Bucklins at the Beach in 1941

I’ve shared this photo before, but that was over ten years ago.  It was a few months before I started doing this weekly blog.  It was a photo I had seen for the first time just a short time before.  Actually, the date that I first saw this photo was on May 23, 2015.  The reason I remember it is that I referred to my My Photos folder on my computer.  It’s my virtual memory along with the photos that are stored in there.

The day I saw it was the last time that I went out on an adventure with my mom and dad.  They were slowing down a bit and a few months later we agreed that it would be best that they move into assisted living.  In May, though, we made plans and met up with mom’s first cousins Louise (and her son Joseph) and Ray Bucklin.  We explored around the Hathaway/Raymond/China area which is where the Bucklin family settled when they moved south in the 1880s.  That would have been my mom’s and her cousins’ great grandparents.

Anyway, after exploring a bit, we went back to the old Herbert Bucklin home place.  That was Louise and Ray’s dad.  My mom was the daughter of Herbert’s brother Fred.  Grandpa and Grandma lived just down the road a bit from them in the area that I refer to as Hathaway.  Fred and Herbert’s brother Clarence lived between them in what Clarence’s daughter refers to as Raymond.  I’m sure there are others who would call the same area China.  After all, it’s where China cemetery is located.

After talking a bit about family history and reminiscing, Louise brought out some old letters and photos.  She has been collecting them for years.  I had not seen a lot of the items, including this old photo from 1941.  It shows a gathering of two families who had known each other for a while – the Bucklins and the Clements.  You know about the Bucklins because that was my mom’s maiden name and I refer to it often in these blogs.  But the Clement name you would not be familiar with in connection to me.  Jennings had a Clement family that was known because a man named Jules Clement discovered oil in Jennings in 1901.

I don’t think this family was related to that Jennings Clement family.  The Bucklins met this Clement family around 1911-1914 when they lived in Prairie Grove, Arkansas.  The Bucklins only lived there for a few years, but they kept in touch with the Clement family at least until 1941.  Otherwise, we wouldn’t have this photo of the two families together.  I have copies of four other photos taken that long ago day on the beach in Cameron, Louisiana.  This one is by far the best.  It has my mom and her sisters and parents included in it. 

My mom Betty Lou is the girl in the plaid dress with the white collar at the front on the left.  Next to her in the striped dress is her younger sister Alma.  On the other side of Alma is their older sister Sylvia with her hand on her hip while sipping a drink.  Next to her is either their cousin Harley Bruchhaus or a Clement boy.  And then you come to younger sister Loris in another vertical striped dress.  She seems preoccupied with something they are drinking.  Several drinking cups can be seen.  On the far right is their Uncle Roy’s wife Effie Hetzel Bucklin.  Standing next to her is Uncle Herbert’s wife Dora Koll Bucklin.  I’m sure my siblings and cousins don’t want to miss seeing Grandma (Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin) and Grandpa (Fred Bucklin).  You can see them in the shadows in the back on the right.  They are between the upright stick used for the tent and the cloth that is hanging from the edge of the tent.  See them?  Look closely!

My mom was not too thrilled to see this photo.  For many years she had told us about a time she went swimming and felt like she almost drowned.  She had gone out too far and couldn’t seem to get back to the beach against the tide.  She said she was bobbing up and down in the water, waving her hands, and laughing nervously.  They thought she was playing at first and then they realized she needed help.  It scared her and she said that she disliked the water after that.  It brought up those bad memories for her.

I still think it is a charming photo.