Landry Christmas 1958

Can you believe it?  I almost forgot about writing a post today.  I was reminded earlier, and it slipped my mind.  Then we started watching a movie.  It was interrupted by a phone call.  When the caller asked what we were doing, I was reminded again about it.  You would think after doing this for ten years that I wouldn’t forget about my Thursday night obligation.  Not that it’s really an obligation.  I forgot about it last Christmas, too, and was two days late with my post.  Not this year.

I thought I would go ahead and do another Christmas post this year since it is Christmas Day.  Merry Christmas!  It’s what I had planned all along.  Three Christmas post this year seemed right.  The first one included a photo from the 1970s.  The second one had a photo from the 1960s.  So I thought I’d follow the trend and include a photo from a decade earlier.  

This photo is from 1958 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  That’s a long time ago.  I wasn’t even born yet.  But I would soon be joining these siblings and cousins in the Landry Christmas traditions.  Back then the event would occur at my grandmother’s house in Lake Charles.  She was born in Crescent, Louisiana, which is near Plaquemine.  She was given the name Germaine Erie Patureau, though she usually went by Erie.  She would grow up in Crescent and Lafayette, get married to Robert Joseph “Rob” Landry, and then reared a family in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

She became a grandmother in 1948 when my cousin Shirley was born.  We call her “The First” because she demands it.  It was at that point that my grandmother went from Erie and Mama to Mee Maw.  My grandfather was called Pee Paw and he was around for most of these earlier cousins, but he died in 1957, so I never knew him.  I didn’t think about all of those things back then.  I just knew that we all loved going to be with our aunts, uncles, and cousins at Mee Maw’s house.  You could tell that she loved all of her grandchildren very much.  I’m pretty sure I was her favorite, though.

But in 1958 I wasn’t there, so someone else must have been the favorite at that point.  It could have been Shirley.  She was the first, as we all know.  And I will admit that she is loveable. But then my sister Jodie was pretty special too.  Doesn’t she look angelic in her pink dress?  She was the first in my family.  That’s always a special thing.  Look at Doug, who is in the black shirt in front of Jodie.  He was the first in Aunt Germaine’s family.  He looks really happy.  Maybe Mee Maw told him that he was her favorite (so far!)

I think that’s what she wanted.  How could she not love all of those little kids who were her grandchildren?  She wanted them to feel special and that she loved them best.  I think she accomplished that.  She had lots of love to go around.

IPSIWHFT