Author: Van

Myrtle in the Hat in the Sun – Revealed

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Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin circa 1950

When I was looking for something to write about this evening, I stumbled across this old, blurry, sunbaked photo of my grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  While it is not the best quality photo, I really liked the whimsical look and smile on her face.  Even though it shows a side of my grandmother I appreciate, I wasn’t sure the photo was in good enough shape to share.  But I thought I would give it a try.

This is one of those photos that I never know what the final result will be.  I’ve had better photos that I’ve edited and the results are awful.  Either I can’t get the features to look  right, or for some reason it doesn’t look like the person with the changes that are made.  I was worried that it would happen with this photo since there is contrasting darkness with sunlight and shadows.

I couldn’t even tell where her eyes were looking when I first started working on the photo.  The more I worked on it, the more I realized she was looking into the car that she is leaning against.  There are also lots of spots on the photo and a few places where the image surface had been torn off.  So I had to doctor it quite a bit.

When I went to run it through the sharpening program, it didn’t work.  It wasn’t able to recognize her face, probably because of the confusion of where her eyes were looking.  So I edited it some more to help to define her eyes.  That was all it took!  It sharpened up her face and it actually looked like my Grandma!  I still had to edit it some more to put more Myrtle back into the photo. 

Edited photo of my grandmother.

So here is the final result.  Look at that smile.  I think that’s the thing that drew me to the photo in the first place.  She looks like she’s having a jolly good time visiting with someone in the car.  I’m estimating the date of the photo based on how old she looks compared to other photos of her from around that time period.  Of course with the blurriness of the original photo, I could be off from the right date by a decade or so.

I am pleased with the result, otherwise you wouldn’t be seeing the revised version and you’d be reading about how I tried to improve that original old photo.  I would have still used that old photo by itself.  I was always charmed by it, but now even more so.  The photo was taken around 1950 when my grandmother was around 43 years old.  That was around the time that Betty Lou (Myrtle’s second daughter, my mother) was a senior in high school.  The oldest daughter Sylvia had gone off to college that year.  Alma would have been two years behind my mom, and Loris was two years after her.  The baby boy Austin was five years younger than Loris.

If I got the year close, it wouldn’t be long after this that she would become a grandmother.  She and my grandfather Fred Bucklin lived out in Hathaway, Louisiana, when most of us grandkids were growing up.  It was a fun place to visit.  They had a sock monkey that I always wanted to play with once I got there.  There were always puzzles to play with.  We had fun picking fruit in my grandfather’s nursery, making mudpies in the garden, and playing around out in the bamboo stand.  Their kitchen cabinets were backed with the same material as old chalkboards, so we could write and draw on them.

One of the things that I especially liked about my grandmother was her laugh.  She had a hearty, infectious laugh.   When I look at this picture, it reminds me of that.  I’m sure that this mirthful, expectant look was followed by rollicking laughter.  At least I like to think so.

Death of a Noble Woman

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Today I thought I would write about the death of my great grandmother Marie Therese Landry Patureau.  It’s time to write about my dad’s side of the family and it is Father’s Day this weekend, so I’ll write about his mother’s mother.  I was going to say, “But it’s mostly about my dad,” but that isn’t true.  It’s about his mother and grandmother.  My father’s name was Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.  Most people knew him as Bob or Pluto, or Daddy or Pappy, or Mr. Landry.  He answered to all of them.  I ran across the obituary of my great grandmother this week and was glad to find it.  I had looked for it a while back and couldn’t find it.  I also thought it would be good to combine that with some death notices that I got back in 2019 when I got together with some cousins.

Obituary for Marie Therese Landry Patureau from the Daily Champion on Oct. 6, 1909

I have always liked the title of this newspaper clipping from 1909.  Of course, as you can see, it is not the actual clipping that I have.  It is a transcription of the newspaper article.  I don’t know who did the transcribing and I’m not even sure of how I got this information.  I’m a bad genealogist.  I don’t keep good records of where I obtain things.  I find it hard enough to keep track of the things that I have, much less where they came from!  I’m a better family historian.  I can bring the information together, make a few digital edits, and share it in these writings that I do. 

Timeline for the last decade of Marie Therese Landry Patureau’s life by her granddaughter and namesake Marie Therese “Sis” Schafer Vicknair.

The obituary is titled “Death of a Noble Woman” and continues with the story, “In the little village of Crescent, on Monday the fourth day of October, 1909, Marie Therese Landry, wife of Dr. V. Vincent Maximilian Patureau, died at the age of 41 years and 21 days.”  What I really like about this is that they actually give her full maiden name.  She’s not just Mrs. V. M. Patureau.  I don’t think her age is correct in what they say.  On the plaque on the Patureau tomb in Plaquemine, her birth is given as Sept. 25, 1868.  Cousin Sis seems to think it was in October and that she died at almost 41 years of age.  I’m going with what was carved in stone! 

“It is said that the death of her brother Thomas B. Landry, which occurred on the 26th of last month caused her much grief, and two days later having given birth to a child, her gentle soul took its flight back to its Creator.”   I don’t know about all that.  I’m sure she did grieve the death of her brother, but I wouldn’t think that it had much effect on her death.  She was only 41 (or so) and she had dealt with grief before.  The daughter that she gave birth to in 1909 was named Hedwidge and she was the 15th child that Marie Therese gave birth to.  Marie Therese had dealt with the death of five of those offspring.  Some had died at birth, and during the last two years of her life, Marie Therese had endured the death of a 22-month-old daughter and a 10 1/2-month-old son.  I’m sure she was grieving the death of her children, yet she had nine living children to take care of.  So I’m thinking that it is much more likely that she died due to complications due to childbirth.  I suppose it would have been too indelicate to mention that in a newspaper article of those times.

Marie Therese’s obituary in The Weekly Iberville South. They seem to think that only two of her children mourned her passing. I think they were wrong!

“She was educated at St. Joseph Academy of Baton Rouge.  She was a member of the Brusley choir until her marriage, and until her death, was a member of the Altar Society of Plaquemine.”  I find it really interesting that she went to school in Baton Rouge, especially since that is where I live.  I know people who went to St. Joseph Academy and it is still in operation.  I wish I knew a few more details of her time there.  Did she live there when she attended?  It is now just a high school, but previously it was from first grade to graduation.  I wonder how many years she was there?  She was born in Brusly and lived there during her childhood.  As stated, she was in the Brusly church choir before she was married at the age of 20.  I suppose she wasn’t in the choir as a married adult, but she was a member of the Ladies Altar Society.

Death announcement for Marie Therese Landry. This is from the collection of her daughter Erie Patureau Landry, better known by me as Mee Maw.

“Mrs. Patureau was a devout Catholic, a model wife and a charitable woman, who will be sadly missed, not only by her husband and children, but by the many good people of the hamlet.  She leaves to mourn her loss the following:  Her husband Dr. V. M. Patureau, seven daughters, Emma, Lydwin, Lorena, Erie, Therese, Zita and Sylvie and two sons, Rommual and Vincent; a mother, Mrs. P. M. Babin of Lafayette; two sisters, Mrs. Louis Joseph Landry of Lafayette, and Mrs. Thomas M. Blanchard of Brusley, one brother Mose Landry of Cinclare.  The Daily Champion extends its deepest sympathy to the bereaved ones.”

She sounds like a wonderful – dare I say noble – woman.  I’m sure that in a small community like Crescent was at the time, her death was a loss for a lot of people.  But my concern is for her young, impressionable daughter Erie.  She had just turned 14 and she was one of the middle children in her large family.  So if her mother was as wonderful as portrayed, it would have been a terrible loss for young Erie.  Yet I don’t know how it affected her.  I was just a silly young boy myself when I knew her.  It’s not something we discussed.  I just wanted to spend time with her and learn the card games she would teach me.  I wish I knew more.  How did her mother’s death affect her?  What were her memories of her mother?  And more.

I’m glad I have the death announcement of my great grandmother.  It came from the Secret Collection.  (hushed whispers in the background “Secret?”  “What secret?”)  I’ve already told you enough about the Secret Collection.  If I told you any more, it wouldn’t maintain its Secret name!  Only the Keeper knows what further treasures lie within the Secret Collection, so be satisfied that we have this piece to enjoy.  Like the obituary, it gives the full name of my great grandmother.  Too bad the obituary couldn’t have followed the same trend when referring to to Marie Therese’s mother.  (Again with the Mrs. P. M. Babin)  It also gives her age as 41 years and 21 days, but I think it was 41 years and 9 days.  Sept. 25, 1868, to October 4, 1909 – you do the math.

Death notice of Marie Therese’s brother Thomas B. Landry from September 1909.

I thought I’d share another death notice from the Secret Collection. (hushed gasps from the peanut gallery “Another treasure?” asked in awe. “That Secret Collection sure is leaky!” someone responds suspiciously)  This is the death notice for Marie Therese’s brother Thomas Belisaire Landry.  As mentioned in her obituary, he died just a few days before she did.  His age looks close enough.  I won’t ask you to do any more math!  But you can tell that he was her younger brother.  Marie Therese was the first child of Trasimond Landry and Belite Bujol.  She was followed by Mary Catherine “Kate” Landry (Mrs. Thomas M. Blanchard of Brusly from the obituary),  Thomas, Mose (or Moses), and Manette.  Manette had passed away in 1904 – another death that Marie Therese had to grieve.

Marie Therese also had three half-sisters by her mother’s second  husband Mack Babin.  The first one had died shortly after her birth in 1880.  Then came Clemence (Mrs. Louis Joseph Landry of Lafayette in obituary) and Albine.  Albine had passed away in 1903 – yet another death .  I didn’t mean for this to turn into a sad story, but how could it not?  It’s about death.  But really, everyone that she knew has died since then.  It’s the way of the world.  The same thing could be said about each of us in years to come.

Uh, oh, I feel like I crossed a line with that statement.  Forget I said it.  I’ll turn this back around with something I heard on the news tonight:  Never give up!  Just keep moving forward doing the best that you can do.

Mom’s Memories Page 15 AKA Keepsakes Lost

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For some reason I’ve been thinking of this topic this week.  (I know the reason, I’m just keeping it secret.)  The loss of one of my mom’s family keepsakes did not sit well with her.  I think she mentioned it to us when we were kids, but she definitely talked about it toward the end of her life.  It’s a shame that some of those negative memories aren’t the first ones to go when a person starts losing their memory.  Yet we are a result of our experiences good and bad.  And both kinds make for good stories for a blog like this.  

Mom’s memories p. 15 plus a bit more

I say that the loss of her keepsake didn’t sit well with her, but it doesn’t sit well with me either.  It’s something that I would love to see.  She mentioned it in her little book she kept when she was documenting the memories she wanted to remember.  Now that I think about it, she didn’t mention that my dad sold her baritone without her permission.  It’s something else she talked about with a bit of sass to her voice.  It was another thing that did not sit well with her.  She wasn’t bitter about it, she just didn’t appreciate how it played out.

From mother to daughter – four generations: Martha, Daisy, Myrtle, and Betty

But the loss we’ll look at more closely is the loss of the trunk that was left to her by her maternal grandmother.  Let me introduce all of the players.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  She was born in Elton, Louisiana, on May 20, 1933, and died at the age of 83 on January 19, 2017.  Her mother was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  She was born in Hathaway, Louisiana, on December 19, 1906, and died at the age of 79 on May 7, 1986.  Grandma’s mother was Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice.  She was born April 20, 1876, in London, England, and died at the age of 76 on July 29, 1952, in Elton, Louisiana.  My great great grandmother was Martha Ann Cook Keys.  She was born November 8, 1836, in Great Wigsborough, England, and died at the age of 59 on July 17, 1896, in Elton, Louisiana.

So let’s see what she wrote.  I’ll quote it and then discuss it.  “Mama somehow got the idea that Uncle Roy had a museum in his warehouse.”  The Mama mentioned here is my maternal grandmother Myrtle.  She was married to Fred Bucklin and Uncle Roy was his younger brother.  They lived down at the other end of Bucklin Road (where Ronnie C. now lives).  I don’t know anything about his warehouse.  Was it behind the house?  Connected to the house?  or at another location?   Uncle Roy died in 1999.

“At his funeral I asked Aunt Effie – she said he had a ‘collection’ – Mama had given him the gun collection from the Bucklins.  I had Martha Cooks antique trunk.  Grandma (Daisy) gave it to me when I was in high school.  It had some of her needlework in it.  It was no longer there + had been emptied on a shelf on the wall – So I guess MY trunk went to the ‘museum.'”  I’m not sure what the 1999 funeral and the gun collection had to do with the trunk, other than that was probably another time she had tried to track down its location. 

From what I remember, my mom had left the trunk at her mom’s home when she got married and moved to California in 1952.  They spent time there and in New Mexico before returning to Louisiana in 1956.  I think it was around this time that she noticed that her trunk was missing.  She probably was ready to retrieve it and it was nowhere to be found.

It wasn’t just any old trunk, and it wasn’t just the trunk.  “We liked to look at the needlework Martha had done.  It was in bad condition but I had cleaned it up.  It came from England when they moved here in 1887.”  So it was the trunk that my Keys ancestors used when they immigrated to the United States in 1887!  It probably even spent a little time in the chicken coop that the family lived in when they were waiting for their house to be built!

I first thought that the needlework that was in the trunk was by my great grandmother Daisy, but my mom specifically says later that the needlework was by Daisy’s mom Martha.  Wouldn’t that be something to see?!  My mom and her siblings enjoyed looking at it when they were youngsters.  But sadly, I will never get to see that or the trunk.

Yet I do have a piece of cross stitch that Daisy’s brother Leonard stitched in 1883.  I’ve shared a photo of that before.  I have another photo to share, too.  This one is a small photo that I have of one of Martha’s cross stitches that has survived all of these years.  I think I can make out that it was done in Feb. 1868.  It is in the care of one of Leonard’s descendants.   I love it!

Cross stitch done by my great great grandmother Martha Cook Keys in Feb. 1868.

Performing at Shakey’s – 40 Years Gone

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Me with my parents in November 1979. Bob, Van, and Betty Bucklin Landry at Shakey’s Pizza in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

I can’t believe it has been 40 years since our family sang at the Shakey’s in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  It seems like just recently that I acknowledged the 40 year anniversary of when we started playing there!  We actually performed there for just over a five year period.  We started on June 16, 1976, and ended in August of 1981.  Hey, I just realized something.  On Facebook, there was a post that read, “It’s Saturday night in the summer of 1976…tell us what you are doing?”  I responded by saying that I was resting from marching in the Bicentennial parade.  While it is true that I marched in a celebratory parade on that July 4th in Lake Arthur, Louisiana, it is much more likely that I was performing with The Landry Family Band during those first few months at Shakey’s.

We performed on Wednesday through Saturday nights that first year and later changed to just Friday and Saturday nights.  So actually on a majority of Saturday nights from 1976 through 1981 I was at Ye Olde Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles.  During football season, I missed many nights to be at the football games.  For 1976, 1977, and 1978 it would have been Friday nights at Bulldog Stadium rooting for the Jennings High bulldogs.  In 1979 and 1980, I would have been at McNeese Stadium on Saturday night cheering for the cowboys.  That’s kind of laughable, because I never really watched the games.  I was there because I was in the band and we marched at halftime.  I was too busy chatting with everyone around me to notice any of the football plays.

Bob and Betty Bucklin Landry with Karen Landry & Brian Fontenot at Shakey’s on Aug. 1, 1980.

I’m posting some photos from our time of performing at Shakey’s.  I don’t have a picture of our final performance there.  I don’t even know when it was.  I know it was in August of 1981, but I’m not sure of the date.  You would think I’d have been there for our final gig!  Maybe one of my siblings has a photo from it.  It’s possible that Karen or Jamie were there.  I wasn’t there because I was working at Astroworld that summer.  I was out of town and couldn’t make it there, so my final performance was probably in the beginning of June.  I don’t even know if I was told that our time there was coming to a close.

I couldn’t find a good photo of us singing at Shakey’s during 1981.  So I went back a year or two.  I found one of me with my parents in November 1979.  I don’t really have many photos of just me and my parents.  Most of the time there are many more family members included in the photo.  So even though I don’t think it’s that good of a photo of us, I still like it.

As you can see in that first photo, we were still wearing the red, white, and yellow Shakey’s shirts.  That changed at some point.  I know that it happened at least by August 1, 1980, because that is the date of the second photo.  This is my mom and dad with my sister Karen and her future husband Brian Fontenot.  It is such a good photo of all four of them.  They were all in a good mood because Brian had just proposed to Karen and she obviously said, “Yes!”  There were lots of memorable events that happened during our time at Shakey’s and this is a good representation of that.

I’m closing out this post as I sing, “Shakey’s is shaking up –  pizza people…”   Google it.

Bob Landry the Labeler

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Exhibit A – shoehorn of Bob Landry

I was putting on my shoes this morning and my shoehorn broke.  This was no ordinary shoehorn – it was a Marquis shoehorn.  The Marquis was the name of a barbershop quartet that my dad was in back in the day.  I say “back in the day” because I’m not really sure what time period that group was in.  My dad had so many quartets through the years and I can’t keep track of them all.  But fortunately for me, my dad was a labeler.  He labeled everything.  Like this shoehorn.  He wrote his name on the back of it and for some reason he had the name of his quartet on it too.  He probably brought the shoehorn with him to Harmony College for the SPEBSQSA convention.

Exhibit B – briefcase ID

I hated to throw that shoehorn away because of the history associated with it.  But why keep a broken shoehorn?  So I decided to write a story about it!  That way I can throw it away, but not lose the history.  How is that for inspiration for a family history blog?  Actually I have been thinking about writing about this for a while.  I always am reminded that some of the things I have came from my dad – such as Exhibit B.  This is a briefcase that held some of my dad’s genealogy research.  I have it next to my desk and it actually still contains some of that research and I refer to it from time to time.

Exhibit C – trombone case

I don’t know why it has such an ordinary label on it.  Just a paper label with pen writing on it.  Okay, okay, it did the job.  You can still see that the item belonged to Bob Landry of Jennings, Louisiana.  But it just doesn’t have the permanence of some of the other labeling techniques that he later incorporated.  Note Exhibit C.  This is an older plastic label from the trombone that he got in the late 1950s.  I also played that trombone, but it was always his name on the case.

Exhibit D – Dymo Labelmaker

You may have noticed that I called the label in that last paragraph the “older” plastic label.   Most of the other items are labeled with the green plastic tags.  That’s because at some point he moved to the new and improved Dymo Labelmaker.  I can still remember the sound as he’d click his way through the alphabet and then squeeze the ‘trigger’ to imprint the letter on the tape.  It’s a similar sound to the clicking of the antenna directional control we had on the top of the TV back then, but that is another story.

Exhibit E – Groovy Instamatic camera from 1974

As you can see in Exhibit E, he even used it for my very first camera from 1974.  Even though that camera had a sticker that you chose to make it individual to the user (note the peace dove),  I still needed to have my name plastered on the camera. 

Four years later, when I got my Canon TX SLR camera, I was in need of another label.  But this time a plastic tag was not sufficient enough.  No, nothing so flimsy would be appropriate for that metal camera body.  It was time to bring in the engraver.  As seen in Exhibit F, my name was permanently etched into the camera!

Exhibit G – tennis racket

Now for my final Exhibit, let me point you to Exhibit G.  This was my first tennis racket that I had.  Yes, back in the 70s it was spelled racket.  Only later, after the popularity of racquetball, did they try to add a Q to the spelling.  Even though it doesn’t have any strings, I still keep it for sentimental reasons.  They were made of wood back then.  You wouldn’t want to just put a label on it, now would you?  And you can’t really etch wood very well, can you?  The solution?  Burn it in with the wood burning kit that my brother Rob got for Christmas! 

So there you have it – my case for Bob Landry: Label Maker.  I still think I’m getting rid of one of these pieces of evidence.  Sure, an old wooden tennis racket with no strings is nostalgic, but a broken shoehorn is ready for the trash heap.  At least it will continue on virtually.  My case won’t be weakened with the loss of that evidence, because I have many more examples I can use.  So for now, case closed.

Betty Lou’s Birthday 1978

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Betty Lou Bucklin Landry playing the guitar at 758 Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana, on May 20, 1978.

Today is my mom’s birthday.  She would have turned 88 today if she were still alive.  Happy birthday, Mama!  I figured that I couldn’t let that event go unwritten since her birthday fell on a Thursday this year.  My Throwback Thursday had to be about her birthday.  What else would I write about?  Since my grand nephew Henry was born on the same day of the month, I will send out a “Happy Birthday, Henry!” as well. 

But May 20th was always about remembering my mom, who was born Betty Lou Bucklin in 1933.  So when I thought about posting a photo about her birthday, I thought about the photos I took on her birthday in 1978.  It was a Saturday in Jennings, Louisiana, and the family was focused on Mama.  My sisters Jamie and Karen and I were making a birthday cake for her.  At least I think I helped.  The photos only show Karen and Jamie working on the cake.  I was capturing the event on my camera for posterity.  I knew that someday I would want to post these photos on a blog about my family!

Jamie and Karen decorating mom’s birthday cake.

Baking her birthday cake was not the first time we cooked something together, nor probably the last.  It seems like sometimes, though, it never really worked out right.  An ingredient would get left out because one of us thought the other added it.  Or someone mistook tsp (teaspoon) for Tsp (tablespoon) on a recipe and put way too much salt in the spaghetti sauce.  I don’t remember that being the case with this cake, so it probably tasted as good as it looks.  Not only that, I would have written about that in my journal. 

Mom looking happy with the corsage that Daddy got her for her 45th birthday.

But I did write a few things about that day, so I’ll share them.  It goes something like this:  “Saturday May 20, 1978 – Mamma’s 45th Birthday.  Jamie and Karen made a pretty cake for Moma and took some pictures of it.  I took some of her playing guitar and singing.  Daddy bought her a corsage and put it right under the air conditioner.  Mamma walked in and fooled with the air conditioner and didn’t see it.  Then Dady gave it to her.  Mamma then let me take a picture of her.  It’s terrible.  On the way to Shakey’s I took pictures of a barn.  When we were on our first break, Coco came in.  Daddy was the first (guy) to ever kiss her, and when he did, he said, ‘You can tell you’ve never been kissed before,’ and she was embarrassed.  She is very nice.  I liked her. I talked to her and Aunt Germaine all night…We ate the cake after we finished.  It was good.”

How is that for a remembrance of my mom’s birthday?!  Talking about some other girl that he kissed in his youth!  I thought it was a funny story then, and I find it humorous now as well.  You can also see that it was Karen and Jamie who made the cake.  I was just the documentarian.  I also find it odd that I write my mom’s name a variety of ways and I misspelled Daddy.  What’s up with that?  My grandmother Myrtle would definitely not approve!  I must have written the journal entry a few days after the fact, because I wouldn’t have known the results of the photo that I took that day until after I got the film developed.  The photos are actually scans of slides.  That’s why there is a rainbow effect in the upper corners. 

I really like the top two photos.  They show the way the house was decorated in the late 70s.  Two of mom’s paintings are hanging prominently on the wall behind her.  She is sitting with two “furries” on the couch.  A “furry” was a blanket that she made out of faux fur material.  She made lots of them.  All of her children and children-in-law have at least one.  They are nice and cozy on a cold day.  Also note the macrame hanger in the corner.  In the photo of Karen and Jamie you get to see the kitchen decor, including the vomit bowl in the background.  (No description necessary.)  I think the canisters were painted by my mom as well.  Those must have been done in her tole painting phase.  Tole painting is a folk art of decorative painting of wooden utensils, objects, and furniture.  We all have pieces of those items as well.

So there you have it – a trip back to 1978.  Actually I’ve had a few trips lately back to 1978.  Last week I shared a selfie I took, and last month I shared a photo of Karen.  Back in December I shared a photo of my three sisters from that year, too.  It wasn’t intentional.  You just never know what year this time machine will bring us back to from week to week.  Thanks for coming along on the ride.

Go Go Patureau! – To the Grand Canyon

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Patureau sisters riding the mules at the Grand Canyon circa late 1950s.

I don’t remember when I first saw this photo or where I got it from.  But I was excited to see it because I remember when it happened.  This is a photo of my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry and she is riding a mule in what looks like it could be the Grand Canyon.  I know that she went to the Grand Canyon when I was a kid and I’m pretty sure she rode a mule down to the bottom.   I was tempted to call this post “Mee Maw on the Mule,” but I decided against it.  Go Go Patureau posts are about going to a place.  And the place that she went was the Grand Canyon.

Now I may be combining two events here.  This photo looks like it might have been earlier than the event that I remember.  Now that I think about it some more, it is definitely earlier.  I remember her going to the Grand Canyon when I was 8 or 9.  That was in 1969 or so.  This photo was definitely before that, because of who else is in the photo.  My grandmother is the woman on the right on the darker mule.  The woman on the left was her younger sister Sylvia Patureau Marionneaux and she died in 1962.  So this photo could have been taken before I was born.

Selfie taken in 1978 with banners shown on wall.

That’s what happens when you’re a Go Go Patureau, you go to so many places that nobody can keep it all straight.  At least I can’t.  What helped me to remember the visit she made to the Grand Canyon when I was a kid were the gifts she gave to me and my brother Al.  Al had a few banners on the wall from places that we had been, so Mee Maw got him a banner from the Grand Canyon.  I went looking for a photo of that old banner from back then and came across an old selfie that I took on Dec. 27, 1978, in my bedroom in Jennings.  That’s me playing the guitar, and behind me you can see some of the banners.  The one to the far right says “Gran— Nation–  —-.”  As you can see it was not completely captured.  It wasn’t on my mind when I was taking the photo.  But it had “Grand Canyon National Park” written on it.

Gift from my Mee Maw when she went to visit the Grand Canyon. A keepsake that I still enjoy.

So as you see, she got him something that he liked.  She paid attention to her grandchildren and tried to get them something that they liked.  She was the best.  I think I was her favorite.  For me, she bought me this monkey bank.  Either she thought that I was good at saving money, or she thought that I had a fondness for monkeys.  I guess she was accurate on both counts.

Al Landry on the right letting the mule train pass on the Bright Angel Trail at the Grand Canyon in June 1982.

Her visits to the Grand Canyon must have inspired us.  With that banner showing us some of the features that we might see at the National Park and the monkey bank encouraging us to save our money so we could go, it wasn’t long before we followed in our grandmother’s footsteps (or the mule’s that she was riding on!).  Al and I made it to northern Arizona in early June of 1982.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long ago.  The picture I took of Al standing next to the mule train in the Grand Canyon is one of my favorites.  I still have an enlargement hanging on my wall.

Now it’s on my blog post.  Go go Patureau!

Bucklin Birthday Boys in 1982

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Bucklin gathering in 1981 in Welsh, Louisiana.

Usually I try to share information when I write my weekly posts.   When I find some interesting information about different lines of the family, I’ll write up a story to share some of those discoveries.  This week is a little different.  I’m looking for information.  Mainly I’m looking for the names of the people in this photograph. 

I know a few of them.  I should!  They’re my maternal grandparents Fred and Myrtle Bucklin.  I also know that my grandfather Fred’s identical twin brother Clarence is in the photo. (Wrong!  I was corrected.  The Bucklin brother on the right is Fred & Clarence’s older brother Ralph.)  I think this is a family gathering to celebrate their birthday around 1982 (Cousin Carol informed me it was 1981).  I’m not even sure about that fact.  I’m not even going to guess whose house it was in. 

I suppose I’m actually looking for more information than I initially stated.  I want the where, when, and why as well.  I also want to know what the story is behind the wooden ducks that the boys are holding.  I know that my grandfather Fred had a hobby of carving and painting wooden duck decoys and wall hangings.  Maybe it was something both of them enjoyed and they were having a contest to see whose was the best! 

So what I know for sure is that in the center of the photo is my grandfather Fred D. Bucklin who was born Oct. 2, 1907, in Roanoke, Louisiana.  He was either the 7th or 8th child (Which twin was born first?  Add that to the list of things I want to know!) of Louis and Addie Hine Bucklin.  He died January 9, 1984.  To the right of Fred is (not) his twin Clarence.  As you may have guessed, he was born on the same day as Fred.  He died November 27, 1985.  My estimate of the date of the photo was based on the dates of their deaths.  Grandpa looks like the oldest I remember seeing him.  The photo probably wasn’t taken much earlier than this date.

Directly behind my grandfather is my freshman year of high school algebra teacher Mrs. Bruchhaus.  Her real name is Shirley Petree Bruchhaus.  She was married to my mom’s first cousin Laurence Bruchhaus (1936-2011) of Elton.  I’m pretty sure that is him directly behind her to the right.  The only other person I’m sure about is my grandmother who is standing  up on the far left.  She was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice before she married Fred in 1930.

Numbered photo to help with identification.

So to keep all the names straight, I’m posting this photo with numbers for everyone.  I started with Grandpa and Grandma as #1 and 2.  (Ralph) is 3, Shirley is 4, and Laurence is 5.  Hopefully all of the numbers will be associated with a name rather soon.  So if you are reading this when I first posted it, there won’t be any other names revealed.  But if you are reading it later – like after a few days, years, decades, or centuries – there should be an update with names.

Thanks in advance to everyone who is able and willing to help.

 

May 8, 2021 Update

Success!  My second cousin Carol had most of the answers about this event.  It was held at her mother Helen Bucklin Taylor’s home in Welsh, Louisiana.  Helen was the daughter of Fred’s older brother Ralph.  It was on the occasion of Fred and Clarence’s 74th birthday in 1981.  I’m not going to change the title to keep links working.  I will tell you who all the identified people are and their relation to my grandfather Fred.

#1 was already identified as Fred D. Bucklin himself.  #2 is his wife Myrtle.  #3 is not his identical twin brother Clarence after all!!  You can not be more surprised than I am.  I spend a lot of time looking at old photos and trying to identify people.  There was an older photo of Ralph that was identified as Fred, but I’m pretty sure they were wrong.  The Bucklin brothers bore strong resemblances to each other.  I am now questioning my powers of deduction.  #3 is Shirley Petree Bruchhaus.  She was married to #5 Laurence Bruchhaus.  Laurence was the son of Fred’s sister Ruth.  #6 is Helen Bucklin Taylor, daughter of Fred’s brother Ralph.  #7 is Fred’s sister Ruth Bucklin Bruchhaus.  #8 is is Julia Fraser, daughter of #9 Carol Taylor Fraser (daughter of #6). #10 is Lottie Mae Fraser is Carol’s mother-in-law.  #11 is Lauren Bruchhaus, daughter of #3 Shirley & #5 Laurence.  #12 is Kent Taylor, oldest child of Ronnie Taylor and grandson of #6 Helen.  #13 is William Charles Bruchhaus, better known as Buddha, husband of #7 Ruth.  #14 is Frank Keys, husband of Fred’s sister Edna Bucklin Keys.  #15 is Fred’s brother Herbert Bucklin.  #16 is Fred’s sister Edna Bucklin Keys.  #17 is Dora Koll Bucklin, wife of #15 Herbert.  #18 is Pat Peterson Bruchhaus, wife of #19 Harley Bruchhaus, son of #7. #20 is David A. Fraser, husband of #9 Carol.  #21 is Rev. William Fraser father of #20.  #22 is Norma Walker Taylor, wife of #23 Ronnie Taylor.  He is the son of #6 Helen. #24 Stuart Taylor and #25 Laura Taylor are the children of #23 Ronnie and the grandchildren of #6 Helen.

Thanks to cousins Carol Fraser and Kurt Bruchhaus for providing the names.  We’ve still got one more to go!

 

Pluto Landry and the CYO Circa 1946

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Article in Lake Charles newspaper.

Earlier this week, my cousin Tim sent me this copy of a newspaper article.  (Thank you, Tim!)  I thought it was an interesting piece of information from 75 years ago.  I didn’t think I’d be using it for my blog post, though.  I wasn’t planning that far ahead.  So when I was trying to think of what I’d post this week, I knew it was time for something about my dad’s side of the family.  When I started looking, I wasn’t sure how far back I was going to go.  I was looking at grandparents and great grandparents, but then I started thinking about this photo of my dad.

Pluto Landry circa 1946

I’m not really sure where this photo came from.  It must have been from my dad’s collection.  It is a photo of him.  That would be Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.  He was known by his family as Bobbie, but friends called him either Bob or Pluto.  He was born in 1929 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  This photo looks like he was a teenager and I estimated that it was taken around 1946 or 1947.

When I realized that the photo and the article I got earlier this week were from the same time period, I figured I’d put them together for a post.  And of course I would have to use my dad’s nickname Pluto, because that’s how he’s referred to in the article.  The article is about the Catholic Youth Organization of Lake Charles planning for an Easter dance.  My dad must have been a member, because he is listed as one of the planners.  I was surprised that they called him Pluto Landry, because I thought that he didn’t get that nickname until college or later.  I was wrong.  The planning of the dance happened some time around April 22, 1946, and my dad hadn’t graduated from high school, yet.  If you remember from a post from about a month ago, my dad graduated about a month later. 

I looked through the list of planners in “Group II” and I only recognized one other name.  I heard the name Harvey Prejean my whole life.  He was a friend of my dad and they obviously were friends for a long time.  Not that I can picture who he is at the moment.  I just remember the name.  The name Bob Phillips sounds familiar, too, but that could be that I’m thinking of Ralph Phillips who married a Bouquet cousin.  I don’t know if it’s the same family.  But they were also planners for this Easter dance from 1946. 

I doubt that the photo had any connection to the Easter dance.  It’s a nice photo of my dad.  I’m thinking the photo was taken in the back yard of the Landry family home in Lake Charles.  I’m not certain, though.  I notice that his pants look brand new.  You can still see the creases from the fold at the knees. 

Son of Pluto AKA Van in June of 1979 in Jennings, Louisiana.  Lion painting on the wall was by my mom.

It reminds me of a photo of myself from the same age.  I’m posting that photo, too.  I can’t mention it without showing you what I’m talking about.  It’s a photo I took when I was trying on clothes in my room shortly after I graduated high school.  I guess I was shopping for new clothes for college with the money I got for graduation.  The funny thing is that I didn’t buy these clothes, I just took a picture in them!  But something about the clothes and the pose reminds me of this old photo of my dad.

Well that was unexpected.  I wasn’t planning on posting a photo of myself.  I usually post old photos.  I guess a photo from over 40 years ago counts!  Plus you get to see a painting that my mom did.  It was in the boys’ bedroom for many years.  I had it in my college dorm at McNeese and now my brother has it in his home. 

Well, I guess that’s all for now.  Son of Pluto signing out.

 

Mom’s Memories P. 18 AKA Playing the Piano

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I thought it was time to shine the spotlight on my mom again.  So I went to her little handy dandy memory book that she kept in her later years.  I decided on the topic of playing the piano because I always think of my mom as a piano player.  I also somewhat recently edited a photo of her playing the piano.  At least I think she is playing the piano in the photo.  Either way, it’s a photo that I like of her that is ready for sharing.

P. 18 of Mom’s Memories

As you can see here on page 18 of Mom’s Memories, she first began taking lessons from a Mrs. Leech in Jennings when she was in the 3rd or 4th grade.  That would be around 1942.  She says that that is when she learned hand positions and fingering.  She said that later she took from Henry Gillet in Welsh.  She learned to play Beethoven’s 5th Symphony and she was one of the top three in the class.  I remember her talking about her piano playing.  She said that her instructors encouraged her to continue with her playing and to take it seriously because she could really put her feelings into a piece of music, which many people can’t do.

Betty Lou Bucklin Landry circa 1964. Edited photo.

My mom continued playing piano and when she went to school at McNeese College, she majored in music.  I don’t know if she took piano classes or not.  I always assumed that she was more interested in her baritone playing.  But mainly she got more seriously involved with fellow baritone player Bob Landry.  She left college and pursued a family instead.  She continued to play the piano when we were kids.  We thoroughly enjoyed when she played and sang “Boop Boop Did’m Dad’m.”  I wish I had a recording of her performing that song.  It was such a playful rendition.  I’m pretty sure my siblings and probably some of my nieces and nephews have started humming that song as they read about it!  It’s a catchy little tune!

She was also the piano player for our family band during the 70s and 80s.  Our most notable gig was playing as the Landry Family Band at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles from 1976 to 1981.  She mainly played chord piano as accompaniment for whoever was singing the song.  I think she picked that up from her mother (Myrtle Phencie Bucklin) and maternal grandmother (Daisy Keys Phenice).  They would do the same thing for family get togethers in the more distant past.

Aug. 2015 at Brookdale Assisted Living in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

My mom continued to play the piano for the rest of her life.  She would play almost every day.  Evidently she got great enjoyment from music.  It was a concern when my parents needed more care and went into Assisted Living.  We were happy to know there was a piano at Brookdale Assisted Living and it was part of the reason they went there.  This photo is a picture of them singing and playing the piano on their first day there.  As you can see, it looks like everyone is having a jolly time.

So there it is.  A glimpse into the life of Betty Lou and her piano-playing fingers.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I did.

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