I have only had three address books in my long life. 
This one I bought yesterday at the Hallmark store is the replacement for my 2nd one, below.
I went looking for my first one before writing this blog but couldn't find it in any of those spots I had stashed away old keepsakes. That first one was brown, about 2"x 3"and a gift from a maiden aunt as a high school graduation present, if memory serves me right. I made the mistake of writing in it with pen so that as people's addresses changed I had to cross out and enter them again. I had that address book through college and then after I was married and based on the entries in my second address book, until at the latest 1986.
The nice thing about the second address book was that it had looseleaf sheets and more space to enter information. And I was so good about writing in pencil, mostly, that it stayed fairly neat for many years. As you can see from above, other sheets got stuck in there as did sticky notes. But this Christmas as I did my Christmas cards, I realized there were too many crossed out people in there. Like acquaintances from when I worked for the federal government 28 years ago. And aunts and uncles who had passed away. Doctors we no longer used. Out of date phone numbers and information about commuter buses.
It was time for a new address book. So now comes the task of entering the addresses and phone numbers of family and current friends. There will be old friends in there too because many have lasted through the years and though we may not see them as often at least there's always Christmas time to catch up. There are new addresses in there too of friends made on the internet and nieces and nephews off to college so deserving their own entry now. It's an improvement over the last address book because it has space to note Christmas cards sent and received (something I did in the margin before), and space for birthdays. Now the spaces for fax and email won't be used - I'll stick to the computer address book for that.
I wonder how long this one will last. Let's see 1969-1986 was 17 years, 1986-2013 was 27 years. I guess it will be 37 years. Until 2050? Guess how old I'll be then?
