My father Gordon Wesley recieved an Autograph Book for Christmas in 1932, he was 14 years old at the time. 

The Autograph Book

His teacher, Marie Hunka at the “New Moose Hil School”, was the first person to sign the book. She said as follows:

“It is not what he has or even what he does, which directly expresses the worth of a man but what he is.” also “Pleasure comes through toil. When one gets to love work his life is a happy one.” and, “The noblest mind the best contentment has.”

The book was signed by Fred Butler, Albert Horem, Norman Moen, Lela M. Manning, Mrs. Chas. E. Orr, W. Edwin Grant, Marianne Gambel, Albert Gillespie, Mary Gillespie, Abrm Ellis, Ray Ellis, Hazel Sutherland, Andrew S. Pucholka, George Gillespie, John J. Jacobson, Francis Looney, Stan Webber (RCAF), Francis Gillespie, James Ray Speer, Evelyn Sutherland, Lloyd Nelson Doyle, Jennie Kirkwood (his cousin), Bob Simon, Cecile Manning, Lloyd White, James Lyon, Floyd Fuller and P. Williamson, as well as by his sisters and several of their children.

From the signatures it is obvious that Dad packed that autograph book with him across Europe in World War II.

One of the most interesting notes is the following signed in 1942, two years before he got married: 

I wish you health 

I wish you joy 

I wish you first a baby boy

And when his hair begins to curl

I wish you then a baby girl

Ande when her hair is straight as pins

I wish you then a pair of twins.

Pte.Moore, Walter.

What makes this doubly interesting is that in fact this became partly a true prediction in that my parents went on to have two sets of twins “a pair of twins”. The twins came from my mother’s side of the family.