Ridiculous Objects: The Early Years

I received the following pennant when I moved away from Nanton, Alberta in 1983, from a friend at a going-away party. At the time, I thought the pennant was goofy and I would have preferred something for my Barbie or a book. But, ever gracious, I said thank you and brought it home.

My slightly older cousins saw this and laughed their asses off. For here, we have a day-glo orange moose (or elk? I think moose have thicker antlers and the hump on the back of the neck) crossing a cool mountain stream in the middle of a refreshing and shady forest. It's kind of what you would picture for Western Alberta, what with the Rocky Mountains and all, so it's funny when you realize that Nanton looks like this:

Nanton, Alberta is a prairie town about 40 minutes south of Calgary. There are farms and cows and grain elevators. There are a profound lack of forests, cool rushing streams and day-glo orange moose. When my cousins pointed this out, I was not ever able to get rid of this pennant. I think this is the first ridiculous object I collected.