Bucklin Family Photos Circa 1950

I thought I would share two of the photos that I’ve recently acquired from my aunt.  I had never seen these photos before and thought there was a lot of charm about them.  They are from around 1950 and just show scenes of my mom and her younger siblings out in the Hathaway countryside.  Of course they are in black and white.  That’s what most of the photos were back then.  It was a few years before color seeped into the world.   It was a simpler world back then.  There were no clashing colors!

The first picture is a picture of my mom with her baby brother.  That would be Betty Lou and Austin Bucklin, the second and fifth children of Fred D. and Myrtle Phenice of Hathaway, Louisiana.  At least that’s the name that my mom used for where she grew up and went to school.  Occasionally she would refer to China, Louisiana, when talking about her family.  That one always caught my attention.  Her family lived in China?  She does have ancestors who are buried at the China Cemetery out there.

My grandparents lived “out in the country” on Bucklin Road.  North of there was the China Cemetery, though not as far as Elton.  South of their home was Raymond, Louisiana.  They attended church at Raymond Methodist Church.  Some of the family are buried at the Raymond Cemetery.  It is mostly members of the Bucklin family.  A mile or two east of the Raymond Methodist church is Hathaway High School.

So why did my mom call it Hathaway when Raymond and China were closer than Hathaway?  Maybe she just identified with it more because she went to school at Hathaway High School all twelve years of her schooling.  So I’ll always think of her family as being from Hathaway and it might be somewhat incorrect.  Why do they have so many names for places around there?

And when did they move there?  I know the Bucklin family originally came down from Iowa in 1884.  That was my mom’s Bucklin grandfather who came with his parents and siblings.  He died before she was born, but the family still owns that land out there.  Aunt Loris said that the family moved to the house that we knew on Bucklin Road in 1943 or so.  (If I’m remembering correctly.  I should make more notes!)  I’m not sure where the house was that they lived in before that.

I just remember the place that you see in the photo.  My mom always talked about how they used a scrub board to wash clothes and would hang them out to dry.  No fancy electrified contraptions were out there!  My grandfather had a nursery, so there were lots of places with growing plants around the property.  I’m not sure why Austin is looking at Betty Lou like he is in this photo.  It looks like a candid photo, which I like.  He seems perplexed by her behavior.

The second photo also has Austin in it.  He’s in the driver’s seat of the truck for the Fred Bucklin Nursery of Elton, LA.  At least that’s what the door signage looks like to me.  See?  He doesn’t use Hathaway, Raymond, or China on his truck.  He uses Elton, which is the closest “town” in that area.  It is also where he went to school when he was younger.  I’m pretty sure he grew up on the same Bucklin property that includes the Bucklin family homes in that area.

I don’t think that Austin was actually driving the truck.  I think he was just pretending for the photo.  In the back seat you can see two of his sisters.  You can see Loris pretty well.  She’s right in the middle of the photo and appears to be waving.  Or maybe she’s just resting her hand on the side of the truck.  Next to her is Alma.  You can’t really see her because the post is in the way.

Why would someone take the photo when she was behind the post?  Maybe Austin was really driving?!  The person might not have known that she was behind the post when they clicked the photo because the truck was moving.  Could that be right?  And maybe Loris was resting her arm against the truck so she wouldn’t fall over in the bumpy truck ride?  Or maybe they were all pretending to sell the idea of them riding in the countryside?  My sister and I would pretend all kinds of things when riding on the wide-open countryside to my grandparents’ house.

I guess we’ll never know.  Unless of course, Aunt Loris remembers some of those details and chooses to share them with us.  Until then, we can enjoy seeing some charming scenes from over seventy years ago in the countryside around Hathaway, Louisiana.  Or was it in China?