Monday, April 7, 2008

Autograph books

In the 1950's autograph books were a big trend. The red one is from my grade school years through freshman year and the one from the IL state fair is from sophomore year and later. This is pretty typical of the type of things people wrote in them.
Of course you always asked your relatives to sign them too.
The special pages were the ones your teachers signed. This was my 8th grade teacher.
This was from my 7th grade teacher. This was the only way you got a compliment from them. Back in those days everyone was very reserved in what they said out loud. Click for a larger view.
Did any of you readers have autograph books?

17 comments:

jovaliquilts said...

Oh! How exciting! I had an autograph book when I was very little, and I believe the writing on the cover was very much like the one on your red autograph book. I remember my dad wrote "I auto cry, I auto laugh, I auto sign my auto-graph!" He drew a little picture of a car for the "auto." I was about 4 years old. I'll have to dig out that book.

Chris@Cats On My Quilts said...

I love seeing your autograph books. I had one and I think I still have it somewhere. I'll have to go digging for it.

Kristin L said...

I didn't have one, but my 6yo daughter now does. It's got prompts for the writers and places for pictures.

Stephanie Pettengell said...

I re-found mine recently and it was really good going through the pages. I even found one from Eric Morcombe that I had forgotten I had.

Sequana said...

Yes, I surely had them - might even have had one from the IL State Fair. *S*

But in my various moves across country and back, they seem to haved disappeared.

I still have two of my HS yearbooks tho! And they have some funny signatures in them.

Elsie Montgomery said...

Oh yes, we had them 'way back when' too. Some of the yearbooks had predictions for the future of each student based on their current antics. Would it be fun to trace those people and predictions!

Thanks for the memory reminder!

Lynda said...

I had some autograph books, but have no idea what became of them. Interested to see that you had exclusively complimentary entries. Some people wrote jokes in ours, such as, Roses are red, Violets are blue, With a face like yours, You belong in a zoo! My dear grandmother (who had been born in 1896 and thought she was a Victorian lady) wrote, Be good, sweet maid, and let who will, be clever. How times change.

jacquie said...

I do...mine is from junior high...it's such a great memory for me. I think I have that very same quote lynda wrotein her comment in mine. It's tucked away in my treasure box. I should resurrect it and do a little reading.

meggie said...

I had one, it was covered in Black Watch tartan silk. It had been my mother's but she never used it. I loved it, but I had it stolen when I was nursing. Goodness knows why, as they are such personal things.
Lovely to see yours.

Narelle said...

This brings back memories. I also had an autograph book. One entry from a male cousin said 'If all the boys lived under the sea, what a good swimmer Narelle would be.'
I remember taking it with me to a Slim Dusty concert and plucked up enough courage to ask both he and his daughter to sign it. I think and hope I know where it is.

Quiltdivajulie said...

I had one in junior high, have no idea what happened to it. I still have my high school yearbooks which are FULL of notes (and you're right about the teachers putting things in writing they would never had said out loud). Great post!

Anonymous said...

Nope~ I did not have one. It was fun reading yours and all of the above. Especially those old ones that rhymed. But I too gather autographed notes in my H.S.year books. Does that count?

J~MT

Shelina said...

I had an autograph book that I tried to get classmates to sign in the late 70s. There was also a book of clever things to say for autographs. Those books aren't available anymore at the library. Pity. I don't know where mine is - but my sister-in-law has one that has lots of signatures of now-deceased family members. It is a treasure trove of info! Some of it is even written in the old language - German if I recall correctly.

Rebel said...

oh very sweet! I like going back and looking at old year books. Most of what people wrote was lame... but I'm sure I wrote the same thing to them. Some of it really makes me laugh though.

TB said...

No, I didn't, but seeing these excerpts, I wish that I had! I have yearbooks, which would be the substitute. I love the one by "Gramps"; how special.

Michael5000 said...

Oh, those are great!

Do you still have a "pleasant, soft spoken manner"? : )

nancy said...

Hello. I came over from a link on Narelle's site. I have sure enjoyed looking at your work and reading your posts. I'm a quilter too, but not nearly as experienced as you are. But I love it!
Nancy