Showing posts with label life's treasures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life's treasures. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Autograph books Part 2

As promised, here are some more entries from my mother-in-law's autograph books (read original post). These are from Wellsville High School 1933-34. Enjoy!

Aug. 27, 1933
Dear sister,
When you are old and cannot see, put on your specks and think of me.
Your brother, Noah (age 7)

3/15/33
"Hershey",
When you are married and have a baby boy, and when his hair begins to curl I wish you then a baby girl, and when they both can drink from tins I wish you then a pair of twins.
Robert Crone

Nov. 7, 1933
Dear Ethel,
Remember the pumpkin,
Remember the gord,
Remember the night,
We rode in the ford.
Your schoolmate, Fairy Rank

11/8/33
It is easy enough to be joyful
When life flows along like a song,
But the girl worthwhile is the one who can smile,
When everything goes dead wrong.
Annabel G. Rice

No. 27, 1934
Dear Ethel,
May your life be like arithmetic.
Joys----------added
Sorrows-----subtracted
Riches-------multiplied
Love---------divided by 2
The girl who sits behind you,
Lena Kinter

Nov. 8, 1933
Dear Ethel:
My name is Stanley Sherman.
Wellsville is my station.
Alpine is my dwelling-place.
Schoolwork is my salvation.
"yeh"
As ever,
Stanley Sherman "Stan" "Sherm"
"Coca-Cola"
"The pause that refreshes."
"Remember the Coco-Cola battles"

Nov. 21, 1934
Dear Ethel:
When the evening pulls the curtain down,
and pins it with a star,
Remember that you have a friend,
No matter where you are.
Your friend and classmate,
Thelma Wagner
"Yours till I have quadruplets"
"Jean" "Jane" "Joan" "June"

Nov. 22, 1934
Dear Ethel,
To meet
To know
To love
to part
Are the four sad words of a schoolmate's heart.
A schoolmate
"Hat"
Dorothy Sheaffer

Watch for more excerpts.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Life's treasures: Autograph books


I was going through a box of things that had belonged to my mother-in-law, Ethel P. Hershey Gross. She passed away in 1994. Ethel was the oldest of 11 children and, after helping to raise all of her brothers and sisters, she put herself through nursing school. She was an incredible woman, far more independent than many at the time.
Ethel married my husband's dad, a widower with five boys. They met in the hospital, where he was her patient. She gave up her nursing career to live on a farm and raise five stepsons. She eventually had my husband, her only child, when she was in her early 40s.
Anyway, I found something really neat in the box. There were two autograph books, one from 1933-34 from Wellsville High School and the other from 1935 from Dillsburg High School. Apparently these books were the "hot thing" at the time. The pages — yellow, blue, pink and green – are faded, but the writing is legible.
The sayings and rythmes the students wrote make me smile and laugh out loud. There’s an innocence about them that transports me to another time when life, it seems, was simpler in some ways, tougher in others.
So, here's my first post from the treasure trove I've found. Visit often for more entries from these books plus many other things I've found, including a "List of baby beeves to be sold at public auction at the York Fair grounds, Friday, October 7, 1932."

Mar 17, 1935
Dillsburg H.S.

My Dear Ethel P. Hershey Bud:
With all my chirping I can't think of one (1) sensible thing to say. But I must make it clear and plain that thou shalt not forget to remember not to forget about our "great charter" – you know the one we made Mar. 26, 1935 saying that thou shalt have 10 children or else – well I shalt have placed before me by you a large dinner which is not to be scorned at – If you have 9 or less kids I shalt place before you the most delicious dinner which you ever ate – Mar. 26, 1967
"Twitter twitter"
"tweet tweet"
Birdie
Carol Bird

Can you imagine? 10 kids! This just cracked me up. So the date was set: March 26, 1967 for the big dinner. That would have been 32 years after they had made this pact as seniors in high school – plenty of time to have 10 kids. Well, my mother-in-law never had 10 kids. I wonder if Birdie did? And if they remembered the pact they made so many years ago. And how about that Birdie and her "twitter"? Who knew so many decades later we would have a thing called Twitter. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I have. Have a terrific day!