Pair of salty autograph books belonging to Sophie, a junior high student from Greensburg, PA.
Entries dated 1926-1932, with the majority ca. 1928. Not quite a slam book, but rowdier than the traditional autograph album, indicative of the format’s evolution away from Victorian sentimentalism. Full of inside jokes, snarky jabs and scandalous innuendo (“I love you strong, I love you mighty, I wish your pajamas were close to my night gown / now don’t get excited I meant on the close-line not in bed, Your old Pal, Estella Morton. P.S. Yours till Pike Peak turns to a pimple”). Many entries copy popular joke rhymes, like, “When you get married and your husband gets cross, pick up the rolling pin and show him who’s boss” and are most humorous when the writer doesn’t quite hit the mark. One boy writes, “When you get married and your husband gets cross, just take the poker and beat him to death.”