- Ew!
Wow!
(upbeat music)
One thing you can buy off Ebay is a total stranger's
school yearbook.
They usually cost around ten to 30 dollars.
So they're not super expensive.
I bought yearbooks from five different decades,
the 90s, 80, 50s, 40s and 30s.
If you buy somebody's old yearbook,
it comes with all the messages
that their friends wrote to them.
The most popular thing people wrote in yearbooks
when I was in school was,
hope you have a good summer.
We're gonna see what people of the past
wrote in their yearbooks,
and what kinda people owned these yearbooks.
My first yearbook is from 1993.
(popping)
It's from Florida.
The Ebay listing said that it had lots of
nasty writing in it.
Lots of obnoxious comments,
and that's exactly what I wanted.
I see devil horns drawn on a teacher.
I'm noticing a lot of the handwriting is the same.
I think the person who owned this yearbook
wrote messages to himself.
"Dear me, you are the greatest looking guy.
"I think you are the greatest looking guy in the world.
"Love yourself."
"You are so cute.
"Love yourself."
I mean, I guess it's nice to...
I can't even, it's too sad.
Okay, I found some real signatures from other people.
One of them says, "You are the most ugliest,
"most pain in the butt cool guy I know."
Okay.
"Stay cool.
"Love always."
I feel a little bit bad for this guy.
Not a lot of friends wrote in this yearbook,
which I can relate to.
I remember just having like a couple close friends
sign my yearbook.
And then having just a lot of space left.
Which is totally fine.
But I definitely remember that feeling
where you're like,
wow, my yearbook should be covered in like
messages and inside jokes from all my many friends.
Oh, wait.
I don't have any.
This yearbook is from 1982 and it's from Georgia.
(freestyle music)
These people wrote a lot of messages.
"I'm so glad we've got class together this year.
"I love you to death,
"cuz you're a really super guy."
"You're a very nice person and I know for sure
"nothing will ever change that."
How can you be so sure?
"Love ya, Haley."
Look, Haley, people change, okay?
"You are one of the nicest guys I know.
"Call me sometime."
This is a whole page written by someone!
"Where do I begin?
"You've meant so much to me.
"I love you dearly.
"When you make that first million, you ought to drop by
"and pay me a visit."
Okay, now this just seems like fishing for money.
"You know I love you even though
"I do pick on you all the time.
"And if you didn't know, you do now."
These people are so friendly.
If not a little fake.
Almost all of the messages for this 80s guy
are about how nice he is,
how good a friend he is.
But then there's just one message
that really makes me doubt all of that.
"Hey, how ya been?
"I haven't seen you much.
"I'll never forget the time you poured Coke "
down my bathing suit.
"And ice.
"And tied my hands together at Shane's party.
"You are really a sweet guy.
"Good luck always."
What?
And I get, sort of like having a food fight.
The tying of the hands, that's what really make me
question how nice this guy is.
But, okay.
Our next decade is the 50s.
This yearbook is from 1958,
from someplace in Massachusetts.
(rock-and-roll music)
"To Joe.
"The kid who always had to have a smoke in Driver's Ed."
So apparently Joe's nickname was Smokey.
Possibly because he smoked.
"If anyone has a sense of humor, it's you.
"You're a doll."
"To Joe, that wonder boy with the girls.
"And who caused Mr. Wiggin to have ulcers."
"To Joe, the boy who always bothers me in class.
"Between his jokes and actions,
"he is one boy to watch out for."
A boy to watch out for.
"Joe, a boy who really knows how to tease."
This guy, from the 50s, was really good at math.
"The brightest, most intelligent genius math student."
"To Joe, the smartest math student."
"To Joe, a kid who always did his math homework
so I could copy it."
I know copying is wrong,
but I feel like there's a certain selflessness,
of just being like, yeah, the homework's easy for me.
You can copy it.
I don't care.
I respect that, even though it's wrong.
Honestly, the guy who owned this yearbook
seems kind of cool.
This yearbook is from 1947 in New York.
(swing music)
A girl owned this yearbook.
"Best of luck always."
"Lots of luck."
"Best of luck."
"Good luck."
"Lots of luck."
"Best of luck."
"Lots of luck."
"Lots of luck to you always."
"Sincere wishes and lots of luck."
"Best wishes."
"Best luck."
"To a swell girl."
"To a very swell girl."
"Good luck and best wishes."
"To a swell girl."
A lof of people signed this yearbook.
They either say, good luck, or you're a swell girl.
Or good luck to a swell girl.
Maybe the girl who had this book just was,
was that swell, and needed that much luck.
The last yearbook is from 1935.
`(swing music)
It's crazy that this yearbook is more than 80 years old.
A young man owned this book in Illinois.
There's a section that says,
athletics, and there's just a tractor.
I mean I'm from the Midwest, but I know that
a tractor is not a sport.
There's lots of signatures in here,
but people just signed their names.
Not even a good luck.
Not even to a swell boy.
This is just a bunch of names.
So people didn't really write personal messages
in this 1935 yearbook from Illinois.
There's something sort of desperate about a yearbook,
like these are the special times you must remember!
And then you look through it and it's like,
these pictures don't really reflect
any actual thing that happened.
You're supposed to write something meaningful
for your friend in their yearbook.
And you're just like, what do I write?
I don't know.
Stay cool?
You're a swell girl?
Best of luck?
Like there's nothing to say.
It's kind of like signing a greeting card.
You're just like ahhhh.
It doesn't matter what decade it is.
No one ever knows what you're supposed to write
in a yearbook.
So, that being said, please,
I hope you have a good summer.
Have a good summer and stay cool.
(slow carousel music)