Just back from a visit to my Mum’s house to do some serious sorting out. It took my sister-in-law and I all afternoon just to go through the cupboards in her tiny kitchen! We found some absolute wonders which I’ll share with you over the coming weeks when I haven’t prepared a bookish post.
Today, firstly, I’d like offer an apology on behalf of my late mother … I know you’re not meant to ‘borrow’ airline cutlery, but you can never have enough teaspoons, or know when they’ll come in useful! However, if any of the airlines involved below would like theirs back, do contact me …
As you’ll see, there’s a bit of a theme going on – from the left …
- Dan-Air – absorbed into BA in 1992;
- British Caledonian – absorbed into BA in 1988;
- Iberia – still going – although nearly merged into BA once;
- British Airways x 2 teaspoons.
Now onto the forks.
- British European Airways (BEA) merged with BOAC to become BA;
- British Overseas Airways Company (BOAC) merged with BEA to become BA;
- British Midland – now called BMI but still going;
- and finally, British Airways again.
Oh dear, this is hilarious. Do you think she took them deliberately? Or were they accidental acquisitions? Although I’m not sure I’d believe anyone who exclaimed “oh dear, I think a teaspoon/fork might have fallen into my hand luggage!”
Knowing my Mum, I think she will have thought that a teaspoon could come in useful on holiday – I’m seeing them as ‘souvenirs’!
Spoons! Definitely saleable on ebay. I think you should treat these as valuable airlooms
sorry – heirlooms (is that right?)
Groan! I <3 puns.
Hahaha brilliant, I bet they are collectors items you know, people get really obsessive with things to do with airplanes (I married one such person!)
My brother is another – He works for BA, studied air transport engineering at uni, and as a young teenager used to torture me with piles of airline postcards to name the plane and airlines, and we used to go plane-spotting at Gatwick.
There was a time when ‘Virgin Atlantic’ had salt and pepper pots in the shape of little planes. They had ‘Virgin Atlantic’ stamped on the bottoms, but they used to get so many taken as souvenirs, that at one point, they actually started marking the bottoms with”Stolen from Virgin Atlantic”.
Now that’s a real guilt trip.
Plane spotting at Gatwick! Those were the days, right? My mum is like your mum, I’m scared to root through her collection of airline ‘collectibles’.