of the helpers if one can’t attend; Eileen Ness has provided music in a pinch. Otherwise, they modify the show.

“We have a player, speaker, flipper and hanger,” Jerdee said of the help needed to present the program. She is the speaker. Chryst plays songs of the different eras on the piano. Walter flips the transparencies on the overhead projector. Jacobsen hangs aprons on a clothesline as part of the program. “We call Alyce the apron master,” Jerdee said.

Wolter got involved because she was sesquicentennial co-chairwoman. Chryst knew songs of many eras.

The program lasts about an hour.

Any honorariums the group receives for doing the program are donated to the Freeborn County Historical Museum’s education days program.

At first, they borrowed most of the aprons from the museum or from friends. But over time, Jerdee would find aprons left by her back door.

“We have quite a large collection now,” she said.

People have also sent them poems, some of which they’ve been able to incorporate into the program. Jacobsen reads one titled “The Clothesline” at the beginning of the show.

Age: “I’m beyond 65”

Residence: 1313 Southview Lane, Albert Lea

Family:

husband, Lowell, and three grown daughters

Livelihood: Insurance agent

Interesting fact: She and Lowell are fluent in sign language.

Jerdee has separated the program into eras of 25 years each, starting with 1858. She includes the price of eggs and flour at that time and highlights some of the biggest news of the era, including key inventions, who was president and who was governor. Wolter shows pictures of what stoves were like during that era. Jacobsen hangs an apron that corresponds to the era on the line. Chryst plays songs of the time period. They invite the audience to sing along.

Jerdee said the idea was to spark interest and get people to write down their own stories of aprons, stoves or whatever stood out.

She said just when she thinks the program has been done for the last time, it seems to have a surge in popularity.

They’ve had lots of fun doing the programs, she said, adding personally, “I like to talk.”

As a member of the fundraising committee for the Christ Through Hands Ministry in Faribault, Jerdee has an additional seven programs she presents for groups.

She got involved with the ministry because of her youngest daughter, Karen, who is deaf.

“This is one way I can help,” Jerdee said of the program. “I had to seek outside myself.”