On December 11, 2009, I was reading my childhood Brownie autograph book and listed the entries here on my blog. I was thinking there were more little short rhymes, but I just looked and either I just didn't type them or there really aren't many. But today I was cleaning out a box of my former mother in law's things and found HER little girl autograph book. We had fun reading some of the entries, and amazingly, at age nearly 91, she could remember all but one name I read to her! She is nearly blind so can't read the book herself. My entries are from the late 1950s; Jerry's are from 1943 when she graduated from 8th or 9th grade and I thought it would be fun to show some from that time-frame, similar to ours....lots of little girls and boys thinking about aging and girls thinking about boys!
Her name is Geraldine, known as Jerry then and now. ENTER THE WORD AUTOGRAPH in the upper left corner, where the little orange box with white B is...that will take you to a couple of posts, but one called Where are They Now? That's the one with my autograph book info...
Dear Jerry, Love many, Trust few, and always paddle your own canoe. Your Pal Adele, yours till bobby-pins get seasick riding on the permanent waves. [The canoe paddle phrase was repeated by at least 3 or 4 people in her book.[
Dear Jerry, When you're engaged it's diamonds; when you're in love it's hearts, when you're married it's clubs and when you're dead it's spades. Your friend, Lowell I shouldn't have read that one to her but it didn't dawn on me what the spades reference was til later! She's not in good health, recently placed in hospice care.
This one is on a pale blue page, the pages are all varying pale pastel colors. Dear Jerry, I hope you never feel like this page, blue. Your Pal, Marian, Yours til cows give coldcream! [One of my favorites, so innocent!] Another entry repeats the coldcream line, which I found very funny!
And this one apparently from a beau, or just a good guypal: For Dear Jerry, First came love, then came marriage, then came Jerry with a baby carriage. Your loving Pal, Don ~ love and kiss
Vertically down the side is a sort of code
MY
heart outline
outline of a pair of pants
4
U
Dear Gerry, Yours until the Mississippi wears pants to keep its bottom dry. Love, Gwen
Dear Jerry, Remember me early. Remember me late,. Remember me as your old school mate. Your friend & classmate, Shirley
Dear Jerry, Yours till the cow jumps over the moon. Hettie
Sugar is sweet, so are you, so why don't they ration you? Bob [Born in March, '29, if the war was still going on, i.e., rationing, she'd be graduating from 8th grade, not high school which would have been 1947 I believe.]
And one more I think is great, If all the boys were across the sea, what a good swimmer Jerry would be. Walter
Aren't these just too fun? So immature and innocent, can we imagine high school grads saying these things? The more I read, I think this might be 8th grade; most of the pages have little photos of the signers, in those corner photo mount thingys. Some look too young for high school grads, but many don't. I'll ask her and come back and edit this post.
The sweetest is from her father - "Geraldine Iris, Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind words are the roots, Kind thoughts are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits. Dad" and he sure knew his girl, she is and has always been a very kind person.
And the very last page. Dear Jerry, The last page is usually saved for your lover. But the heck with him, he can write on the cover. Your Pal, Evelyn Yours till the pillowcase comes up in court.
On that note I'll stop!
