The Autograph Book
I ran my fingers along the spines of my antiquarian collection, pausing on a stack of thin books. There layered between my parachute log book and a pocket-sized address record was a faded black fabric cover with the lettering worn off.
It was my mother’s autograph book, a keepsake at her passing ten years earlier. When my siblings and I closed the family home. With every drawer and closet we emptied I believed there had to be more than knitting patterns. Amongst the photo albums I found the autograph book.
On that afternoon I convinced my brother to climb into the attic crawl space. I held the ladder as his flashlight illuminated the beds of pink insulation. My mother left no memorabilia, I knew little about her upbringing. Much of it was based on a handful of sepia photographs. I was left with a hollow frustration that I never ‘knew’ her.
I don’t understand why I avoided examining this small book for so long. Now I was ready. I flipped through the rough textured pages of blue, pink and yellow counting more than seventy entries. I realized that this was a view into the life of a ten-year-old girl in a small prairie town during WW II. The entries began in 1939 as Canada was coming out of the Great Depression, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth had passed through Edmonton by train, and war was declared on Germany.
I imagined myself as a ten-year-old and being raised amidst radio reports, recruitment posters and adult conversations about loss and devastation.
Despite the bleak back drop the handwritten pages reflected respect for each other. All began with a formal salutation; Dear Margaret closing with ‘a pal’ ‘a friend, ‘yours truly’. There were several themes teasing about boys, not wanting to be forgotten, doing good in the world. These declarations were oriented to a bright future. Several were illustrated and were written with flowing elegant penmanship.
The last entries were in 1945 when the Nore family of six located to Hay Lakes, Alberta positioned along the main railway service across Canada
For the first time I could envision my mother as a girl growing into a young woman of sixteen. She married my father in May 1, 1948 when she was eighteen.
Margaret Evelyn Ruth Nore Sikstrom
Vegreville July 10,1929
Edmonton Oct 5, 2007

Yours till butter flys December 1939

May you my daughter be ever blest, with friends selected from the best
And in return may you extend a gem of love to everyone
Oct 1939 Mother to Margaret age 10

December 1964 Margaret is 35 to her 9-year-old daughter Sari

Little dabs of powder, Little spots of paint
Make a girl’s complexion, Look like what it ain’t
A selection from Margaret’s Autograph Book
May your joys be like the capital of Ireland
Always “Dublin”
Your friend Ruth
Feb 1939
A laugh is just like sunshine
It freshens all the day
It tips the peaks of life with light
And drives the clouds away
Eleanor Goodwin October 1939
May your joys be as long as a bunnies ears
And your troubles as long as his tail
Your brother Gordon Nore Oct 1939
When you are feeling blue, Shake it
For life is only what you make it
Sincerely Mrs. ( Marion) Allen Islay Nov 1939
‘Tis very nice to have a friend
Who always plays the game
Known all the faults you ever had
But love you just the same
Sincerely Joyce Baxter Islay, Nov 1939
May your life be sweet and full of all good things.
Make it worth while for yourself as well as others.
Always give good measure of happiness and cheer to all
Let all good things in life be your goal and share them with your friends
Daddy Nov 1939
Mr. Moses killed a skunk
Mrs. Moses cooked a hunk
Baby Moses ate a chunk
Holy Moses how it stunk
Bruce Smith, Westlock Jan.1940
Life is like a deck of cards
When your in love its hearts, When your engaged it’s diamonds
When your married its clubs, When your dead it’s spades
Douglas K. Smith, Westlock Jan.1940
Learn to make the most of life Lose no happy days
For time will never bring you back, the moments thrown away
Your Grandpa Westlock no date
Never say can’t, but let your motto be I’ll try
Your Grandma Westlock no date
In the coal box of your memories
Regard me as a lump
Sincerely yours Marion Gibson April 194
He said you are a lemon dear
He said it just to tease her
And she replied with smiling eyes
And you’re the lemon squeezer
Guess Who?( In pencil Bennie)
I went to the show tomorrow
I sat at the front of the back
I fell from the floor to the ceiling
And hurt the front of my back
Your cousin Mildred Jan 1941
When you see a pig climb a tree pull on his tail and think of me
Eddie Borass Feb 1941
If all the boys lived across the sea
What a grand swimmer
Margaret would be
Your pal Eileen Dawson
Yours till the kitchen sinks
Camrose Feb 1941
Love is just a little thing shaped like a lizard
It runs around the heart three times and jumps into the gizzard
Your friend Margaret Walters
Camrose March 1941
If scribbling in autographs
Friendship secures
With the greatest of pleasure
I’ll scribble in yours!
Yours till a bobby pin gets seasick on a permanent wave
Sincerely, Evelyn
Hay Lakes no date
Love is like an onion You taste it with delight and after you have bitten
You wonder what the heck made you bite
Yours truly Doreen Conger
Mercoal March 1942
Let your life be like the sun
And may its rays radiate happiness all around
Daddy
Heisler Dec 1943
Just wealth enuf to give and spare
Just health enuf to banish care
Just friends enuf sincere and true
May life always bring to you
Nils (married to Aunt Burrantia)
May your life be like a ford car, a rattling success
Always Alice
Hay Lakes March 1945
This ‘ol’ world we live in Is a mighty hard ‘ol’ beat
You’ll find a thorn on every rose and ain’t the roses sweet
Sincerely Doreen Johnson Hay Lakes Sept 1945
Sari Sikstrom Vancouver
October 26, 2018