Hello Fun Seekers. Welcome to “Fun Friday.”
Before we get down to bid’ness today, I want to encourage you with two things.
First: I write these blog posts very fast. So they sometimes contain typos. I can’t catch them all. So if you ever spot a typo — for a present post or a previous one — please let me know in the comments section. I would greatly appreciate it. You are my proof readers.
Second: I want to encourage you all to download the Alexa toolbar. You need Firefox or Internet Explorer to use it.
(Firefox is a much better browser. If you don’t have it, I recommend it. It’s a free download.)
I’m not a fan of toolbars on my browser, but I’m diggin’ the Alexa toolbar. It’s notified me of several helpful articles I would have never seen otherwise.
The toolbar has a lot of nifty buttons, and if you’re a blogger, it will help your blog – and all other blogs that you visit – in the Alexa rankings.
The toolbar is a free download. Just click here to download it. Install and you’re set.
Now on to the subject at hand . . .
Many, many moons ago in a galaxy far, far away I used to teach high school. And at the end of each school year, when the yearbooks rolled out, I would write on my blackboard a list of “what not to write in someone’s yearbook.”
It was an annual tradition. Some of the other teachers liked it so much they began stealing it, posting it on their blackboards. So I was forced to copyright the material. 
But now . . . for the first time ever . . . I am making my erstwhile, infamous yearbook list public and available for popular consumption.
You are free to steal it. I only ask that if you use it, you put a link to my blog at the end of the stolen property: http://frankviola.org
One short anecdote. When some of my students finished reading the list, they’d softly say (with head pointed down) . . . “now what am I going to write in my friends’ yearbooks?”
So all of you teenagers, 20-somethings, 30-somethings, parents who have high school kids, and school teachers out there, here’s the list.
If it gives you a smile, pass on the joy (via the Share buttons or links below). And answer the question at the end.
Use at your own discretion . . . or risk:
- I was the first to sign your crack.
- I had a great year, hope you did too!
- Keep on truckin’.
- Stay sweet.
- Have a great summer.
- Keep in touch (K.I.T.)
- I’m glad I met you.
- See you next year (to a senior).
- Stay cool.
- I wish I could have gotten to know you better.
- Good luck with (insert name of boyfriend or girlfriend).
- Friends forever.
- B.F.F.
- Have a great life.
- C-ya later homeboy!
- We finally made it through.
- Thanks for letting me sign your yearbook.
- Stay cute.
- It was great knowing you.
- Thanks for being a friend.
- 2 good + 2 be = 4 gotten.
- You are a very sweat person (misspelled intentionally or unintentionally).
- Be young, have fun, drink Pepsi.
- Keep sploochin’.
- Keep it real.
- T.T.F.N.
- LYLAS
- Sorry so Sloppy.
- Thanks for letting me sign your yearbook, but frankly, I never liked you.
@ Copyrighted, V-Dog Productions, LTD. http://frankviola.org
What did I leave out of the list that should be added?
The ones I remember best are, “I’ll remember you when I’m rich” (thanks to facebook I won’t let him forget that), and “thanks for all the hurtful memories.”. On the latter I never got an answer on what he meant. Then 25 years later my friend came out of the closet and said he’d always had a crush on me. Ouch!
B.F.F & T.T.F.N.???? Been a long time since high school.
Best Friends Forever
and
Ta Ta For Now
—- Still in high school
—-
I LOVED when people signed my yearbook with my nickname.;)
(I ended up marrying Molly Ringwald..;) )
(My last name is pronounced AIR HEART..like Amelia….substitute the H for an F..you get the idea
Kids are GENIUSES..;)
We homeschool so we probably won’t deal with that (although our homeschool group makes a yearbook….I wasn’t popular, but people thought I was sorta cool. I graduated in the 80′s, so picture Breakfast club,..I was a mix between Anthony-Michael Hall and John Bender
My mom was pretty horrified when one of my friends wrote “Don’t get laid, but if you do use a rubber!” I was in the eighth grade. I had little idea what he meant, or why it should or shouldn’t be funny. My mother was not amused.
Frank, I’m out of the loop on this kind of thing, but your post brought a memory back to me that I haven’t had in years. You see, I was the extremely shy girl who walked down the hall always carrying a huge stack of books; never speaking with anyone. I remember one day walking down the hallway to class when a boy stopped and looked at me and said, “Hi,” and I actually felt faint and quickly uttered a very soft “Hi” as I picked up my pace to the classroom. I doubt he even heard me speak. How shy is that? Not everyone was a part of the “in crowd” in school, or any crowd for that matter. I don’t recall being asked to sign a yearbook, though it doesn’t look like I missed out on too much fun.
“THE END” on the very back of the book so it fills the page and then sign in the smallest signature possible.
“See ya in Summer School!”
My favorite one to write was: “I’m the clown who came to town to sign your yearbook upside down” … of course that was only if someone had already signed the crack
What does LYYLAS mean? I tried googling but didn’t come up with anything.
LYLAS – love ya like a sister. The extra Y was a typo.
I love this list! I teach middle school, and, while I have never given them a list like this, I always try to remind them of the difference between your and you’re when yearbooks come out because I see so many “your sweet”s and “your a great friend”s. This year perhaps we will talk about using words to say meaningful things!
The first one on your list is exactly what I thought of when I read the title of this post. And yes, someone actually wrote that on my yearbook (on the crack, of course).
I remember it being a big deal in middle school to get my yearbook signed. In high school I realized that most of what people wrote was meaningless and quit asking anyone to sign mine.
I think this was a great idea to help students write something more thoughtful to their friends.