Landry Christmas Circa 1938

Now that we are looking back at Christmas, I thought I’d take it back to a Christmas of long ago.  I’ve written at least two Christmas related stories that were about tragedies, but I’m not going to do that this year.  Our family has been hit with a tragedy this week, so I will look back to a photo that shows some peace and calm.

This is a photo of my dad’s family at Christmas from the late 1930s.  From the apparent ages of the kids in this photo, I estimate it to be from the Christmas of 1938.  That’s the month before my dad turned 10 years old.  I still remember how I thought it was such a big deal when my age turned from a single digit age to a double digit age.  Plus you got to use all ten fingers to show how old you were!  Oh, the joys of childhood.

And one of those joys of childhood is Christmastime.  It was such a magical time.  The expectation was so high.  And the wait was so painstankling long.  From comments from my siblings this week, I realized how well our parents protected us from the turmoil that can show itself in the world.  We all have cherished memories from childhood.

And what led to that was probably similar memories that my parents had, such as the scene from this week’s photo.  That’s my dad on the far right of the photo.  He came from a family of eight children.  The oldest three (Marie, A. J., and Hubert) are not shown in the photo.  A. J. died at the good old age of 94 last week, leaving three surviving siblings.  Those three siblings are the first three children shown in this photo from left to right.  On the left is Germaine,  who was 11 years old at the time.  Her nurturing skills were already starting, because as you can see, she seems to be comforting 2-year-old little brother Johnny in this photo.

The little girl with her head down is 4-year-old Frances Mae.  I’m not sure what she is doing.  She might have something in her lap, but my photo isn’t clear enough to make it out.  Wana, of course, is the little girl with the curly hair.  She was a happy 6-year-old who looks like she was getting ready to tell her sister a funny little story about the boy next door.  Bobbie (my dad) looks mostly happy. Or should I say content?  He doesn’t really have a big smile, but you can’t say he is sad or upset.

So there it is.  A flash into the past.  Happy times at Christmastime.  These siblings would continue to get together for Christmas for decades to come, which provided a lifetime of great memories for more people than I’ll ever know.