Victorian autograph book

Hi! Thanksgiving went well here, turkey and all the fixings turned out very yummy, and I'm not tired of the leftovers yet! Now to focus on Christmas, yikes. I've bought a few presents so far and I want to set aside a day next week to head out to do some shopping. I only buy for my parents, Boris the turkey-hound, my 2 grandmoms and an aunt and her dog, so it's not too big of a list, luckily.
I worked in retail for many years, and I'm sympathetic to anyone working this Black Friday weekend. We opened at 6AM at my last job, which was in a fabric and craft supply store. Yeah, I know, what crazy people need crafts at 6AM? Lots of people that's who. We had 3-4 registers running non-stop with long lines until almost noon. In a way it was kind of fun though, because it was so crazy.
This week, while nibbing through my desk looking for something, I came across this little autograph book that came from way back in our family. It is from the late 1800s and it has little writings and some cutout images decorating the pages. The book belonged to Sadie Pidgeon, I'm not quite sure who she was in the family, but there are other familiar names in the book. She had the book signed by friends, schoolmates and family. Some of the little verses are funny. Above is the cover of the book which has a pretty pressed design, and below are two of the pages, including the first page that Sadie wrote herself - 'To write in my book is my delight - but tearing out leaves is not polite'



The second page is from Aunt Martha, dated 1881 - 'To Sadie, When you grow old and can not see, put on your specks and think of me'
Some verses are very serious, others sweet, some religious. One smartass named Aaron Kircher wrote in 1885 - 'Roses red, violets blue, I pity the man that marries you' - click on the images for larger views. I may do a few more pages the next time I take photos for the website. It's really a great little book.

OK, it's Saturday night, what are you doing? Me? well, I'm going to go watch the Top 10 Spongebob Squarepants episode countdown - debauchery woo-hoo! Then hopefull they'll be something else good on tv after that.
My vcr broke over 2 years ago, and I really need to get a new one. I may break down and get a dvd/vcr combo player (I spotted a cheap one for $50) It could be a Christmas request. It used to be that I couldn't last without my vcr. I had a tape in the machine ready to tape something at any time. I have old tapes full of episodes of the X-Files, and anything U2 related that was ever shown on tv. I have on a tape somewhere, U2's first US television appearance in March, 1981 on the Tomorrow show (remember Tom Snyder, this was before Letterman had his show) I currently have a crush on the new Doctor Who, so I've been thinking that I want to tape the episodes, since I think they'll stop airing the show in January.


Time for pie - so good-bye, Carol

3 comments:

Alison said...

Thought of you Friday and Saturday as U2 played two nights in Auckland. The whole of New Zealand is buzzing about it!
I'm with you on the new Dr Who, David Tennant. It's that glint in his eye isn't it? Annnnd his Scottish accent when he's out of character. Saw him in a BBC version of Cassanova a couple of years ago and that really did launch his TV career! A fabulous actor!

Anonymous said...

That's a great thing to have from your family history.

Anonymous said...

I recently found scrap books and postcard books of a similar vintage. The autograph book seems like a rarer item...nice post.