Alma’s Teenage Scrapbook

When Alma was a teenage girl in San Francisco, she kept a scrapbook, which she called The Book of Beauty. It contains many articles cut from magazines and newspapers on subjects as various as exercising, hand care, how to be popular and what colors to wear for different hair shades. There are tips and stories from movie starts and advice columns from various women which paint a picture of the time.

One section called “Cute Things to Say” contains seven hand written pages of clever rejoinders, including: when someone says “I have an idea,” reply “Beginner’s luck.” Or if someone tells a dumb joke say “Shut your mouth precious so I can see your face.” It’s difficult to imagine Alma saying any of these “cute things,” or even imagining them to be cute in the first place.

Here Alma also lists her “assets” and “liabilities” as she sees them. She is proud of her sense of humor but thinks she doesn’t take good enough care of her hands. She’s happy that she doesn’t easily get hurt feelings and doesn’t talk too loud when she’s on the street, but she feels she shouldn’t be so fickle and should do better about keeping a diary.