Thursday 31 March 2016

Can I have your autograph please?

Hello. I was looking through some old diaries tonight and came across an autograph book with entries from 1960 to 1964. Did you have one of these? I used to go round all my school pals asking them to sign it. I bet the youngsters of today don't know what one is, what with the internet and emails and social media sites. We used to have pen pals, written letters sent back and forth in the post. Now they look at a screen and check Facebook and Twitter. 
We collected autographs from our friends, now people collect celebrity autographs in the hope that they may become valuable one day. 
When I left school in 64 I didn't keep in touch with any of my school friends, except one, and Carol is still my best friend now. Everyone went their separate ways, some went to college and most got jobs, I didn't know anyone who went to University. It's easier to keep in touch now, they all have mobile phones .Can you imagine the youngsters of today collecting autographs, ha ha. No, I can't either, it all seems so old fashioned now.

I'm glad I've still got mine, reading through the names I can picture what my friends looked like. And all the rhymes we used to write now seem ancient. At the age of 15 I was still a skinny kid. I thought I was grown up, but ha ha, I hardly knew anything about the birds and bees. I was very slow when it came to chatting up boys, I hadn't a clue.

looking at some of these little verses, I think we were all in the same boat. We thought some of them were a bit naughty, a bit rude. Got to laugh now.

I went to pick a rose
A rose so sweet and tender
I went to pick another
And BANG went my suspender

Good girls love their brothers
But I so good have grown
That I love other girls brothers
Far better than my own

Mary had a little lamb
She also had a bear
You often saw her little lamb
But never saw here bear

Ilona is a good girl
She goes to church on Sundays
Prays to God to give her grace
To kiss the boys on Mondays

Mary had a little cow
She milked it with a spanner
The milk came out in shilling tins
And little ones a tanner

I love you much I love you mighty
I wish my pyjamas were next to your nightie
Don't be mistaken don't be mislead
I mean on the clothes line, not in the bed

We all sat down on some nice soft grass
The softest we could find
But Ilona sat on something soft
The cow had left behind.

I didn't like actually going to school and sitting in class, but I did like my friends, and lunch times in the playground. We were a group of silly giggly girls, and if any of us had a crush on a boy and we told our best friends, the whole school  knew about it. Of course we wanted the secret to get out in the hope that the boy would fancy us and ask us out. Never happened to me though, the boys I fancied just laughed.

My how times have changed, I bet that doesn't happen now. They are all texting each other, no need for face to face chatting up. These days you can chat to somebody online, get really friendly, then dump them when you are fed up, without ever meeting them. Crazy world.

It's been a lovely day, I've been sat in the summer house sewing. The picture is coming on nicely.

Thanks for popping in. We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

16 comments:

  1. This brings back amazing memories Ilona...did your book have different coloured pastel pages? Mine did! Also a few folded over corners .. where the really "naughty" bits were written! Very, very tame by todays standards....wish I had been as wise as you and kept mine. Thanks again for the wonderful trip down memory lane. Cheers Jo

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    Replies
    1. Hi. Yes, exactly as you describe. I have folded corners as well.

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  2. Your post brought back many happy memories, when my grandchildren left school there friends signed their shirt or blouse so different to our autograph book.

    Having a great time at Skegness the weather has been great the last couple of days and have enjoyed walks along the promenade.

    Regards,
    Hazel c uk

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  3. Good grief I have the exact same autograph book from the 70s, it's full of schoolgirl rhymes and signatures...small world

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  4. Hello Ilona, when preparing dining room for redecorating we found my two old photograph books from school ( now 60 ), one said " When you get married and you have twins ,don't come to me for the safety pins", I did have twins, they are now 33. Others were," Mary Rose sat on a pin, Mary rose"."One fine day in the middle of the night ,two dead men got up to fight, back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other", 2y's u r 2 y's u b i c u r 2 y's 4 me ! I had some daft friends! It was wonderful to look at them but also some sadness as three young men who wrote in it were dead the next year due to a car crash. I feel blessed to be able to read and treasure these little tatty books it's time they were brought back instead of facebook !

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  5. Your poems made me laugh. I once copied one out for a girl that involved a dentist and arranging his chair for different activities. Being 13 didn't have a clue what half of it meant but being a good friend did it for her. Ended up going to headmaster and having the cane for writing dirty poems. She never thanked me for the poem either lol. Sue

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  6. We had something called a Slam book that went around school and every page had someone's name. You were supposed to write what you really thought of that person, anonymously of course. That book caused a lot of hurt feelings. Your's is so much nicer!!

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  7. Hell-o, Ilona, Please put me down for 61.6 miles this month. I'm averaging two miles a day instead of three. Maybe i'll do better next month…
    Loved your post! I always wanted one of those books but we never had the money for such things.

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  8. My daughter (16) has an autograph book. no celebrity name in yet. I do in mine and I have my late mum's one which has friends and celebrity names in it too. Where my mum grew up in Blackpool there was a house opposite theirs that was rented to the seasonal stars that were appearing in Blackpool so she managed to collect quite a few. I love looking at them.
    Carolx

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  9. I had a blue one and I still have my mums autograph book from the 1940's, lots of great memories there and some of the same poems in your post.

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  10. I am 45 we had autograph books too. But we also signed our school blouses. Now everyone is on facebook. I am not though to separate work from home life as you have no privacy otherwise.
    Yesterday's post on your beauty cabinet was good as it makes us realise how much money is wasted on things we really don't need. Marketers have had a dream with my generation. We don't need most of what is in our cupboards. Slowly slowly I am cutting back.

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  11. I had one of those. Don't know what happened to it. There were some famous ones as well as school friends, cricketers, John Noakes when he did a signing at a local store, Peter Davison the Dr Who.... x

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  12. I had one as well but goodness knows what happened to it. I have had no contact with anyone I went to school with and the thought of a school reunion is my idea of he'll second only to karioki lol .

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  13. I have one of those, but mine is green. It has pastel coloured pages
    and a couple of the same verses that you have in yours. Happy Days.

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  14. "These days you can chat to somebody online, get really friendly, then dump them when you are fed up, without ever meeting them. Crazy world."

    You can also target someone online, bully him/her, and possibly drive him/her to suicide and never know about it - unless it makes the news.

    Crazy world indeed.

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