Month: January 2022

The Bucklin Boy Twins Circa 1927

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I was originally going to call this post “The Bucklin Twins,” but I realized that Joseph had already written a post with that name.  Then I was going to add “Circa 1927” at the end of it.  But since Great Grandma Addie had two sets of twins, I thought I’d use the gender modifier.  The Bucklin twins in question are my maternal grandfather Fred Bucklin and his identical twin Clarence.  I got this photo from Clarence’s daughter Carla a few years ago.  Don’t you just love it?

The Bucklin twins circa 1927.

I do.  There’s a lot going on in the photo.  I’m thinking that it might be a picnic or camp out and they are getting ready to cook their meal.  The guy on the left looks like he is tending to a campfire.  I’m not sure who he is, but he kinda reminds me of some of my grandmother’s (Myrtle Phenice Bucklin) brothers.  There were lots of friendships between the seven Bucklin brothers and  five Phenice brothers. 

The guy sitting at the front wheel of the truck looks like it is one of the Bucklin twins.  I’m still not able to tell them apart.  I wasn’t the only one.  School teachers would try to keep them identified with a blue and red ribbon, but they would always switch with each other to fool them.  My mom used to say that she had been fooled a few times when she was a kid.  Anyway, the brother in front looks he may have been roasting a marshmallow or something on a branch.

The guy next to him looks like the other twin.  He’s getting a pot of something ready to cook on the fire.  I can’t make out exactly what he is doing.  What makes me think it might be a picnic is the big picnic basket in the middle of the truck bed.  Not really!  It looks like it’s just a big cardboard box.  Maybe it was used as a picnic basket.  Maybe it wasn’t.  I don’t know the identities of the other two guys on the back end of the truck.  They could be friends, or they could be more Phenice or Bucklin brothers.  It looks like kinda like they could be eating something, but even more so it looks like they are smoking pipes.

What I like about these photos from back in this time is that it shows the brothers before the Big Rift.  Nobody knows (or is willing to tell me) what the Big Rift was.  Whatever it was, it kept the twins from being social with each other for the rest of their lives.  And they lived right down the road from each other!  When I would ask my mom why they didn’t get along, she would say that Grandpa would get upset when someone would show up at his brother’s nursery (they were both plant nurserymen!) thinking it was my grandfather’s.  He claimed his brother wouldn’t correct the person and take his business.  But this explanation only made sense if they were already not getting along.  Before the Big Rift, they had a nursery business together.

It’s odd how this Big Rift carried on after both of the brothers died.  When I started interacting with my cousin Carla a few years ago online, I felt like I was crossing a line that I wasn’t supposed to.  For a rift that no one knows what started!  I didn’t let it stop me, though.   It’s a shame the brothers weren’t able to cross that line back to the way it was, though they may have felt they had good reasons.  I still enjoy seeing these old photos of when they enjoyed each other’s company, whether they were camping or having a picnic with friends.

Remembering Bob & Betty…and a Ring

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This week marks the fifth anniversary of the death of my parents.  It was five years for my mom yesterday – January 19 – and my dad’s anniversary is on the 24th.  I thought I would write something about them today, so that’s what I’m doing.  But I thought I’d write about a previous anniversary.  My parents were married on November 1, 1952, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  Their 25th anniversary was in 1977, but this photo was from two months later.

Betty Lou Bucklin Landry and Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr. at 758 Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana, on Jan. 4, 1978.

And even though I took these photos myself with my new Canon TX camera that I got the Christmas of 1977,  I don’t think they are all that great.  But my memories of the event are what convinced me to post these photos.  The photos were taken on January 4, 1978, in the den at our home in Jennings.  I was a junior in high school, so I was still living at home.

The photos show many details that were commonplace in the Landry household in the 70s.  In the foreground are two chairs that were “purchased” at the S&H Green Stamp store.  They were foldable and stackable.  They used to be our dining room chairs until we upgraded to wooden chairs with a matching table.  We probably did that around 1973 with money that my dad inherited at the death of his mother.  It also helped to pay for the paneling and carpet in the living room.   You gotta love the 70s!  You can see the wooden table and chairs in the second photo if you know what you’re looking for.  A hint:  there is a box of Cheerios on the table!

The other thing to note is the yellow National Geographic magazine sitting on the speaker between mom and dad.  We always had a subscription to this magazine.  On the other side of this room, there were some shelves in the corner.  On a few of these shelves were the National Geographic magazines that were collected all the way back to 1958 or so.  I just knew that if they were from before I was born, they were old.  I think the speakers were relatively new as well.  My dad and Uncle Johnny built a cabinet for a stereo system in the living room.  But we were really fancy and ran some wires under the house so we could have sound in the den as well.  If only we had a remote control for the TV!

My mom showing off her sparkly new diamond ring to my sisters Jamie and Karen.

Now let me tell you what is going on in these photos.  When my parents’ 25th anniversary was coming around, my mom made some subtle hints that she would like a diamond ring.  When my parents got married, they exchanged wedding rings and they were both gold bands.  Later on, my mom bought a ring that had two tiny diamonds on it for herself.  But she decided that she wanted a ring that had a diamond in it that she could see without her reading glasses. 

Well, their anniversary came and went on Nov. 1, 1977, and there was no ring.  I guess her hint was too subtle for Bob Landry.  I’m sure he got her something for their anniversary, but it wasn’t a ring with a diamond on it that she could see without her readers.  That was a very specific desire of hers.  She let him know that she was disappointed that it hadn’t happened.  And since we were making the big bucks from our singing engagement at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles, she knew that he could afford it.

My dad eventually got the hint.  He went out and bought my mom a ring from Gem Jewelers in town.  On January 4 (not any type of anniversary or birthday) he surprised her with the ring.  He must have let me know about it beforehand, otherwise I wouldn’t have the picture of him surprising her.  You can see that there is a glass sitting next to her, as well as a Harlequin romance novel.  My mom liked to read those books.  (As you can see from the second photo, my sister Karen did, too.)  So my mom was sitting on the couch in the den reading her book and drinking a refreshing beverage when my dad sprung his surprise on her.   She was smiling really big and looking down at the ring with her reading glasses in that first photo.  I was across the room so I could sneak the photo.  That’s my excuse for why the photo isn’t so great.  But I still love it.  It’s so candid – my favorite kind of photo.

You can see that she removed her glasses in the second photo.  She was checking to make sure she could still see the diamond without the glasses.  It was a great success.  She approved.  Jamie and Karen had to check it out as well.  I’m not sure what size it was, but that’s not really so important.  My mom wasn’t a demanding or extravagant person, but for some reason this was something that she really wanted.  My dad was glad that she liked his choice.   So we’ll call it a delayed – yet satisfactory – 25th anniversary gift from my dad to my mom.

The Patureau Sisters of Plaquemine Revisited

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Zita, Erie, Sylvie, and Lydwin were four of the Patureau sisters from Plaquemine.

I wrote a post about the my paternal grandmother and her sisters over five years ago.  That other post featured a photo of my Mee Maw (Germaine Erie Patureau Landry) with five of her sisters.  This photo only has three of her sisters and it was taken a few years before that other photo. 

This photo was taken around 1958 or so.  I have no idea where it was taken.  I don’t recognize any background feature that would  give me a clue.  Maybe someone else knows.  I do know who the four Patureau sisters are.  From left to right we have Zita, Erie, Sylvie, and Lydwin.  Two of these sisters gave birth to eight children each – with four boys and four girls for each.  The other two sisters did not birth any children.  That was your choice back then.  Either you had eight children or you had none.

That’s not true.  It just happens to be the situation for those sisters in this photo.  Lydwin or Aunt Win was the oldest one in this photo.  She was never married and had no children.  On the other side of the couch is Aunt Zita who never gave birth to any children.  However, when their sister Marie Therese died as a young mother of two daughters, Zita married her widower (Clarence Schafer) and helped raise the two daughters.  While we love our Sis and Syl, I mainly wanted to talk about the two large families of the other two Patureau sisters.

Erie (later to be known as Mee Maw) married Rob Landry in 1921.  Their first child was born in 1923 and they had the rest of their eight children over the next 13 years in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  Sylvie married Son Marionneaux in 1929.  Their first child was born in 1930 and they had their eighth 12 years later.  These girls didn’t waste much time!  There were a few of them that were born close to the same time.  I remember how exciting it was when my sisters were pregnant at the same time.  Things change so quickly during those times. 

In 1932 both Erie and Sylvie gave birth to little girls.  Erie gave birth to Wana on June 30th and just four months later Sylvie gave birth to Winona on Halloween. (my birthday!)  Aunt Wana passed away in 2014 and we just lost Winona this week.  She was my inspiration for this week’s post.  It made me think of those two large families that were so similar.  I really don’t remember Winona from when I was young.  Shortly after I moved to Baton Rouge, I befriended her daughter.  We didn’t realize we were second cousins for two years.  Then one day she started talking about a strange cousin she had that would show up uninvited and start telling people what to do.  The more she talked, the more familiar the cousin sounded.  When I asked her if her cousin’s name was Tez, she was astounded.  It didn’t take long to figure out our relation.  The Uninvited Guest strikes again!

In 1936 Erie and Sylvie thought they could do a little better, and they did.  This time their children were only a month and a half apart. Sylvie had Maxine in June, while Erie gave birth to Johnny in August.  These cousins are still with us.  That completed Erie’s eight kids, while Sylvie had three more to go.  In those first few years (until 1935) Erie and Sylvie’s dad Max Patureau was still alive and he loved to go stay where all of the kids were.  So he would take turns going to Plaquemine and Lake Charles to visit his grandkids.

My dad used to talk about how he liked to go visit his cousins in Plaquemine.  The thing that was talked about the most was sleeping on the porch of the house.  There was something about jumping out of the window to claim the bed that was on the porch.  Whenever his cousins would show up at family reunions or get togethers, you could see that he had a fondness for them.  It seems like that was a mutual feeling between all of those cousins.  I feel the same way toward my cousins.

So this weekend we’ll be saying goodbye to one of Grampa Max’s grandchildren.  There are still a few of them left.  I’m hoping to see some of them and the next generation so we can maintain those family connections.

Phenice Family Circa 1917

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H.C., Warren, Orville, Henry, and Daisy Phenice circa 1917.

This is a picture that was shared with me a few years ago at the Keys Family Reunion.  It was an easy enough way to share it – they brought the photo to the reunion and I took a photo of it.  I should keep track of who shares photos with me, that way I can thank them properly.  I do appreciate whoever it was that brought the photo.  It makes me wonder how many other photos are out there that I would find interesting enough to share on my blog.

The reason it was shared at the Keys Family Reunion is because of the woman in the photo.  She would be my great grandmother Daisy Keys Phenice.  She was born in England in 1876 and moved to America with her mother and siblings when she was 11.  The family settled in the Hathaway, Louisiana, area.  She grew up, and at the age of 24 she got married to Harry Clifton Phenice.  A year later they had their first child Sylvan.  In 1903 Grace was born.  My grandmother Myrtle was born in 1906.  She was followed by Henry in 1909, Orville in 1911, and Warren in 1916.  That brings us to the year the photo was taken.

So actually this is H.C. and Daisy with half of their children in 1917.  I wish that my grandmother was in the photo, too.  Maybe she was taking the photo.  She was about 11 years old when this photo was taken and would have been in elementary school with her friend Emily Brown.  In old letters they talked about going to school together and riding the buggy.  Sometimes Orville and Henry would go along or rode horseback.  For some reason I always pictured older brothers riding along for protection, but this is the age that they would have been!  At least they had company!