Author: Van

Mom’s Memories Page 8 – Learning to Sew

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When I was a kid, my mom used to make us clothes and such all the time.   I never really gave it much thought at the time.  I thought that’s what all moms did.  She always knew how to make clothes, so that’s what she did.  She made shirts and pants and dresses, as well as pajamas and quilts and furries. 

Page 8 from Mom’s Memories

But she didn’t always know how to sew, now did she?  Fortunately for us, my mom wrote a little blog about how she learned to sew.  Not really.  My mom never even tried to work a computer, much less a calculator.  My favorite memories about her skills with technology was when my brother got a calculator.  He tried to show her how to work it.  He instructed her to type in the first number, then he told her to push the + button.  At that, she exclaimed, “It ate my number!!!”  She gave up after that.  She stuck to pen or pencil and paper for both mathematical problems and writing her stories.

This post is based on the pages she wrote when she realized her memory was beginning to fail.  Now these pages are getting the treatment that they deserve – digital immortality.  I thought page 8 was a good one to go with, since she was such an avid seamstress.

It starts out with talking about how she would sneak to use the sewing machine at first to make doll clothes.  She had to be oh so careful so she wouldn’t break a needle and get in trouble.  Had she broken a needle and didn’t want to get in trouble again?  Or had she just known that breaking a needle would be trouble?    She must have shown some responsibility and promise, because Grandma let little Betty Lou make some sheets when she was around 8 or 9 years old.

Enhanced photo of Betty Lou Bucklin when she was at Hathaway High during the 1946-47 school year. She was around 13 years old in this photo.

She progressed to making overalls for her younger brother Austin, and by the time she was 13 she was making most of her own clothes.  Lots of those clothes were made from the infamous feed sacks that she picked out from the Farm Supply in Jennings.  (She went along with my Grandpa when he was buying feed.)  I thought I’d post a photo of young Betty Lou from that time. 

But there is more family history to this fascination with fabric.  Her mother was Myrtle Phenice Bucklin and she was a seamstress, too.  Hence the sewing machine in the house.  She herself had learned from her mother as well.  That would have been Daisy Keys Phenice.  Again, Daisy learned from her mother Martha Cook Keys.  Martha was born in England and had a special talent for sewing.  She actually learned her craft in an apprenticeship in London.  After that, in 1860, she went to Paris, France, to gain more knowledge of the field.  This led to her opening up a successful dressmaking shop in London.

Years later Martha got married and had five children, all the while continuing to run the shop.  Daisy was the oldest daughter and she would help out in the shop.  I wonder what tips and techniques that my mom learned from Daisy had been passed down from her own mother who learned them in London or Paris?  It makes me wish (somewhat) I had learned bit more of those skills when I was younger.  The best I do is replace buttons on shirts and pants.  I know just the other day my brother was hemming his daughter’s homecoming dress.  My sisters did learn how to sew, but I’m not sure that it really caught on with them. 

But nowadays everyone just buys their own clothes.  Who has time to make their own?  My mom grew up in the Depression.  It was a different time.  When she talked about making clothes out of feed sacks, it didn’t seem like she was trying to make us feel sorry for her.  (Though sometimes we thought she was: Gunnysack Dresses) She got a lot of satisfaction out of making something nice out of something that could have been discarded.

There’s something to be said about being satisfied with what you have.

Visiting NASA in 1969

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I don’t know why I didn’t post this photo this summer.  I had thought about posting it since it was the 50 year anniversary of the moon landing, but somehow I overlooked it.  I posted a photo from this same vacation a year ago, so sometimes I hesitate in posting something similar too soon.  This photo was taken on July 25, 1969.  On the 25th of July this year in my blog, I stated that I was looking for a photo commemorating a 100 year anniversary of something, but couldn’t find anything that week.  I should have cut my goal in half and searched for a 50 year old event to memorialize. 

The Landry family visited NASA during the summer of 1969 – just a few days after the first man landed on the moon.  From left to right:  Al, Bob (father of the six children), Jamie, Karen, Jodie, Van, and Rob.

Then I would have seen this photo.  But that obviously didn’t happen.  The first moon landing was on July 20, 1969, and we posed for this photo at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on July 25, 1969.  It was so soon after that monumental event and we were so excited to be there.  When we were walking around, there was a commotion of some sort with a motorcade  on site.  We thought it was either the astronauts going into quarantine or the arrival of the moon rocks at the Center.  So exciting.

When we were growing up in the Landry household, there were eight people in the house.  That’s a lot of people considering that the house at 758 Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana, only had three bedrooms and one small bathroom.  So there were three girls in one bedroom, the three boys were in another, and our parents were in the other one.

In the boys’ room, we had two chest of drawers in the room.  Or as I always thought of them back then – chester drawers.   Above the chester drawers was a metal cabinet where we kept all of our treasures.  The main thing I remember about it – and the reason I’m mentioning it – is that we had several space-related stickers on the front of it.  During the last few years of the 1960s, space flight and landing on the moon held a lot of interest in the American public.   And particularly for young boys growing up in the Landry household.  Of course merchandisers took advantage of that fact.  We drank Tang.  We ate Space Food Sticks.  We watched “Star Trek.”

But mostly we begged our mom to buy the cereal that had those space-related stickers in the boxes.  When I just did a search for that, I see that it was more likely that they were stick-on patches that were in those boxes.  You could put them on jackets or clothes, but we collected them on front of the cabinet in our bedroom.  We had the Mercury patches, the Gemini patches, and of course the Apollo ones.  If I had a picture of that old cabinet, I’d share that photo, too.

But sadly, I did not grow up in the age that takes pictures of every little thing they do.  I’m sure we’d have hundreds of photos of that whole house and every pet and/or meal we ever had.  But I can’t really be sad.  I grew up in the time that we were putting people on the moon!  And I have this picture to prove it. 

Try not to be too jealous.

Go Go Patureau – to Texas and Mexico

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This is my second Go Go Patureau installment.  I don’t know if you remember, but almost a year ago I posted the first one.  It was called “Go Go Patureau – To Mexico!” and it was about my grandmother (Mee Maw or Germaine Erie Patureau Landry) and her sisters traveling to Mexico.  I wasn’t planning on a second part to that story, but I found some more information since that last article.  I also got an improved version of a photo that I posted a few months ago.  And since it could be seen as a travel photo, I thought I’d combine the two pieces of information for this post.

Vincent Maximilian Patureau was known as Grampa Max to his family. Here he can be seen circa 1914 with an old timey automobile. Ready to travel.

I always like to start out with an interesting photo from the past.  Some people aren’t inclined to read all the words that I write down, so I’ll give them a morsel to catch their attention.  Isn’t this a great one?  This is my dad’s maternal grandfather Max Patureau looking dapper with his old jalopy.  Of course, at the time it was a newfangled jalopy. 

That side of my family was known for enjoying traveling.  Mee Maw liked to travel when she was older.  Tez made her way across southern Louisiana visiting family along the way, whether they wanted her there or not!  And even though Mee Maw and Pee Paw never owned a car, her father Max did.  Part of that was that he had a veterinary business in Lafayette and he visited homes and farms to care for larger animals.  But you already know this, because I’ve posted photos of him with a cow and with a horse.

You may be wondering like I did whether he did much more traveling.  I am not wondering any more, because I actually found an article that talks about him traveling to visit family.  And since you read the title of this post, you know that he went to Texas and Mexico.

Jan. 7, 1905  Newspaper article

So here is the article that I found.  It’s a treasure!  Do small towns still write articles like this anymore?  It talks about Mr. and Mrs. Max Patureau attending Mrs. Patureau’s sister’s funeral in Lake Charles on Dec. 21, 1904.  Her sister is referred to as Mrs. Sebastian Landry.  Mrs. Patureau was Marie Therese Landry Patureau and her sister was Marie Manette Landry Landry. They were two of the daughters of Civil War hero Trasimond Landry.  Sebastian was the son of Trasimond’s brother Alcide.  Marie Therese’s daughter Erie would later marry Sebastian’s brother Rob. 

I’m sorry.  Don’t try to figure out that last paragraph.  Just know that Max and Therese went to the funeral of Therese’s younger sister Marie Manette who died as a result of childbirth of her first child at the age of 28.  The child was a little girl they also named Marie Manette.  She would grow up and marry Bibb Bouquet and have nine children.  I went to Bibb and Manette’s 50th wedding anniversary.

Since they traveled to the western part of the state, I guess Grampa Max decided to take the opportunity to visit more family even further west.  So he sent his wife and small child back home in the care of her mother.  She is called Mrs. Magloire Babin in this article, but we know her as Grandma Belite.  She was Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry Babin.  She was first married to Trasimond Landry, who was the father of three of her daughters – Therese, Manette, and Kate, who was also known as Mrs. Thos. Blanchard.

Max’s first stop in Texas was at his sister Victorine’s home in Beaumont.  She was married to William Albert “Willie” Cropper and at that point in time, they had six children.  Max and Therese had nine at the time, so I think that was incentive for Victorine to have even more children.  It must have been a competition between Max, Victorine, and their brothers Louis Leobon and Abel.  It’s the reason I have so many third cousins out there!

Max went on to visit his cousin in Corpus Christi.  She is named “Mr. Cruis Cutires” in the article.  I mean really!  They don’t even give the women’s first names in this article.  At least they could get the “Mrs.” part right!  Max’s cousin Rosa Crixell married a man named Cruz Gutierrez.  They only had five children at the time.  Obviously they were not part of the competition, though they would end up with nine children.

Cousin Eliza

Next, “he was taken to Brownsville” to meet other cousins for the first time.  This means that he was not driving himself at the time, so I’m not sure how he was getting about.  The cousins he met were “Mrs. De’Falcon and  her children, the Cruxielle boys.”  I’ve shared a photo of “Mrs. De’Falcon” before, but I called her Eliza.  Her name given to her at birth was Eliza Patureau Laulom and she was the first cousin of Grampa Max.  She was also the mother of Rosa Crixell AKA “Mr. Cruis Cutires” or Mrs. Cruz Gutierrez.  They were probably named after Rose and Eliza Patureau.

“The Cruxielle boys” were the sons of Eliza Patureau Laulom and Vicente Crixell, Sr..  The sons’ names were Teofilo, Vicente Jr., Joseph, and Luis.  They had some notoriety in southeastern Texas.  Joseph or Jose was a saloon owner and city marshall who was later assassinated in 1912 by a former Texas Ranger.  But when Max visited, they were alive and well and they showed him a good time.  Vicente Sr had died in 1880 and Eliza was then married to Albino Falcon.  (Hence the “Mrs. De’Falcon.”)  It sounds like the Crixell boys brought him over to Mexico to visit more family and friends.  There was (and still are) extended Patureau family members who lived in Brownsville and Guadalajara, Mexico.  Having been born in the Matamoros area of Mexico himself, Max was probably treated as a prodigal son.

It was a trip of a lifetime for Grampa Max.  Lucky for us, we have the newspaper article to recount his delightful adventure.  And now, with my help, you know who they were talking about in that article.  It always helps to know the connections.

Bucklin Burials

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Gravesite service of Louis Charles Bucklin in 1927.

I’m not sure when I first saw this first photo.  I must have gotten it from my cousin Joseph a few years ago.  He and his mom Louise (my mom’s first cousin) had been collecting Bucklin family photos for a few years and were sharing them with me.  They were all new to me, so it was exciting to see all of these old family treasures.

This one was not identified, but we assumed it was at the gravesite of my mom’s paternal grandfather Louis Charles Bucklin in 1927.  My mom was born in 1933, so she never knew her paternal grandfather.  (My father’s paternal grandfather died before he was born, too.)  Lou was born April 11, 1873, in Masonville, Iowa.  He died in Elton, Louisiana, on Nov. 19, 1927.  He was buried in nearby Raymond, Louisiana, which was where his father James A. Bucklin was buried in 1890.

You can see Lou’s wife Addie in the front and middle of this photo all dressed in black.  Her husband had died at the age of 54, and she was only 51.  The youngest two children of her eleven living children were only 12 years old.  Though you can’t see her face, her sadness is unmistakable.   That is what made it likely that this photo was from Lou’s burial. 

She was surrounded by her children at the gravesite.  The young man on the left who is looking down is either her son Fred or his identical twin Clarence.  I think the young boy behind him is her youngest son Roy.  Next to him is older son Ralph.  It’s likely that the oldest son Leo is the man standing between Ralph and Addie.  Ruth is the youngest daughter to the right  of Addie.  Behind her (and looking down) is son Herbert, then Robert (I think), Fred/Clarence, and possibly Carl. 

Burial for James A. Bucklin

I went to visit that graveyard in 2015.  It was my last outing I had with my mom and my dad.  The graveyard is called Raymond Cemetery and it is just down the road from the Raymond Methodist Church where the family were members.  It originally was called Fairview Cemetery. 

One of the first graves I noticed was this one that has BUCKLIN written in white that is so easy to ready.  This is the burial place of my great great grandfather James A. Bucklin.  The monument is very nice looking, but it looked like something was missing.  I was informed that there is a pillar that used to sit atop this pedestal.  The pillar would fall over and cause problems for the caretakers when they mowed the property.  So family members placed it in the old garage of a family member. 

Newly acquired photo of James A. Bucklin’s grave.

Fast-forward to this summer.  As I’ve told you in previous posts, I was able to scan several old Bucklin family photos from my mom’s cousin Carla.  And even though one of the photos was a photo of a gravesite, I was excited to see it.  I knew immediately that I needed to compare it to the first photo that I posted.  The word “League” looked familiar.

When I only had that first photo, I examined it to see if there were any clues to the location of the grave.  If you look closely on the left of that first photo, you can see the word “League” on that photo as well.  So the photos were taken at the same event. And this new photo identified the event as the burial of Louis Charles Bucklin.

The other interesting thing about this second photo is what you can see on the left of the photo.  You can see that easy-to-read BUCKLIN name on James Bucklin’s grave.  But more importantly, the pillar is sitting atop the pedestal as it was placed 37 years earlier!  I had wondered what it looked like, and now I know.

Louis Bucklin headstone in Raymond Cemetery

 

Pee Paw on the Stump Circa 1911

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Robert Joseph Landry in 1911 in Westlake, Louisiana – before the Sr. was added to his name and before he was ever known as Pee Paw or Pappy.

Just what was my grandfather doing on that tree stump?  I really have no idea, but I’m going to write a story about it anyway!  I didn’t even notice he was standing on the tree trunk until I started working on the photo.  The main thing I noticed about it is that he looks like he was singing.  In addition to that, there was an aura about him from that white shirt he was wearing.  I got rid of some of that, but there is still a hint of it.

I saw this photo for the first time a few weeks ago at the Landry Cousin Photo Exchange.  It was where we brought together the Tin Can Collection, the Secret Collection, and the Fort Knox Collection.  Those are the names that we’ve been calling the collection of photos in the possession of my cousin Tricia, my cousin Daphne, and myself, respectively.  This photo came from the Tin Can Collection.  The Tin Can Collection got its name from a tin can found in the attic of Tricia’s mom’s (my Aunt Wana) house.  I’m not telling how Daphne’s collection got named.  It’s a secret.

It’s a great old photo of my grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.  I’m pretty sure he went by the name Bob at this time.  It was about a year earlier than the Man in Black photo I posted previously.  I know this because the back of the photo says that it was taken in Westlake, Louisiana, when Bob was just 18 years old.  Not that everything that is written on the back of photos is correct.  But the age looks correct in relation to other photos of my grandfather.

And it sure looks like he is singing something.  He’s even standing on a make-shift stage, small though it is.  I’ve never heard any stories about him singing.  But this was when he was young and before he suffered any hearing loss from his participation in the military.  Maybe my dad got some of his love for music from his father’s side of the family.

But really, who doesn’t appreciate music?  I wish I could hear what was coming out of his mouth.  A song?  A poem?  A speech?  We’ll never know.  It does make this photo just a little more interesting.

HC and Daisy’s 50 Year Anniversary

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Daisy and Harry Phenice at their Golden Wedding anniversary in December 1950.

I could have sworn that I wrote about this before, but I find no evidence of it.  I know I posted a photo of Harry Clifton Phenice and his wife Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice at some point, but it must not have been on a Throwback Thursday.  The other photo is the one I think of in association with their celebration of their 50 years of marriage, but this one is the one that I’d rather think of from now on.

Isn’t this a great photo of that sweet old couple?  The other photo is a formal sitting at a studio and this one looks like a more casual photo taken in their home.  I’m pretty sure it was taken at the event celebrating their anniversary. 

For those of you who don’t know, Daisy and HC were my mom’s maternal grandparents.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  Her mother was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin, the daughter of this celebrated couple.

Newspaper article about the marriage of Daisy and H. C. that was in my mom’s collection of family heirlooms. I suppose it was her that drew the heart.

Daisy and Harry were married on December 27, 1900, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  A newspaper article about the event stated that it took place “in the parlors of the Walker House” in Lake Charles.  It was a local hotel that was used for marriages and such at the beginning of the 20th century.  The article says that the couple was held in high esteem.

The 1950 article about their Golden Anniversary doesn’t state that fact, but I’m sure it was still the case.  The photo for the article was taken on the same day as the first photo I posted, but is slightly different.  I wonder why they chose this one, because I think I prefer the first one.

I have to point out something I discovered through my years of researching my Phenice family line.  They all seemed to live rather long lives, and when they got married, they tended to stay together.  Daisy and HC were not the first ones to celebrate their 50th anniversary.  They weren’t even the second. 

From what I have found, they are at least the fourth couple in a row to celebrate 50 years together.  His parents Samuel and Kate celebrated 54 years together before she died in 1921.  His grandparents Daniel and Susan were in their 50th year of marriage when she died.  (Not sure of the date of her death.)  His great grandparents John and Margaret were married for around 58 years when he died.

More recently, my grandparents Myrtle and Fred Bucklin celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1980 at my parents’ home.  They lived another four years together until Grandpa’s death.  My parents have the record.  They were happily married for 64 years until they died five days apart in January 2017.  

One more thing before I go.  The other thing about the first photo I posted – Daisy’s dress reminds me of a dress that my mom liked to wear in the 70s.  The style is similar and I’m pretty sure they both had embroidery that was done by each of them.  (I was informed by my younger sister Jamie that the dress my mom had was made and stitched by my older sister Jodie.  Thanks Jamie!)  Daisy’s had a stylized flower design, while my mom’s had birds perched on branches.  I wonder if my mom ever thought of grandmother Daisy when she wore that dress.

I know that I’m going to think of great grandpa HC the next time I wear my pin wale corduroy shirt.  It’s actually one of my favorite shirts to wear in cool weather.  Doesn’t his shirt look warm and comfortable?

I could go on.  There are other things I’d like to say, but they can wait for another time.  You may commence to commenting now.

Our Erie the Student Revisited

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I posted a few photos five months ago pertaining to my paternal grandmother’s school days.  The photos were somewhat grainy because they had been taken from school programs or newspapers and they were over 100 years old.  I’m revisiting that topic because I got an improved photo this past weekend.  My cousins and I actually got together and looked through some old photos and memorabilia!  We had been talking about it for a while and it came together at the last minute.

The SLI Class of 1915 included my grandmother Erie Patureau Landry.

This is one of the photos that I had seen a previous version of before.    The difference between my first version and this one is vast.  A wrinkled up school program just isn’t quite as good as an original 5 x 7 photo.  You can actually make out people’s faces and facial expressions.  It’s a really nice photo, which is why I wanted to share it with everyone.

That and the fact that my grandmother is in it.  Since you already read the title, you know that it is about my grandmother Erie.  Her given name was Germaine Erie Patureau.  She was born in Crescent, Louisiana, (near Plaquemine) in 1895.

This photo was taken shortly before March 29, 1915, in Lafayette, Louisiana.  That date is the issue date for the Vermilion, which was the school newspaper for SLI.  It was a special issue for the Class of 1915.  Erie can be seen in the first row, second from the right.  Once she graduated from SLI, she taught in Lafayette for a number of years before she got married in 1921 to my grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.  They had eight children who grew up and had children of their own.

All through that time, she held on to this old photo.  When meeting with my cousins, I realized she held on to many more photos as well.  Plus there were newspaper clippings and death notices.  They were all relating to ancestors, children, grandchildren, and relatives.  That didn’t include all the things that I had gotten from my dad.  He also had her “Patureau Family Papers,” which was the genealogical information that she collected through the years.  You could tell that all the things she collected had been divided among her children .  Of course this must have been when she died in 1973.  A few of those things got back together this past weekend.

You could also tell that she had an appreciation for her family.  I think she passed that down as well.

Surprise! Addie’s Parents Were Cousins!!!

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I know.  Some of you are saying, “So what?  I’ve heard this so many times already.”  But this time it’s different.  I’m not talking about the Landry side of the family, I’m talking about the Bucklin side of the family.  More specifically, I’m talking about the Hine line of my family. 

My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  She was the daughter of Fred D. Bucklin.  His mother was Addie Mae Hine Bucklin.  She was born in Noblesville, Indiana, but lived her adult life in southern Louisiana.  She was alive when I was born, but she died a few weeks later.  So I have no personal memories of her.  Maybe some of my older siblings or cousins may have some memories of her.  I’ve posted several photos of her in the past and have given her a hard time about all the times that she was scowling in the photos.  Even in this photo she’s not really smiling.

Addie Mae Hine Bucklin (on the right) with her parents Susan G. Stanbrough Hine and George Henry Hine in Hathaway, Louisiana, circa 1919.

Maybe it was because she found out that her parents were related!  I doubt it, though.  She probably wasn’t even aware of the fact, because they were not very closely related.  But from what I’ve been able to figure out, they were definitely cousins.

I discovered this connection shortly after I found out the maiden name of George Henry Hine’s mother.  Her name was Mary Malina Cox.  She was the daughter of Benjamin Cox and Jemima Vestal Cox.  That name was very familiar to me.  It was not because of any association with pancakes, either. 

It had to do with Susan Stanbrough’s ancestry.  I had found the Vestal name in her family tree a few years ago.  When I started looking at relatives in that family group, I found a few Jemima Vestals.  It seemed to have been a common family name at some point, but its usage has declined.  Though my sister Jamie’s name is close.  All you’d have to do is add a second ‘m’ and rearrange the letters.  It wouldn’t really work, though.  “Jemima crack corn” just doesn’t have the same ring as “Jamie crack corn.”  Sorry, Jamie, I couldn’t resist!

So Susan’s ancestry goes like this:  Susan’s mother was Lydia Jane Mills.  Susan’s grandfather was James Mills.  Her great grandmother was Lydia Jay.  Her great great grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Vestal (there it is!).  And her great great great grandparents were William Vestal and Elizabeth Mercer.  This was a pretty long time ago – they were born in the late 1600s.   Elizabeth was born in Great Britain, but William and Mary Elizabeth were born in Pennsylvania.

On George’s side I’ve already told you his grandmother’s name.  His great grandfather was Jesse Vestal and his great great grandfather was Thomas Curren Vestal.  Thomas Current Vestal was the younger brother of Mary Elizabeth Vestal.  That would mean that William Vestal and Elizabeth Mercer were also the great great great grandparents of George Hine.  So he and his wife Susan were fourth cousins through their Vestal connection.

Fourth cousins sounds pretty far when you first hear it, but it’s interesting to see it in association with this same family.  Two of Addie’s sons were Ralph and Fred Bucklin.  Ralph’s daughter was Helen and Fred’s daughter was Betty Lou, my mom.  Helen and mom were first cousins.  Helen’s son and my sister Karen are second cousins.  Their children are third cousins and their grandchildren are fourth cousins.

So what have we learned?  George and Sue were fourth cousins.  I was alive at the same time as their daughter Addie.  At present, there are descendants of Addie who are fourth cousins to each other.  All of this together indicates that I’m getting old.  Yet it doesn’t make me feel old.  It makes me feel like I’m learning perspective.

But you can call me old if you want too.

Aint Zita’s 1939 Visit

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I know this photo has been posted before on Facebook.  I had a version of the photo from my dad, but it was not a good quality, even with a good scan.  I fixed it up as good as I could and shared it, too.  But it was not a blog post.  I got a better quality photo from cousin Sis a while back, with intentions to get it looking better to share.

And here it is!  Ain’t it grand?  I really like this old photo from around 1939.  I think it was taken in Lake Charles at my grandparents’ home when my grandmother’s sister Zita came for a visit.  Hence the title.  Or course, the title doesn’t actually say “Aunt Zita.”  I spelled the title the way I’ve heard the name ever since I can remember.  And for some reason I hear the other ones’ names pronounced like “ant,” but for Zita I always hear the “Aint.”  Say it!  It’s got a nice ring to it. 

The grandmother I’m talking about is my  paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  My generation always called her “Mee Maw.”  She was a sweetie.  She was married to Robert Joseph Landry, Sr., who we called Pee Paw.  At least all of the cousins who were born before he died called him that. 

Now that I’ve introduced those three from the older generation of Patureau kin in this photo, I’ll point out which ones they are.  Zita Patureau Schafer is the woman standing on the far left.  Next to her is Pee Paw, with Mee Maw looking over his shoulder.  All of the others in the photo are from the next generation in the Patureau line.  Nobody from that generation of our Patureau line had Patureau for a last name.  Maybe someone from our Patureau line should marry a cousin with the Patureau last name?  Just a thought!

Seven of the eight children of Mee Maw and Pee Paw are in the photo.  Their oldest son A. J. is not in it.  Next to Mee Maw we have Marie, Hubert, Germaine, and Bobbie – my dad.  The front row has my dad’s younger siblings along with Aunt Zita’s daughters.  They are actually the daughters of Erie and Zita’s sister Marie Therese “Bee”, who died shortly after the birth of her younger daughter.  Zita married Bee’s widower Clarence Shafer and raised the daughters Sis and Syl as her own.

Sitting in the front is my dad’s brother Johnny, cousin Sis, cousin Syl, sister Frances, and sister Wana.  They all look so sweet and cute.  Hey!  Didn’t I say that about last week’s photo?  Oh, well.  It’s true again this week.  But last week I was working with a photo of my great aunts and uncles, and this week was with my aunts and uncles.  One generation makes a big difference in commonalities in facial features.  While I did see some common features in my own grandmother last week, I didn’t notice as much with my grandfather’s siblings. 

This week I saw many more common features that brought to mind many of my cousins.  So I spent a little time with my sisters Karen and Jamie, my godmother Shirley and her daughter Chelleen, my cousins Colleen, Paula, Jeanne, and Tricia as I worked on the photo.  I had an enjoyable time.  I hope you do, too.

 

Sweet Myrtle With the Bucklins

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Myrtle and the gang circa 1927.

Isn’t this the cutest photo?  Such a great casual photo from over 90 years ago.  Not only was it taken before me or my siblings were born, it was taken before either of my parents were born as well.  And the best thing about it is that my maternal grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice is looking so sweet and cute front and center of the photo.  Then again, everyone else in the photo looks like they are having a good time.

I’ve seen and posted other photos taken at this same location, but most of the other ones were decidedly more formal than this one.  Most of those photos were of the Hine family standing in front of this house in the Hathaway/China area of Jefferson Davis Parish in southern Louisiana.  My grandfather was Fred Bucklin and his parents were Louis Bucklin and Addie Hine.  The house in the background was either their house, or the house of Addie’s parents George Hine and Susan Stanbrough.  George had died in 1919 and Grandma Sue was getting pretty elderly.

I estimated this photo to be from around 1927.  This is another photo that I got from my cousin Carla this summer.  Along with the photo I posted of my grandfather with a tennis racket, this photo was a photo that I had never seen before.  It has quickly become one of my favorite photos of Grandma.  Wait, I can’t refer to that cute young girl as Grandma!  I’ll have to call her Myrtle.  I usually don’t want to have the original photos of the ones I scan, but those two were exceptions.  The one of Fred with the tennis racket had a duplicate, so that was an easy call.  This photo was the only copy Carla had, but she was gracious enough to let me have it.  Thanks again, Carla!

The other great thing about it is that everyone in the photo is a family member.  I’m pretty sure that is her husband to be Fred next to her on the right in this photo.  It looks like him and who else would it be?  Sure, he has an identical twin brother Clarence, but it’s more likely to be Fred next to Myrtle.  The rest of the people in the photo are Fred’s siblings.  Let me tell you who is who.

On each end of the group are the twins Ruth and Roy Bucklin.  Ruth and Roy were fraternal twins born in 1915.  They were the youngest of the 12 children born to Lou and Addie.  In case you can’t figure out which one is which, Ruth is the girl on the far left and Roy is the boy on the far right.  Next to Ruth is an older Bucklin brother.  I’m thinking this is Robert, who was born in 1911 and would be about 16 in this photo.  To the right of him is Edna, the next older Bucklin sibling.  She was born in 1909 and she is the main reason we have this photo.  She had an early interest in photography.  She had a camera and took many of the photos of the family that are around today.  (No this is not a selfie!  They didn’t do selfies back then.  But if she had, you would have seen her arm!) 

Continuing on… Like I said, I think the boy to the right of Myrtle was Fred.  They both would have been around 20 years old.  In a couple of years they would be married and starting a family of their own.  The last unidentified boy in the photo is a little more questionable.  But I’m pretty sure this is Fred’s older brother Carl.  He was only a few years older than Fred and somehow developmentally delayed.  From other photos I’ve seen of him, I think it is him.  And again, who else would it be?  The photo shows the younger siblings of Fred.  He doesn’t look like Herbert Bucklin.  I’m open to any corrections or discussions.

Isn’t it great that we have this photo?  I’m sure all of my siblings, niblings, and cousins will really like it.  And with all of the other photos and postcards I scanned, there will be many more to come.

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