@Shelby, that might be almost the right era for those spoons. @IowaDee, you're very close.
I took a break from the desert and drove to San Diego to visit my best friend and part of her family. She and her husband recently returned from a career overseas and I am delighted to have them back in the country. (I had hoped to arrive in time to scoop up my friend and her son, if he was interested, and get to @FrogPrincesse's daughter's Christmas market, but I didn't arrive with enough time or energy to make the drive to the other end of San Diego.)
One of the weekend's festivities was the annual party for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. It's a pot luck lunch, a fundraiser, and a chance for the Peace Corps folks to make plans for the next year. The lunch was an excellent feast, and I wish I'd taken photos. Many people brought foods from the countries where they had served. My friend's son, just back from Senegal, brought an excellent mafé and there was at least one more peanut stew; there were South American foods and Indian foods and foods from various parts of the South Pacific.
The fundraiser was a silent auction. People could bid on trips, restaurant or zoo tickets, or various items: clothing, basketry, gift baskets, pottery, and so on...some new, some donated from people's households as they downsized. Those of you who have been reading along know that I'm a sucker for gadgetry and cookware. I perused the tables, saw some major bargains, thought "it's for a good cause!" and bid. Some items I bid on because they were appealing and I couldn't stand to see them orphaned with no bids. Some items I truly wanted, and watched to see if I was outbid. When the time came, I found that I'd won the bids on:
A Christmas basket that included a bottle of wine, carefully wrapped (we drank it at my friends' house, and I left the basket with them);
Some fun Egyptian mugs that I would never have bought in Egypt for myself;
A small but heavy wooden spice grinder and spice box ("Oh, Nance," exclaimed my friend, "if we'd known you'd want that we'd have given it to you instead of donating it!")
and
A beautifully basketed collection titled "Let's Cook!" I left this basket behind too, and my friends will use it or give it away. Look at what-all was included! The colored stripey things at the upper left are place mats made of fine wooden sticks, the kind that roll up easily. I couldn't resist.
All that stuff - and a Guatemalan handbag, not shown - set me back $38. As I was paying at the checkout table, a woman came up, spotted the "Let's Cook!" basket and said, "Oh, good! I was hoping somebody would give that a good home. I've had those salad servers since my Peace Corp stint in Romania, in the early '60's. I thought it was time to let somebody else enjoy them."
My friend's husband is only semi-retired, and was away during most of my visit. I stayed an extra day in order to see him. Bless him, he brought a gift!
I'm not sure what the binding agent is other than honey, but these are sweet, crunchy, nutty, delicious little bites of sesame seeds and nuts. Lovely stuff.
