What happened to autograph books?

They were little books, usually about six inches by four inches with pastel coloured pages. Across the front cover was written in elegant copperplate “Autographs”. I still have two of these autograph books which I have kept since my childhood.

The custom was to invite your friends and family to write a verse or message in your autograph book. This custom probably began in a more sentimental age and perhaps when photos were not so readily available. When I was in Primary School my friends were precious to me and I treasured their writings.

Some of these verses pledge eternal friendship:

When twilight drops its curtain and pins it with a star

Remember you have a friend though you may wander far.

Another one reads,

Hills and valleys lie between,

Far distant be our lot

But until we meet again

Please forget me not.

In some of the verses the writer asks to be remembered forever.

When you are married, at the tub

Think of me with every rub,

Whether the suds are cold or hot

Lather away and forget me not.

A shorter one reads,

In your golden chain of friendship, please consider me a link.

My childhood acquaintances and I were not always falling into each others’ arms. There were the usual squabbles and threats never to speak to each other again. These events were short lived and messages in the autograph books were declarations of true friendship.

A close friend wrote,

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

She wrote this when she was not speaking to me so I guess she was trying to say, “I still like you anyway.”

Some ventured into the risqué:

I love you a lot, I love you almighty.

I’d like to see you pyjamas next to my nightie.

Now don’t be mistaken, don’t be misled,

I mean on the clothes line and not in the bed.

Others were quite repulsive:

The boy sat in the witness box,

picking his nose like fury,

rolling it up in little balls

and throwing it at the jury.

My mother, wanting to give me good advice, and quoting from a well known poem, wrote;

Be good, sweet maid

And let who will be clever.

I found this quite annoying. I didn’t want to be a sweet maid and I didn’t particularly want to be good. I wanted to be clever, adventurous and feisty and live life to the fullest. I appreciated, however, that my mother was not likely to write about the boy in the witness box in a little girl’s autograph book.

When I invited the headmaster at school, who was our teacher, to write something, he wrote,

An ounce of mirth is worth a ton of sorrow.

He was a most mirthless man who filled my days with misery and fear. I was tempted to tear out the page, but I would never damage one of my precious books.

On a double page in one book I ruled up a grid and wrote at the top “My Wall of Friendship”. I asked my friends simply to write their names in the “bricks”. In typical eleven-year-old fashion I never quite finished ruling up the wall, and never got all the “bricks” filled in. It still meant a lot to me.

Some verses were quite honest,

I chose this page because it’s pink,

But what to write I cannot think.

One of my mother’s friends chose to draw a picture. She filled a page with a charming drawing of a country cottage in a garden. Another school friend drew a picture of a girl in jodhpurs. This little girl actually grew up to be a gifted artist.

My most favourite entry was the one written by my father:

Smile awhile and while you smile, another smiles and soon there are miles and miles of smiles and life’s worthwhile because you smile.

I adored him but he died when I was twenty. I still try to live by his advice; a smile can make a big difference to your day.

These autograph books of mine are now discoloured with age and most of the writers have passed on. Nevertheless I still treasure these memories of the past.

Do you still have autograph books from when you were younger? What funny quotes and quips are written in them? Did you have a standard message you would write to friends? Share you memories with us in the comments below…