Sign here

Remember as a kid you had an autograph book?  Well, okay, maybe not...but I had one and I didn't really expect to get anybody famous to write in it, it was simply fun getting my friends to sign silly stuff.

One of my favorites was: Yours til' Germany, gets Hungary and fries Turkey in Greece.

Or, how about, Rink a dink, a bottle of ink, the cork fell out and you stink.  Another was, Roses are red, Violets are blue, skunks smell and so do you.

As far as I know no one ever got offended by these little ditties, although today I suspect some litigious parent might well file a suit over writing this sort of thing about 'their child'.  What is this world coming to?  I still try to keep from sweating the small stuff, like 'stinking or smelling like a skunk', because I'm pretty sure some days I do, but without a sense of humor about certain things I would probably just sit in a corner on a stool and cry.

I kind of wish now I had kept that autograph book, because last night I visited some web-sites of folks that had their mother's or grandmother's books and they were delightful.  I do have my 1955 Richland Township High School yearbook, so this morning I drug it out and read some of the entries.

Sandy, To a real swell gal who's lots of fun and real sweet. Luck Always.

May you have a joyous future.

Lots of luck to a sweet girl.  There are a lot of 'lots' and 'bests' of luck.

There are also a lot of 'swells' and 'sweets'.  Was I really?  I hated school...how can a person be 'swell' and 'sweet' when you hate where you are and what you are doing?  Well...my senior year was great...I was editor of the yearbook, and that meant every time something required my attention I was excused from class.  Like days when the photographer came to take pictures, or a meeting of the staff was requires.  Fun times, fun times.

Finally, I was surprised to recall that my class mates called me 'Blondie'...how could I not remember that?  Maybe I blocked that out because in later decades there was a rash of 'dumb blonde jokes'.  Man, I hated and still hate those.  True, I'm not the brightest bulb in a lamp...but still...I'm not dull either.  "I yam, what I yam.", as Popeye would say.

I do have a few autographs of famous and semi-famous people, safely tucked away in my lifetime's worth of scrapbooks, and of course my yearbook, with those even more precious that the famous ones.  For they are the folks I grew up with, they filled a huge part of my life and helped me to become the person I am today.  Thanks, everybody.

Oh...I just thought of a way to end today's blog...

you ready?

...

By hook, or by crook, I'll be the last person to write in your book.