Collectively Speaking: For Dorothy Noble, It’s Souvenir Spoons

The walnut display case placed on a kitchen entry wall may be small but it holds a lifetime of memories and travel experiences for Dorothy Noble. In fact, her collection of souvenir spoons includes about a dozen that belonged to her mother, who died while Noble was still in high school.

“The first one I collected was at Pike's Peak that I bought as a little girl, with my own money,” said Noble. Her father thought she should have her mother’s collection since she enjoyed them so much. “So, to honor her, I started collecting them.”

She now has more than 50 and they represent travels to distant lands—principally Australia—as well as typical stateside travels to Las Vegas, Niagara Falls and quirky destinations like Roswell, N.M., best known for purported UFO sightings.

As to the Australia connection, her father emigrated from Adelaide, Australia.

“He came here to the states on a Fulbright scholarship and came back to teach at Brown University,” explained Noble. “That’s where he met my mother; she was a student at Brown.” He became a U.S. citizen in the 1970s.

“My dad’s sisters are still [in Australia] and all my cousins. I keep in touch on Facebook and someone comes to visit about every 18 months,” said Noble. Growing up, she and her family visited every other year.

She traveled there by herself at age 19 and stayed for four months. That was her last visit until 2006, when she shared her experience with her husband, Dan, and their three young sons: Gabe, Sam, and Ian, now 14, 11 and 6, respectively. On that trip, they stayed for three weeks.

There is no such thing as a short jaunt to Australia. First of all, it takes more than 24 hours to reach your destination, even now. In her youth, it was necessary to make a stop crossing the Pacific— either Hawaii or Tahiti. “That’s not too bad,” said Noble.

In taking the spoons out of the case for this writer to see, she shared stories of selected spoons in the collection.

“It started with [her mother’s] baby spoon, which had been given to her and it’s from Carlsbad, California.”

Of particular interest is the one from Chartres, France, as Chartres is Noble’s maiden name. When her parents married and honeymooned in France, her mother added a spoon that depicted the famous cathedral located there.

Noble’s current collection includes more from Australia than any other single place. One depicting Rose Park Church in Adelaide is particularly meaningful because it is where her father attended church growing up. Others have typical symbols of popular icons of that continent, such as an Aborigine, the kookaburra, koala and kangaroo.

Her grandparents retired to Texas so, naturally, her collection includes a spoon from that state.

“Of course, the Texas one is too big to fit easily in the case,” she pointed out.

One would expect to see spoons with intricate carved designs or painted pictures depicting landmark sites, but not one that captures the image of an alien creature—with outsized head.

It was a gift from her husband when he worked as a project manager at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He brought back a handful of spoons from his travels to various Indian reservations as well as this visitor—perhaps from a UFO—purchased in Roswell, NM.

While souvenir spoons are usually thought of as decorative rather than utilitarian, three are put to daily use by their youngest, Ian, a first-grader at . “He eats his Cheerios with them,” said Noble.

She traveled to London while pregnant with Ian, and the spoons featuring a black London taxi and a double-decker bus look much worn and well used. The other spoon he favors is one that was a gift to Dorothy from a girlfriend, in honor of his birth.

Her collection includes two large spoons made of wood. Noble explained that two countries have a wooden souvenir spoon tradition: Wales and Romania. Even though she has visited Wales, she only brought back spoons from Romania, which the family visited in April of this year.

Their reason for going had a family connection. Her uncle, Mark Gitenstein, is the U.S. ambassador to Romania. His great grandparents hailed from Romania. In fact, Noble said he might be the first Jewish ambassador with roots in that country.

Noble explained the symbolism of the intricately carved spoons. The dragon protects homes and castles. The rooster represents hope, as it signals the dawning of the day. “Actually got them in Transylvania, from the spoon man,” she laughed.

Their visit was a study in contrasts. First, they had the opportunity to stay at the luxurious ambassador’s residence. But they also took the time to travel around the countryside, which was a stark departure.

“Since the country has just recently emerged from Communist rule,” said Noble, it was tough to travel. “There is no reliable form of transportation; people take advantage.” She considered it an eye-opening experience for her children.

When Dorothy Noble isn’t traveling to distant lands, she works part time as a project management consultant at AEG Environmental in Westminster. She also teaches chemistry to homeschooled students, in a program run through in Catonsville.