Ain’t It Great in 48!

It’s time for a break from some serious, sad history stories.  Don’t worry!  I’ll get back to it soon.  In the meantime I thought I’d find a fun photo of my mom’s side of the family to share.  My searching led to this photo.  I’ve had it for a while and have always liked it.  It’s a great photo of my mom and some of her friends in Hathaway, Louisiana, in 1948.

And these girls look like they might have had a little bit of attitude!  Not that they’d be unruly or threaten to cut you, but there is a bit of sassiness showing. 

On the left is Lela May Jester.  She is the least sassy looking.  She looks very sweet.  Next is my mom, Betty Lou Bucklin.  She was 15 years old at the time and a sophomore at high school.  Besides being on the basketball team, she was also in band and participated in school plays.  She has a very self-assured look on her face. 

Standing to the right of my mom is her best friend LaVelle Krumnow.  She was the daughter of the minister of the local Methodist church that mom’s family attended.  They were friends all through school and mom talked about her often.   She doesn’t look quite as brash as some of the other girls in the photos.  Next is Claribel Brown.  What’s with those names back then?  Lela May, Betty Lou, LaVelle, and Claribel?  I remember hearing those names when I was a kid and I thought they were a bit country sounding back then.  Though I definitely wouldn’t tease Claribel about it.  She looks like a tough cookie, as my mom would say!

The girl all in black is Carol Bryan (now Theunissen).  When our family first moved to Jennings, she was the mom next door.  I don’t remember her looking as sassy as she does in this photo.   She was in the same class as my mom, which I didn’t realize back then.  I knew they came from the same place, but didn’t know all the connections.  She’s in several photos with my mom.  Of course, none of the other girls have the attitude of Dot Gary on the far right.  She looks kinda tough.  I keep looking really close to see if I can see a carton of cigarettes rolled up in her sleeve!  But all I really notice is that little bow around her neck.  Maybe I’ve read Dorothy all wrong.  I still think they were showing some attitude.

They were teenagers after all!  They were also high school students at Hathaway High.  More specifically, they were part of the Hathaway High Hornets basketball team that had just won state.  So there’s a good reason that they were feeling some confidence.

I guess this is evidence of the comment Mama wrote about how they felt after accomplishing big things in basketball:  “(We) thought we were hot stuff.”