Because I have a horrible cold and very little imagination, I crowdsourced today’s spoon through Facebook.
My friend Michelle suggested “Manitoba, Chicago, or Napa Valley.” Manitoba was the obvious choice because A) who doesn’t love Canada?, B) Manitoba has a pleasingly odd shape, and C) I actually have a spoon from Manitoba.
This spoon is probably silverplate, but has no identifying marks. The top of the spoon has a small enamel bit in the shape of the province of Manitoba, with the cities of Winnipeg (south) and Churchill (north) marked on it. The massive blob in the middle is Lake Winnipeg and the tiny blob underneath “Manitoba” is probably a poorly drawn buffalo.
The bowl of the spoon says “Churchill Tour” which could be one of those tours where you get to see polar bears, or it could be commemorating the July 1970 British Royal tour of Manitoba by Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, and Princess Anne to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Manitoba’s entry into Confederation. (This was also Prince Charles’ first visit to Canada, and he spent some of his time there fishing for trout in Baker’s Narrows, near Flin Flon, where he awkwardly tried to converse with the local teens, as seen here in footage from the CBC Digital Archives: