Half way through the month and I have been looking at some of the wonderful October pictures on my son's camera....pictures he has taken as he and our youngest son do maintenance on the various internet stations located on the tops of mountains that surround the Similkameen Valley.
I can remember another fall when Charles and I exclaimed in delight as we drove the back roads.
All autumns are beautiful, but some are simply spectacular!!!!!
In a box of unsorted photos I came across an old picure of me as a child
and some wonderful old pictures of my grandmother
as well as a group of relatives on Robert John's porch
(my great grandfather)
but when I opened this box of old pictures I found
the greatest treasure of all....
My Auntie Hildred's Autograph Albums!
Is anybody besides me old enough to remember Autograph Albums?
They were all the fad....
you got your nearest and dearest to write little verses
in them
and even a casual acquaintance!
And everyone was prepared with kind and sweet words
of wisdom, if they were so moved...
or some wrote humorous ditties.....
My Aunt Hildred was my father's sister,
and it was their father who first initiated the name "Hildred"
into the family
My great-aunt Min wrote a verse I would have been pleased to get...
Let us weave into the warp of our lives here below
Beautiful threads as white as snow,
That when the last shuttle through the warp has run
The great "Mystic Weaver" shall say "Well Done"
At work my Aunt was affectionately known as "Tommy"
as her family name was Thompson
some wag with the initial H.H.
wrote this...
Dear Tommy
They walked the lane in silence,
The sky was studded with stars,
They reached the gate together,
And for her he lifted the bars.
But this day is long since over,
There's nothing between them now
For he was just the hired man
And she, the old Jersey cow.
In August of 1925 R. Irving of Calgary wrote...
"Lo! As the wind is,
So is mortal life,
A moan, a sigh, a sob,
a storm, a strife"
But Mrs. van Calat had a much less melancholy verse about same wind
and the responsibility for our mortal life!!!!!
One ship sails east,
and another sails west,
With the selfsame winds that blow.
'Tis the set of the sail,
And not the gale,
Which determines the way you go.
On January 19th 1931, my Aunt's very best friend wrote this...
Does anyone know, does anyone care
Where you go or how you fare?
Whether you laugh, or whether you sigh
Whether you smile or whether you cry?
Glad when you're happy, sad when your blue -
Does anyone care what becomes of you?
I do, old pal, I'll say I do!
ever your friend - Eileen
"Tommy" never married, although my mother knitted her a beautiful pink
negligee for her trouseau
(alas, her finacee turned out to be a bounder)
but her lifelong friend who adored her wrote...
"Dear Thomasino - I love you truly, truly Dear"
She didn't marry, but she was so loved by all her family, -
her neices and nephews especially.
On July 10th, 1933, when I was pretty young, I wrote..
Dear Auntie Hildred
May your voyage through life
be as happy and free,
As the dancing waves
On the bright blue sea.
and her Mother's words...
In the book of life God's album
may your name be penned with care
And may all who here have written,
write their names forever there.
and my Mother's words
(she who loved her like a sister.)
Dear Hildred
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust
Love - Dolly
So many dear verses of love and caring
but this one I found particularly appropriate!
July 2/33
Dear Tommy
I will not wish you riches
or a flow of greatness,
But that wherever you go
Some weary heart may gladden
at your smile,
Some weary heart know sunshine for awhile
And so your years shall be
a track of light
Like angel footsteps passing
thru' the night.
I think this wish defines her life...
she was truly and dearly loved.
I shall pass these precious albums on,
in the hopes that they will be as treasured
as they are now.
4 comments:
Your son is an accomplished photographer and has an enviable job - at this time of year, not so much in mid-winter. I used to have an Autograph Book but it was confiscated by my mother after a slightly tipsy uncle returned from the pub one afternoon and wrote a rude verse in it. I didn't understand the verse of course and never found out what it said, but it was from time to time passed around among the adults amid much mirth and hilarity.
I do indeed remember Autograph albums Hildred - they were all the rage and we plagued all and sundry to write in them. I have long since lost mine but the only one I remember is:
My heart is like a cabbage,
neatly split in two.
The leaves I give to anyone.
The heart I give to you.
I remember being quite excited about a little autograph book I got for Christmas one year. Most entries in it were short and simple written by school mates when we were in the primary class. I am sure it would be a real keepsake today if it had survived. "Let us weave into the warp of our lives..." seems as though it were written just for you. Were there others in your family who worked over the loom as you do? The old picture of you as a child is priceless. You were adorable!
Oh wonderful!! I had an autograph album as a pre-teen -- I imagine that the mid-50s were probably the tail end of the fad as I don't remember much that took as much effort as in the one you found. Here is what my grandfather wrote in mine before signing it: "Some people can be funny, I never could be so. So I'll just write my name down, it's the funniest thing I know."
I have no idea why I remember that bit of doggerel after nearly 70 years as I haven't seen the book in almost that long!
Post a Comment