I am extremely proud to introduce you
…to this United Airlines silver spork.
Yes, of course it’s vintage. If United Airlines is still investing in non-disposable sporks, they can certainly no longer boast of the heft and silver-plating of the one in hand. Though I single out one spork in particular, I assure you it’s in excellent company: I am now the gleeful custodian of an entire collection of vintage airline silverware.
Pan Am, National, TWA and more: whole fleets of butter knives as sleek and stylized as you would expect from an era where we were really, really, really excited about going places in airplanes. We could hop on a plane to New York City for lunch if we wanted to, and damn if we weren’t going to stir sugar into coffee with something fabulous and modern whilst en route.
It’s clear that crossing the continents by airplane no longer thrills us to the extent that we celebrate it with salad forks. And if time machines were to be invented tomorrow, I kind of have no hope at all that we’d we’d spruce up the interior with thematic flatware and put on all our pencil skirts for the occasion. Have we become less enthusiastic in general, or just where the great feats of transportation are concerned?
To be fair to whatever inarguably less awesome flatware United is packing these days, we as passengers hold ourselves to different standards as well. As a hostess (air or otherwise) I’d not polish up my best branded silver if everyone were going to show up in their tracksuits and spend the whole time reading about the elective surgery of others.
Call my sky silverware silly and you’d be quite right. Is one any closer to living with an irrepressible sense of wonder, having locked up evidence of it in one’s silverware drawer? Or is one doomed to butter next week’s toast without a second’s pause for the great feats of aeronautics? Some consolation can be had in the conviction that life’s bigger questions are best considered over a fine entree. We’re grateful to TWA for the oyster forks, just in case the circumstance should require them.
D insists that we preferentially fly Swiss Air, when going internationally, because they have the best flatware. We may or may not have several pieces in our kitchen right now.
very cool. now to start a collection of airline wing pins.
xo
This is interesting!! And very cool!
THIS is some of your finest work yet, Bethykins. Really, you’ve outdone yourself this time.
Also, more honeymoon/garden pics, please. And obviously wedding pics, but you’re probably waiting on your photog for that. And chickens, we want to see the post-wedding teenage chickens.
Hmmm… I think an irrepressible sense of wonder is definitely what I need more of in my life right now. Thank you for the reminder.
my mom had a boyfriend in the 80′s who had a complete set of american airlines flatware. he stole it every time he flew