USAT

The engraving stands for:
United States Army Transport

Pretty simple isn't it?....nothing grand, or fancy, and yet somehow it has survived.

It very well began it's life with our family in Anchorage, Alaska shortly after Mom & Dad were married in 1949. From there the boxes were crated and moved to the Presido in San Francisco, California...then to Ft. Mead, Maryland....on to an international move to Munich, Germany, back to the states with a year at Ft. Belviour, Virginia...and on to what would become our final military post.

As we packed up the station wagon, and hooked up the trailer for our cross country move back one more time to the Presidio in San Francisco, California, in all the packing and unpacking, it was still there.

There were treasured dolls, bikes, games, and books, that did not survive my childhood or make the final weight limits for the military move. Those treasures were left behind and given to friends, such was~and possibly, still is~life as a military family.

When Dad retired from the US Army and we packed for the last time to move, for one last time...we were finally civilians...on our own now...free to go when and where we pleased, when we unpacked in Puyallup, Washington...it was there.

Sometime later, after the we kids were grown and gone from our childhood home, Mom and Dad "downsized"...and the fork became mine. Mom brought it over to me one day and handed it to me, unceremoniously simple. She simply stated, "It's yours now."

I don't really know if there were ever any other USAT forks. I asked mom once, and she had sort of lost track if there had been...I guess in the raising of a family, forks aren't high on a priority list :)

There were a couple of other pieces of "mess hall" silverware that survived the journey...there is a serving spoon, as well as a teaspoon in my kitchen drawer, but neither of those pieces held the charm for me, like this particular fork.

There are other forks in my kitchen...forks that match a pattern of silverware lined neatly in a tray in the kitchen drawer, forks from my my mother's silver set that graces our table on special occasion meals. There are plastic forks, and mismatched forks, but this is MY fork :)

This is the fork I reach for, look for and search for, when a recipe calls for me to "stir in with a fork" any number of ingredients. This is the fork I use when I am making the crust for pumpkin pie, tea rings for Christmas, or scones on any given Saturday. On any ordinary day, for any ordinary purpose, any number of forks will do.

Whether the kitchen is a hive of activity, or I am the solitary chef...the stage for celebrating has been set. This is the fork that declares by my using it, "This occasion is a Celebration!"

Yes, THIS is the fork I reach for...look for..and will actually search for. This is the fork of my childhood.

Some day I will tell you about my favorite plate :)