Bobbie in 1941

Since I shared a photo of my mom from the early forties last week, I thought I’d do the same thing this week for my dad.  So I found this old school photo of him from 1941.  I remember this photo from way back when.  I put it in an old photo album for the family when I was in junior high school.  I’m so glad all those old photos were saved. 

I think I may be a little spoiled.  Some people talk like they don’t have so many old family photos.  Either they didn’t take photos for one reason or another, or the photos were destroyed or thrown away.  Things happen.  Fires, flood, and hurricane winds happen and can destroy entire homes.  Fortunately, my family has fared well through the years.  At least where photos are concerned.  So I do my best to share them with the rest of the family.  

My dad was Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. and he was known as Bobbie at this time.  People might have started calling him Pluto by then.  He was born to Rob and Erie Patureau Landry in 1929 in Lake Charles.  He was the 3rd son and the fifth child.  I was also the 3rd son and the fifth child in my family.  He had three younger siblings, while I only had one.  I don’t know much about the school that he attended.  The school year 1941-42 was spent at First Ward.  Was that considered an elementary school or junior high school? 

I know that he would spend the next four years at Landry Memorial High School.  They graduated in the 11th grade back then, so I think that puts this photo as a 7th grade portrait.  The year 1941 was a notable one.  That was the year that the United States became involved with World War II.  It was only a couple of years since the ending of the Great Depression.  It must have been a scary time, but young Bobbie didn’t have to worry too much about it.  He was too young to fight in that war.  Nobody would have known it at the time because it was just starting for them.  He might have been worried for his older brothers, but they all survived the turmoil.

The school photo also reminds me of when I did a DNA test on my dad.  When I told the family about the ethnicity results, some of my nieces were surprised that he was 100% European.  “Really?” they asked, “He doesn’t have any sub–Saharan African?”  I told them that there was never any suggestion of that in the family tree that my dad had worked on.  It all pointed back to France.  And they responded, “But those pictures of him when he was younger (seemed to point to a mixed heritage).” They may have got the idea from a photo in an encyclopedia or Book of Knowledge in my parents’ house.  It showed an African man and my mom had labeled it “Pluto man.”  She thought the man resembled Daddy.  They seemed a little disappointed. 

We are what we are.