The book with blank pages

MY dear Jack and Jill,

I’m writing to ask for a favour from either or both of you. Do you still keep your autograph book or do you know who among your friends have kept one? If possible, take a picture of the book and share it with me, please. I cannot trace the whereabouts of mine.

It would be fun to read what it contained: messages written 40 or 50 years ago bringing back memories and renewing nostalgic feelings.

I’m still searching for the origins of the book. Meantime, one verbal source has it that the tradition of keeping an autograph book was popular among the German immigrants in the USA. In Europe, each university student possessed a blank book. On graduation day, former classmates would write in each other’s book messages of felicitations. Leaving present or future address, the idea was for both parties to continue getting in touch with each other again from time to time, and to follow each other’s career progress or of life in general.

The craze came to Sarawak

I don’t know who introduced this tradition to Sarawak. Do you? In 1957, I owned an autograph book. So did several other boys in my class. They pasted photographs of themselves in the inside pages together with contact address (no telephone numbers those days). I couldn’t afford to have one photograph taken at the Anna Studio, so I drew a sketch of the old St Thomas’s Cathedral instead, in black Chinese ink.

Medium of communication: English, handwritten neatly in ink. At the time, students were encouraged to write in English, in the form of poems, or in any combination of words that sounded or looked like a poetry. And the handwriting had to be perfect! Any four-line quatrain was to be deemed a poem. In some books circulated to me there were only personal greetings – How are you? How is your sis …? That was good enough for anyone who was unable to compose a semblance of a poem.

Why in a particular type of ink? At the time, the type or the colour of ink used did not strike any as important. Now, I think, it was to advertise the Parker Pen and its ink Quink. Its competitor was the Sheaffer Pen sold by the Borneo Company.

A form of courtship

The Autograph Book was also used as an alternative means of communication between people who wanted to go beyond making friendship. A boy interested in a girl or vice versa would use this method of communication instead of directly writing a letter to each other. That might come later when contact had been safely established.

In 1959, I was a form teacher at St Thomas’s School in Kuching. One Monday morning, several of my students were unusually quiet; crowding around someone with a book. I thought they were reading the Sarawak Tribune. Suddenly, they dispersed leaving one boy awkwardly tugging a book under his shirt as if some forbidden phonographic material had been circulated among the boys.

Teachers are always suspicious.

I asked to be shown the book. Lo and behold, it was a similar book that I had previously bought from Chiang Wah Onn. We had a good laugh; teacher and student had the same hobby.

Normally, the book owner addresses the recipients with “I would be happy if friends would drop a few words of advice or a poem in this book.” Name, address of sender, would be given. The signatory was represented by XXX.

The standard reply would be a message neatly handwritten, such as:

“I love the river,

I love the brook,

I love the owner of this book”.

One could imagine that the owner of the book was smiling to himself. First step towards a long lasting friendship; in a couple of cases, I was told, the friendship had blossomed into matrimony.

There are many quatrains that one could compose. The common one was this:

“Drink hot coffee,

Drink hot tea,

Burn your lips,

and remember me.”

The book could also be abused. A classmate of mine caught the bug. Apparently, an animal lover, he had drawn sketches of animals in his book. Through a friend, the book was supposed to be passed to a girl in the St Mary’s Boarding House. But the friend did no such thing. As case of a conflict of interests, I suppose. He got the book back all right; with the message:

“Happy Birthday to you,

You live in the zoo,

You look like a monkey,

And act like one too”.

It was in the handwriting of the courier!

I think that was the last we saw of his book.

Another class mate was lucky. When he got his book back, he got this message:

“Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you.”

He got excited for the rest of the day, possibly the whole weekend.

I was told by a psychiatrist that the need to reach out to another human being is a perfectly regular human behaviour. The communication can be in any form. In ancient times, humans employed all sorts of means of communication – the smoke, the flag, the birds, sounds, semaphore signs. Then the Morse code, before the invention of electronic devices. Now with Zoom you can have a virtual meeting or conference. Amazing gadgets you guys are having nowadays.

J & J,

I hope that both of you are observing the Conditional Movement Control Order and the related regulations. Buying your kangkong online? I don’t know if this stay-at-home order is going on indefinitely or will end soon. Meanwhile, keep socially distanced from the police.

If you have the time, look into the old boxes up in the attic. You might just discover something that looks like a handwritten book. Take pictures of it and email to me, please. Thank you.

Jack and Jill,

Do join me in wishing those Malaysians who are celebrating, tomorrow, the Gawai:

Gerai Nyamai,

Gayu Guru,

Lantang Senang!

Good Health, Long Life, Happiness, and Prosperity!

Yours sincerely,

UD XXX

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