Upon my mom's death in April 2012, I retrieved a great many boxes that had tons of pictures in them...pictures of us, our children, relatives past and present, some known, some unknown.  One of the neatest mementos I came across was my Aunt Doris's autograph book.  Aunt Doris was my mom's only sister, and with Aunt Doris being the older sister, my mom really looked up to her.  They were very close and loving sisters and shared a sisterly bond till my aunt's death in 2004.

After reading the autograph book, I got to thinking about how times have changed so much with technology.  Back then people still actually hand-wrote letters and sent them through the mail, what we now call snail mail.  The luxury of instant gratification in receiving a response via cell phone/text messaging wasn't an option in the late 30s/early 40s.  When is the last time you sent a true, long, hand-written letter rather than an email and/or text message???  I know I haven't in forever unless it's to an elderly relative who doesn't have a computer. 

Below are some of the notes I made and some of the cutest greetings and salutations of the time.  Some you may be familiar with or at least a variation of them....Most of these made me chuckle because they were so cute!

Most of the people thanked her for letting them write in her autograph, remembrance, or memo book and stated that no matter how long they had known her, she was kind, always smiling, always willing to lend a helping hand, had a winning smile, and was a great volleyball player.  The autographs were written between 1939 and 1941 from her friends from Flatonia High School, Flatonia, TX.  My mom simply signed her name.  How cute!  Her future sister-in-law, our Aunt Tommye, wrote a sweet verse at the age of 12, long before we knew she would become Uncle Cecil’s wife.  Some of the verses they left her with greetings were as such:

 

First comes love

Then comes marriage

Then comes Doris

With a baby carriage

The nicest wish

To the nicest friend

Is health and happiness throughout life

From beginning to end

A golden chain

Binds our hearts together

And if you never break that chain,

We shall be friends forever

Yours until the ocean wears rubber pants to keep its bottom dry

Bad ink

Bad pen

Good luck

Amen

Days are dark

Friends are few

Don’t forget me

Until I forget you

Doris is your name

Single is your life

God bless the man

Who takes you for his wife

If you get married

And will have twins

Please don’t come down the stairs

To borrow from me any safety pins

I wish I had a Ford all shiny and new

But best of all I wish I had you

Beans are beans

Peas are peas

Darn a kiss

Without a squeeze

Through thick and thin

Through fortune and misfortune

Under all conditions,

Don’t forget me

Over on the yonder mountain

On a great big rock

Are these four little words

For get me not

Some love one

Some love two

But I love one

And that is you

The higher the mountain

The cooler the breeze

The younger the couple

The tighter they squeeze

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Honey(or sugar) is sweet

And so are you

Over in the meadow

Carved deep in a rock

Are these four little letters

For get me not

Through your heart

There are four words

You are not to forget

And here they are:

For get me not

Remember the red bird

Remember the dove

Remember the day

You and I fell in love

In the date of love

In the land of kisses

Nineteen hugs

And forty kisses

When you marry

Don’t marry a fool

But marry a boy

That graduates in Flatonia High School

Out in the ocean

On a little rock

Are these words

For get me not

Crackers are dry

Without cheese

So is a kiss

Without a squeeze

Let your life be a problem:

Let your sorrows be subtracted

And your misfortunes be divided

Let your joys be added

And your pleasures multiplied

(another version of this below)

Your joys added

Your sorrows subtracted

Your friends multiply(ied)

Your love divided

Love is like a silken knot

That binds two hearts together

And if we don’t break this knot

We’ll be friends forever----written by Aunt Tommye at age 12

If you like me

Which I think is true

You know good and well

I would jump in the lake for you

Gold and jewels may vanish away

But a good education will never decay

I wish a lot

I wish you plenty

I wish you a husband

Before you are twenty

Long may you live

Happy may you be

Loved by many

But best by me

If you love me

Like I love you

No knife can cut

Our love in two

Your smile can make me happy

Your frown can make me blue

But there’s not a single minute

That I’m not loving you

Peaches grow in California

They grow in Florida, too

But it takes a state like Texas

To grow a peach like you!

They ended their wishes with Always a Pal, Always a Friend, Your Friend, Your Everlasting Friend, etc.  For-Get-Me-Not was very prevalent to end a greeting in her autograph book.  

Then, from my own yearbooks in high school, these were some of the popular messages left:

U R

2 sweet

2 B

4 gotten

LYLAS…love ya like a sis(ter)

Boy + girl = 4 ever OR…boy n girl 4 ever

We would also leave our phone numbers without area code which is now a requirement, and some left mailing addresses.  

And from the next generation(my daughter's yearbook), we have words/phrases such as

BFF(Best Friends Forever) for those who have been living under a rock, jelly(jealous), wifey(female friend), peace out, lol(or variations of it), text me, a heart symbol instead of writing the word “love”...

HAKAS, HAGS…have a kick ass summer, have a good summer

Selfies and hashtags(what us old folks of 40+ used to call the number or pound sign) are now popular, and phone numbers include area codes while email addresses might be included rather than physical/mailing addresses.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  People like to communicate.  Teenagers will always spend a lot more time on the phone(or whatever communication device) than they do with their family or on their homework.  In my day, the big message on TV(remember no Internet) was "Don't Drink and Drive", and while that is still very good advice, now we also have "Don't Text and Drive".  Who woulda thunk it back in the day(the 80s) that we'd be worrying about typing with our thumbs on a little device that we also use as a phone to type messages for instant gratification whether it to be to find out what's for dinner or where all our loved ones are at any precise moment of the day?  We have billboards and TV commercials/PSAs to bring awareness of the dangers of texting and driving and simulations of how that text that just couldn't wait(but it really could) could possibly end your life and/or someone else's.  

Greetings and salutations...Whether you do it the old-fashioned way and actually write on a piece of paper with your own little hand and send it through snail mail or use your phone, computer, or iPad to communicate, please do so responsibly...No paper cuts and no texting and driving!  

I hope you've enjoyed my blog.  I wrote it at 3 am so who knows how much sense it makes.