Silver Spoon

I still have that little silver spoon my mother would only feed me with.  I was literally born with a silver spoon in my mouth! As we all know, this saying became a derogatory term used to accuse ones upbringing as being privileged, to being plain spoiled. I certainly couldn’t be called spoiled in my upbringing, far from it. But my mother still used a silver spoon and not because she thought of it as a shiny status token. No, she thought that babies should only be fed with a silver spoon because it was healthy. She did not like plastic or metal and she had been told by her mother that anything other than a silver spoon could carry germs. This is true and it is a tradition that began during the plagues of the Middle Ages for the same practical reason, that it was safe. Silver didn’t spread infection or germs that could kill you or make you sick! Silver ware in general was developed for practical hygienic reasons. The baby’s silver spoon was a frontline weapon against disease and infection.

So there you go, the humble silver spoon Stephen Spurling

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