Bucklin Christmas 1963

When I was a little kid, our Christmas Day was spent at our Bucklin grandparents’ place.  Their names were Fred Bucklin and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin, and they were my mom’s parents.  My mom’s name was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  But I always knew them as Grandpa, Grandma, and Mama.  My mom and her parents were born and raised in Hathaway, Louisiana.  Not at the same time, obviously!  Previous generations of their families were born in various places like Pennsylvania, Indiana, Massachusetts, Ireland, and England.

We would spend Christmas Eve in Lake Charles at my dad’s side of the family.  I was only three years old in 1963, so I was too young to stay up for midnight mass.  We were living just north of I-10 in Jennings at that point.  I remember when we were opening presents on that Christmas morning.  I don’t remember what I got, I just remember thinking that the things we got came from a midnight visitor. 

And that midnight visitor had left some evidence of his visit.  There were like two empty burlap bags found outside on the ground.  We just knew they were from Santa.  When I looked up burlap bags online just now, it showed a burlap bag that had “Santa’s Bag of Coal” written on it.  But that was for naughty little boys and girls, and I was not a naughty boy!  I’m assuming that after we finished opening our presents and looking through our stockings, we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s.  It was only about fifteen minutes away.

We weren’t the only ones that went there.  My mom was one of five children, and in 1963 Grandma and Grandpa had fifteen grandchildren.  It was a lively place to be back then.  You might not think that from looking at that black and white photo from the 1963 event.  I do like that photo.  I like the way my mom is looking down at me, except it wasn’t me that she was looking at!  I’m pretty sure that is my cousin Keith, the second son of mom’s sister Loris.  He was born a couple of months after me, so we were about the same size back then. 

My dad was Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr. and you can see him sitting and yawning as he looked at something Jodie was showing him.  Jodie was my oldest sister.  In front of them you can see my brother Al playing with an airplane.  I’m right next to him fooling with something out of sight.  It could have been my grandmother’s sock monkey that she had back then.  I remember going to get it when we first arrived at their house.  I’ve always been a big fan of sock monkeys.  In the foreground you can see a shock of blond hair.  That could be either my sister Karen or my cousin Rhonda.  Rhonda is the daughter of my mom’s sister Alma.

Rhonda can be seen in the color photo from that same event.  She’s in the red sweater behind that amazing contraption.  What is that thing?!  And who did it belong to?  It’s vaguely familiar.  I can see the arms flying out as the yellow bullets spun around to spin its tiny inhabitants upside down.  It seems to be the hit of the party.  Standing up on the right is Brent, the older brother of Keith.  In front of him is Paul, who was one of the sons of mom’s older sister Sylvia.  He seems to be intensely working to get the contraption to operate correctly.  Across from him is his younger sister Lynn. 

I wished that I had been in this photo, too.  Maybe that was me on the left edge of the photo?  No, that looks more like Al.  But then when I compared it to the other photo, I realized it was Keith who had upstaged me yet again.  The young boy above him doesn’t look like me or Al, so I’m thinking that it was probably Aunt Sylvia’s youngest boy Kevin.

I like both of these photos, yet they are so different.  The second one is in color, is much sharper, and seems more cheerful.  The first one is black and white, is very blurry, and is definitely moodier.  Both bring up memories of being in my grandparents’ house with all of the cousins.  There was lots of laughing and playing.  There was lots of good food to eat.  I remember my grandmother’s dark roast gravy that she prepared in her black enamel roaster (graniteware?).  Plus, she made the best desserts, especially her divinity.  I wonder if there are photos of that.  

Hey, cousins, if you have any photos from this Christmas, share them with us in the comments.  I know I don’t have all of the photos.  Surely there was another photo taken on that roll of color film.  It would be interesting to see if there were photos that show the event in an even different mood.  You never know.  For now, these are the ones I have to share.  Enjoy.