I was 8 yr. old, in the 3rd grade in 1955. At the end of the school year, along with pictures, we received Memory Books. We traded pictures with friends and placed them in the books. Blank pages were in the back of the book, for our friends to write something special.
My 17yr. old sister wrote:
I’ll love you ’til the ocean wears rubber pants to keep its bottom dry!
I knew my sister loved me but that was such a funny saying…I never forgot it.
This type of writing was in many of those little books.
Another was:
Thought you might enjoy this history of WNC from the 1940s through the 1960s, perhaps longer. Not just in NC, schools all over had them. Times change. The love of friends and family is enduring and a special blessing.
—Phyllis Briggs
Phyllis was right. I really enjoyed what she sent. I love the saying her sister wrote as well as the sweet math problem.
When I was in elementary school each year when school was about to let out for summer vacation we begin carrying around autograph books. I remember the boys were willing to sign them, but I don’t recall if they actually had them too or if it was only us girls.
There was always one or two students who went and got all the teachers to sign their’s too.
We used a small notebook or even a large spiral notebook to gather signatures and good wishes from our fellow students. But one year I had a real life autograph book. It said it right there on the cover 🙂 It was small and brown. I’m sure it came from Sky City which was the place to shop in Murphy in those days.
I wonder how we knew to do the annual signing of books. It might have been a teacher who got us to carry on the tradition, but more than likely it was someone’s sibling that inspired us to do it. Or then again, maybe each grade taught the following grade and for the years between Phyllis and me the tradition just never fell out of fashion here in western NC.
In those days Martins Creek School didn’t have a yearbook or annual so we had to wait for high school to gather signatures across the little square photos of our friends.
The book I’ve been reading The Family History and Stories of Opal Corn Myers has recently stirred my memories of school.
I had an easy time in school with friends, schoolwork, and teachers in both elementary school and high school. But when my mind wanders back to those days it’s always the old brick buildings of Martins Creek School that it goes to visit.
There were certainly a few quarrels, fights, and trouble at the school during my eight years there, but underlying it all was a real sense of camaraderie and family. I believe small community schools foster that feeling.
Did you have memory books or autograph books when you were in school?
Tipper
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I enjoyed reading this so much! I had an autograph book in my grade school years. We also had thin paperback style yearbooks. We would get them at the end of the year & we would sign each other’s books. Sometimes kids would write a cute saying, but usually they’d just sign their names with our graduation year in quotes. So there are many names followed by “84.” 🙂 Also, it was popular for girls to write, “Good luck with the boys.” This is so funny to me now! We were grade school kids, wishing each other luck with the boys when we got older. That just makes me laugh.
My autograph book, which must have been lost years ago, had a fun autograph from my own dad, & this is what made me smile so much about your blog today. I would have been maybe 8-10 years old when I had this book. I handed it to my dad to sign, & he wrote, ” Yours till the rivers start wearing rubber pants to keep their bottoms dry.” So much like the one Phyllis’s sister wrote! I thought that was so funny, especially coming from my dad! And I never forgot it. That autograph book also has Andy Williams’s autograph in it. But it would be a treasure to me to find that old autograph book, just so I could see again what my dad wrote.
I still have some of mine. It’s fun to look what others wrote. It’s been 42 years since I graduated, but some of us still get together and we have a reunion every 5 years now. We are a small town and had small classes. I’m thankful for my school years. Yes, there were ups and downs, but for the most part we were a close class.
My best friend was killed in October of our freshman year. I think it shook our whole class to the reality of death. I miss her to this day, but still am in touch with her twin regularly. I remember so vividly the day she was killed. I was supposed to be with them and I praise God for protecting me from that. It was my brother’s friend who accidentally shot her. It’s stil very hard on him now. He has lived with a lot of guilt. Life is so short and we must enjoy each moment.
I might have to drag out my books now and look over those signatures and sayings again. Thanks for the memories!
Does Granny have many memories of school time? I think I remember you asking her at one point, but I can’t say for sure.
God bless
Debbie, she does 🙂 Granny loved school.
We had autograph books in New Mexico in elementary school (1944-49), and this was lots of fun. Then, in middle school in Texas there were “slam” books that I hated. Whoever began one got a notebook and wrote a fellow student’s name at the top of each page then passed the book around. You were supposed to write an “honest” opinion of each person, and these were mostly pretty mean and hurtful. I didn’t participate in this fad. Then, in high school (1950-53) we had annuals that we asked friends to sign.
Again, this was lots of fun, and the entries are happy memories.
We had yearbooks all through school. I remember the excitement running around and getting all the signatures.
My daffodils have begun their explosion! About 1.5 weeks after hours, just like I expected. It’s a very exciting time around here!
I haven’t thought about sky city for years!
Todays post reminds me that this year will be my 60th year class reunion. The past ones have found several of the memory books on display from classmates. this reminds me to get mine out for sharing should I be fortunate to make the trip “Home” to the West Virginia hills for the gathering, There were only 103 graduates that year, the largest at my high school in Matoaka, W.V, the school long torn down, the town all but gone now, so many memories.
If God wanted me to live in the past he would have given me today. The “Good ole days” when I was a kid in the ‘40’s & ‘50’s meant polio, measles, chickenpox, whooping cough, scarlet fever, segregated schools & restrooms, no indoor plumbing,…that outhouse was cold on a February morning..a car was out at 50k miles. My car has over 300k and other than tires & service, have done nothing but front brake pads 3 times. Original spark plugs.
I was born in the 80’s and went through school in the 90’s so we always had yearbooks. I remember getting in trouble one year..I think it was around 3rd grade…because I signed a classmates yearbook “If you grow up and live in a shack, teach your kids how to pee out the cracks”. Pretty sure we ended up having to buy a new yearbook for that student because apparently her parents were highly offended that I would write such a thing. My parents couldn’t be too upset with me though because I had gotten the saying from one of mama’s old yearbooks! I loved to dig mama and daddy’s old annuals out and look at the way people dressed back then and read what their classmates had written.
We didn’t have autograph books in the lower grades. In high school we had annuals. Now, the kids start getting them in kindergarten, they are soft cover, and they call them yearbooks. We were actually talking about our annuals the other day and our granddaughter wanted to what that was because she only knows them as yearbooks. My husband and I still have ours after all these years. He graduated in 1974 and me in 1976. We like to get them out from time to time and reminisce about the good old days. Both our graduating classes were well over 300 students because several smaller towns had to come to our high school to graduate. We’ve lost a lot of classmates along the way and even though we wish we would have had been in a smaller high school, we still have wonderful memories because after meeting in church, we still got to spend two years together in the same high school.
Randy, you are right about teachers not being able to discipline the kids these days. They are afraid of the parents and the kids know it. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I have heard in middle school this year. There is no respect anymore and back in our day, whatever punishment you got in school, you got at home even worse.
This post brings back memories. I still have my pink plastic-covered autograph book with the teen girl “Ponytail” character on the cover. In high school we signed our annuals. Many signed with “Roses are red, violets are blue ……..” and finished that in different ways. It’s fun to go back and read and think about those people, some I haven’t seen since graduation in 1967.
I don’t recall ever having a memory or autograph book in elementary school. I do remember and still have all my Yearbooks from 7th grade to 12th grade. I had both teachers and friends sign them. In my 7th grade year a friend was signing my year book in Science class. When she passed it to other students asking them to pass it on to me, a boy who thought he would be funny and looked up my picture in it and drew a mustache on my picture. He also wrote in it then passed it on. I didn’t notice it until I got home that day and was horrified. I tried to erase off the mustache he drew, but it just erased my picture. After that I never let my yearbook out of my sight. I missed out on having a lot of friends getting to sign it because we didn’t have the same classes together, but I wasn’t will to have that happen to my yearbook again.
Maybe I have posted before that I attended a boys’ high school. Girls’ high was across town. This was in 1950-52. We had very few school activities together–glee club practice, pep rallies, and football games–until graduation. Our year-book signings were in 12th grade, the only time we had an “annual.” We did have two junior-senior proms, both in the gym, with theme decorations. Those were good times. One funny anecdote from glee club: when they made our picture for the annual, the photographer needed to divide us for two shots. One boy got in both groups.
We would get classmates to sign our yearbook each year from 9-10th grade, and during our senior year we would receive a memory book along with our class ring, graduation invitations & graduation pictures. During high school there was always at least one
“Slam Book” circuiting & that was so hurtful. Students would write mean things about other classmates and at that tender age, it broke many hearts. Tipper & readers, have y’all ever heard of a Slam Book? Sure wish I could go back to high school & do some things different. I was a majorette in high school & every Friday night before the football game I would get into my majorette outfit & put on those white boots with pom poms on them & drive my Mom crazy. I would stand in front of the tall mirror in our foyer & complain about my skinny legs. Mom finally got tired of hearing it, so one Friday evening she told me if I complained one more time, she would make me quit being a majorette. I never complained again….at least where she could hear me. I also was very shy & I look back now & wonder why I felt so intimidated.
Tipper,
Have you seen the postage stamps honoring the Appalachian Trail? If so, do you have a favorite?
Janet-I have never seen them 🙂
I had an autograph book, and it was fun to get friends’ and teachers’ signatures. It is somewhere in my house, and after reading this, I want to find it.
I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to comment but have enjoyed all the videos:) Although I’m near the age of Granny I have such a love for the Lord as he has been so good to me and I see Him in all your writings, Paul’s singing, and the Pressley Girls channel too! May God bless ya all!!!
Yes, we had the memory books and especially the year I graduated from high school. I still enjoy looking back at the comments from 8th grade and 12th.
I happened to note the Pressley Girls most viewed video – which was Squirrel Hunting with Dad. I think people just didn’t think about girls going hunting so they wanted to see how they did because most girls would not want to do that. Now my Daddy hunted Quail, Pheasant, and Squirrel and I loved squirrel fried up and served with milk gravy and cat-head biscuits by my Mother. As a young girl about 8, I would follow behind my Daddy squirrel hunting. I didn’t carry a gun, but I absolutely LOVED being out in the woods and crossing little streams. To me it was a wonderful adventure. I think some of the people that viewed indeed love the outdoors and just wanted to go along and experience it with ya all.
We had areas in our yearbooks for autographs. The senior girls had “senior skirts”. Senior skirts were always tan corduroy. The girls would paint our school logos, mascot (a pioneer), the name of our school down each side of the skirt and autographs of classmates and any of there extra activities like cheerleading etc. My two older sisters had a skirt but I didn’t as I was in high-school in the 70’s and we were “rebels” and wore jeans with patches on our backsides lol. It was a really sweet tradition.
We had annuals with our pictures throughout elementary and high school. It was such fun getting to see what everyone would write. There were usually a few of the “2 sweet 2 be 4 forgotten” in the elementary days☺️
Nothing to do with memory books, the old post of Childhood Days On The Farm by Glenda Beall. The picture of the Farmall A tractor brings back a memory of my childhood of my beagle Sam sitting on the seat platform between my legs and riding on a Farmall A with me while I would be using the tractor.
How I wish we would have had those in elementary school. We had annuals (yearbooks) in high school. I love to pick up my old annuals and look at them. We have several that are deceased. (Class of 1970)
Linda, I graduated high school in 1972, as you said many of my classmates are now deceased, the last I heard something like 50-60 out of our senior class of about 185 are now deceased. There was only a very few that were disliked or caused problems. I often look back at my high school annuals (8-12) and think and remember my classmates. If I could go back I would be chasing all of the girls! My wife was and is my one and only. Last week another one of my classmates burned to death after his home caught fire. He had went blind. If you are like me, I was always told your school days will be some of the best days of your life, now I believe it.
I went to elementary school beginning in fall of 1955 and graduated from high school in 1967. The school printed a photo book of each class, teachers, principals, janitors, etc. and handed them out to us I think in fifth or sixth grade. I still have it. In high school we had the opportunity to buy a yearbook that we called a “cauldron” each year beginning in ninth grade. We had people sign in the back where blank pages were provided. I remember a few comments like: “Good luck in the future”, “Remember the fun we used to have.” and I remember one which said: “Good luck with Dale” a reference to my boyfriend at the time who is now my husband. I have my two cauldrons that I bought but they are packed away somewhere. When we had our graduation pics taken, we used to give one to friends with little notes on the back and also give with them a card with our full names printed on them. These cards came with the pics. In elementary school I had been given an “autograph book” which I had my friends, teachers and relatives sign. I don’t have it any longer.
I recently came across my 6th grade rosette with ribbons that everyone signed. It was so funny to read what everyone wrote. The next year we would all be in junior high, so it was a big deal:). I also have my junior high and high school annuals, which everyone signed. I recently found something my mom wrote tucked between two pages in my junior high one that was so sweet and I don’t even remember reading/seeing it before! Life moves on so quickly but those are fun/funny memories.
My papa wrote in mine: “The sea is wide and full of fishes. I hope someday you’ll patch my britches.” I still have what my 2 grannies, mama, daddy and my papa wrote 75 years ago and keep them with our most important papers.
Hey Tipper,
Interestingly enough, I just came to the blog to read today’s post and to look for some of your book recommendations. I’ve been listening to Opal Corn Myers and just finished reading Christy, which I absolutely loved, and am sad it is finished. Any book recommendations you or others can offer in the stream of historical fiction based in Appalachia will be greatly appreciated! I’ve read many, but know there are many more to discover.
Tara-Here’s a post you can check out: https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/must-reads-for-lovers-of-appalachia/
How wonderful! Thank you, Tipper!!
Tara – May I suggest reading The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and The Book Woman’s Daughter both written by Kim Michele Richardson. Also which is my all time favorite, Dorie Woman of the Mountains by Florence Copeland Bush. Happy Reading!
I never had anything like that until high school. At the end of each year, we could buy an Annual Book and have our friends to sign. They were expensive. I don’t know how mom and dad afforded it, but they bought all of us our Annuals each year. I got my mom’s graduation ring as my inheritance and we found the actual paid receipt where she paid for it in 1943. I still read my friends notes in my Annuals. It brings back good memories. A lot of them are gone now.
I was always nervous to ask someone to sign my annual. How exciting it was to see what people wrote! I remember a 9th grade boy I was sweet on signed my 8th grade book and I looked at that page every day that summer. Boy was I upset when we got back to school and he was going steady with someone else!
I don’t recall having any kind of memory books in elementary school. But in Jr high and high school we had yearbooks. I still have my yearbook from senior year. It’s fun to go back and look for at it occasionally.
We wrote in yearbooks and another trend back in the 70’s and early 80’s was wearing a blank, usually white tee-shirt, and using a marker to sign our names on it.
I don’t remember having those little books. We didn’t have yearbooks until you were in 10th grade. It was a big deal then to get other students to sign your books. Especially when you were a senior and everyone was going on their own path to what we thought would be success. I haven’t thought about reading those comments in many years. I know exactly where those yearbooks are and might go down memory lane again after not seeing most of them since graduating in 1981. I went 2 hours away to college, got married and moved away. So much has changed since then. I always wish that children now could have that more so happy go luck lifestyle such as less worrying about strangers, locking your house and cars and other things they face today.
I can remember having an autograph book for a couple of years in elementary school. My grandmother, Amy Littrell Denney, who raised me along with grandpa, Elvis Denney and my aunt, Corda, rode side saddle to teach school in the rural area of Wayne Co, KY. She even had a few autograph and cutesy little sayings in her small record book! So, it was she who gave me the idea.
Later on in high school, we used our Annuals (yearbooks) for autographs. We always wanted the boys to say, “To a cute girl” and then OF COURSE, sign their name with love. The more autographs you got the more popular it seemed. I would have like to have played BUM BUM BUM Pretty Girl Station with you all at Martin’s Creek, Tipper. Sure enough, YOU have always been pretty.
I like the sister’s saying and the math problem. I will date myself too, I went to a small country grammar school from the first through seventh grade, there was no kindergarten or middle school for country kids during the early 60’s. We did not have memory books or anything else like this. High school was eight through twelve grades. We had annuals and would get our classmates to sign them. I remember having an “annual day” when we all would go to the football field for this. Tipper mentions some of the things that went on in school, I think of my high school days, most boys carried pocket knives, many boys hunted and the ones that were able to have a clunker car often had their gun in their cars or on a gun rack in the back window of a pickup truck parked in the small school parking lot. Nothing was thought about this, boys would often fight in high school. Sometimes the coaches would take them to the gym, put boxing gloves on them and tell them to get it settled. The fights were usually over girls. Mondays were the worst for fighting among the older boys because of some other boy dating his thought to be girlfriend over the weekend. It was never more than a fist fight, no knives or guns even though some were available. Most of my old high school buildings have been torn down and a new school was built, I still go by the the old school sometimes, sit in the parking lot and remember those good old days, especially the last half of my senior year when I started going with the girl that would become my wife. Unlike today when parents sue the school and the teachers for disciplining their kids, we hoped and prayed our parents never found out about any whippings or other forms of discipline we got at school. Those whuppings at school were nothing when compared to ones they would give us for misbehaving…our butts wouldn’t hold shucks when our parents got through with us. How I wish we and the world could go back to those times.