We Had a Pony!
The Landry family in 1964 in Jennings, Louisiana. Bob, Rob, Jamie, Al, Van, Jodie, and Karen.
That’s right! In 1964 the Landry family had a pony. Actually, it wasn’t a pony and there was more than one. What we had were two horses when we lived out in the country. For the longest time I thought that the horses were just on the property that we rented in 1963 when we first moved to Jennings. I didn’t think that we actually owned two horses. That’s what rich kids had and we were definitely not rich.
It always reminds me of a Seinfeld episode. In the episode Jerry and Elaine are with Jerry’s parents and they’re eating at an older Polish woman’s home. They both are a little uncomfortable, so they’re talking to keep the conversation going. Somehow the topic of horses comes up. Elaine then said that ponies reminded her of overgrown dogs. She goes on to say, “and those kids who had their own ponies.” “I know,” Jerry chimed in, “I hated those kids. In fact, I hate anyone that ever had a pony when they were growing up.” The Polish woman gives a stern, startled look and says, “I had a pony! When I was a little girl in Poland, we all had ponies.” I find the scene hilarious, but I never thought of myself as one of those kids who had their own pony.
But I didn’t really. There were two horses for our family of eight. And they certainly weren’t thoroughbreds! One of them was in pretty good shape. Her name was Topsy. The other one was rather old and had a sway back. We called that one Old Bald. When we were living in that location, there was a two-story house that we lived in. In the back of the property (which was next to a canal) there was an old red barn. There was a fenced-in area around the barn where there were some cows and I’m pretty sure that’s where the horses were kept as well. One day after what must have been a rainy period, Old Bald fell and broke a hip or something and got stuck in the mud behind the barn. Somebody came by to try to get him out, but I don’t think it was successful. They were going to have to put him down. I remember looking out the back kitchen window toward the barn and asking my mom if I could go out to see what was going on. She told me that I didn’t want to see all that. But I DID want to see what was going on. I minded my Mama.
Rob on Topsy in 1965 with our dog Princess and one of the cats that were around.
In a previous post “The Old Swing Set” that I wrote in 2019, I talked about an old sand box that we had. I described it as a round brick building with a ceiling, and it seemed like a favorite place for wasps to build their nests. I thought it was an unusual sand box from my memory and asked my siblings if they remembered the same thing. Obviously I did not have access to this second photo at the time. It’s the only photo that shows that old sand box, and sure enough it is a round brick building behind our two-story house.
That house, which we rented from a Mr. Sonnier, was situated just north of the I-10 in Jennings, Louisiana. It is no longer there. The only way I know to tell where it used to be is by looking for the canal that ran along the north property line. That’s my brother Rob on the horse. I think I got the photo from him. I colorized it. You can see our old van in the driveway and on the right side of the photo, you can see the eaves of the old barn that I talked about. It had a framework of a plane in it. We would peek in on it from time to time. The photo must have been taken in the fenced-in area that I talked about. There was a separate fenced-in area on the other side of the barn for the cows. That’s where I recall them being when Al reached through the fence and attempted to touch one. “I almost touched a cow feather!” he excitedly exclaimed.
It’s amazing to think that all of this happened 60 years ago. I have memories from 60 years ago! And I have photos that verify that some of those memories are accurate! But I’m still just that kid in the first photo who is too busy playing with the dog to notice that my mom was taking a photo. I was probably trying to make her bark! It’s what I do.
Update: My brother Rob informed me that Topsy, in fact, was a female horse. It’s funny how you can know something (Topsy was a male.) ever since you were a child and never stop to question if it is accurate. So I went back to the story and corrected the pronouns so no one will be offended. He also informed me that she was a quarter horse with good lines. The person we sold (or gave) Topsy to entered her into several competitions, which she won. She became more valuable, and her offspring were desirable as well. Our Topsy did good.