Ha, ha, ha, you make me laugh, to think you want my autograph

According to Wikipedia, autograph books were used to collect the autographs of others. Traditionally they were exchanged among friends, colleagues, and classmates to fill with poems, drawings, personal messages, small pieces of verse, and other mementos.

My first autograph book had a brown cover bearing the inscription "Autographs" and was filled with blank pastel pages of various colors. When I was in fifth grade in Sioux City, Iowa, all the girls had autograph books and we spent time at recess and after school passing them around. Most of us were inspired by a wonderful book called Yours Till Niagara Falls: A Book of Autograph Verses. Available through the school's Tab book program, this little gem was packed with autograph verses-- short poems that succinctly (and often hilariously) summed up thoughts about the person, yourself or the world in general.

Since I have a severely limited capacity to memorize poetry, autograph verses seemed inspired. I scoured Yours Till Niagara Falls, looking for the best verses.  Here are a few:

You love yourself

You think you're grand

You go to the movies and hold your hand

You put your arm around your waist

And when you get fresh

You slap your face!

Grandma has a habit

Of chewing in her sleep

She chews on Grandpa's whiskers

And thinks it's shredded wheat.

There was a girl from Havana

Who slipped on a peel of banana

She wanted to swear

But her mother was there

So she whistled The Star-Spangled Banner.

I defy you to say those aren't funny!

When our family moved to Creston, Iowa, that summer, I started a new autograph book and got kids in my class to sign it. Here are some pages from it:

 

 

Autograph books seem to have gone out of style now, with the advent of Twitter and Facebook. There doesn't seem to be a demand among teenage girls for this admittedly low-tech device. But I'm glad that we use them back in the 60s.