Month: October 2022

This coming Tuesday is the 70th anniversary of my parents’ wedding.  If you’ve been reading my posts, you know that I’ve posted a few stories about the events that occurred leading up to their marriage on November 1, 1952.  For those that haven’t been following along this wonderful journey, now you know.  You’ll also want to know that my parents were Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry and Betty Lou Bucklin.  And back in 1952, they were the cutest little couple.

See what I mean?  They’re adorable.  They look so happy, and they were.  I’m pretty sure this was taken on their wedding day.  Their clothes and hair are identical to the photos that were taken in front of the church after their wedding.  My mom is not wearing a white gown that is now much more typical to weddings these days.  They must have had them back then, though.  The one wedding photo I have of my ancestors is for my dad’s Patureau grandparents in 1888.  My great grandmother was wearing a fancy white gown in that photo.

But my mom was much more down to earth than that.  She was not concerned about anything fancy.  Part of that was because she grew up with not very much extra money for anything.  She always seemed to be fine with that, though.  This worked out well for my dad, because he was not a doter.  My mom was low maintenance, but she still wanted some attention.  Their relationship worked.

But their time together as just the two of them was short lived.  Their first child Jodie was born three weeks before their first anniversary.  Their sixth and final child Jamie was born a few months before their 10th anniversary.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  I wanted to talk about 1952, not 1962.

As I was saying, my mom wore a reddish brown dress suit, while my dad wore a brownish grey suit. It’s difficult to explain the colors.  I have a photo of them on their 2nd anniversary in the same outfits, but I’m not going to post it.  I’m committed to posting only this one photo for this story.  The wedding was at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  My dad had joined the Air Force earlier that year, so they were married when he came home for leave.  He had been in San Antonio, Texas, but they would set up their first home at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

I’m not sure who all was at the wedding on that day 70 years ago.  Surely their parents were there, though I don’t have any photos to prove that.  In the few photos I have, I only recognize Daddy’s older brother A. J. and his youngest sister Frances.  The wedding reception was at his sister Marie’s house in Lake Charles.  In a letter from my dad’s mom (Germaine Erie Patureau Landry) dated October 1952, she says that they “will have a wedding cake and green punch and coffee for those who like.”  That green punch must be a family thing.  I wonder if it is the same thing that was at my sister Jodie’s wedding in 1973.  It was a homemade affair and the punch was made from lime sherbet and 7-Up.  I always liked it, but green punch doesn’t really sound appetizing.

Now that I’m sitting down to write all of the details of that day, I realize that I don’t have that many details!  I have a blurry photo from the wedding reception and it supposedly shows the wedding cake.  It is difficult to make out the cake.  You’ll have to take my word.  Like I said, I’m only posting one photo!  But I know a lot more details about the rest of their story.  They set up home in California where they had Jodie.  They later moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Rob was born. In 1956 they moved back to Lake Charles where Karen and the rest of us were born.  Al  was born in 1959.  I (Van) joined the group in 1960 the day before their 8th wedding anniversary.  Jamie was born in 1962. 

They had a good long happy life together.  I was a witness to much of it.  I was very fortunate.

 

My idea for the post this week is a little odd.  I came up with the idea when I was getting ready for work this morning.  I thought it was a good idea then, but maybe I was just tired.  Now I’m tired after a long day and don’t feel like coming up with something different.  That just makes me sound old.  I suppose I am, because I’m talking about something that happened to me over 50 years ago.  That’s right.  It was over 50 years ago that I was the Jack of Hearts for Halloween.

Doesn’t that sound fun?  You get to be a character from a deck of cards and everyone knows what it is. Yeah, well I didn’t think it was that fun at the time.  I think it was my mom’s idea.  Or maybe it was a costume that was passed down to me from one of my siblings.  The costume consisted of two large pieces or cardboard – one for the front and one for the back.  It was either painted white or it had white cloth glued to it.  Then a jack of hearts was painted on it. 

That sounds pretty good.  I think the part that I didn’t like about it was that I wore black tights underneath it.  I think that was another idea from my mom.  I just remember not liking the whole thing.  I must not have complained too much and didn’t throw a fit, because I wore it when I went trick or treating.  I was just glad that it was dark outside at the time.  It kind of reminds me of the scene from “A Christmas Story” when the mom insists that Ralphie puts on the rabbit costume that he got from an aunt.

There is no photo to go along with this sad story.  I probably avoided being in any of the photos.  Or maybe there is a photo out there that I’m not aware of.  I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this story, so if my siblings have a photo of me in the costume, I’ve never reminded them of the event.  Who knows?  Maybe a photo of the Jack of Hearts will show up one day.

But I do have a scan of a drawing that my mom drew of me from around the same time.  Sometimes when we were watching TV or something, my mom would get out her pencil and paper and draw a little sketch of whatever or whoever was around.  This time the subject of the sketch was me.  It’s a nice little sketch of me that I got from my mom a few years ago.  But right now I can’t find the scan or the original sketch, which is extremely aggravating since it is the main photo I wanted to post tonight.  I’ll post it once I set my eyes on it.

In the meantime I’ll post this photo from 2007.  The family got together for Christmas that year as usual.  For some reason my mom brought out the silhouette that she made in 1970 of me.  I’m thinking that the sketch and the silhouette were from around the same time.  I don’t remember seeing the silhouette when we cleaned out my parents’ home in 2016, so I think it has been lost.  At least we have this photo.

What a post – a sad story about a little boy in a sandwich board costume, a sketch that is misplaced, and a blurry photo of my mom with a lost piece of her artwork.  I’m glad I could keep you so well entertained!

This post is another one in the series leading up to the 70th anniversary of my parents’ marriage.  I didn’t really think this all out ahead of time, I just post one here and there if something comes up.  I wasn’t planning on writing another one before the anniversary of their wedding, but I ran across these items when I was looking for something else.  I don’t even remember what I was looking for.  I think I may have been looking for a photo to add to a gift for a little cousin’s first birthday party.  I never found the photo I had originally thought of, but I found something appropriate.

But when I found this old letter from exactly 70 years ago today, I knew I would have to include it in this week’s post.  When I first started reading it, I thought that it was from my grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry – better known as Mee Maw.  Most of the letters that were from Lake Charles to my dad – Robert Joseph “Bob” or “Pluto” Landry, Jr. – were from his mother or sisters.  As I read the short little sentences – “Rec’d your letter – glad to hear from you… I was off last week – back to work this morning.” – it was a bit different. 

It also had a few references to ball games – “I wish I could have seen the games on TV… L.C. & Sulphur play on Thanksgiving. McNeese surely has a fine team – they are going places.”  I wondered who had written the letter, but Mee Maw liked to watch baseball and I think other sports as well.  There were also references to family members like Aunt Zim and Mildred who had been having medical issues at the time.  Aunt Zim was doing okay and Mildred was doing better.  “All are well at M. T. and Germaine’s.”  M. T. would have been my dad’s sister Marie Therese.  We knew her as Aunt Marie.  Germaine was his other older sister.

I was still wondering who wrote the letter as I got to the last page.  The handwriting reminds me of my dad’s writing, but I knew the letter was to him.  I was pleasantly surprised when the letter was ended with “Will sign off now.  Love from all to you.  I am your Devoted Father – R. J. Landry”  It was from Pee Paw and I don’t remember ever seeing his writing before.  I should have guessed who it was earlier.  Maybe when he talked about watching a series of games and he said, ” I won $5 from Joe Shimimi.”  I’m not sure of that last name, but he must have been a betting man.  My grandmother never mentioned betting money and she also never talked about the beginning of squirrel season.  My grandfather was a hunter and fisherman.

I had a group of letters that I wasn’t familiar with, so I had to look to see what the other letters were about.  There was a letter from Mee Maw that talked about some of the plans for my parents’ wedding.  Aunt Marie was going to have the wedding cake and reception after the wedding at their house.  While it is an interesting letter to read, I was more excited to see the other side of the letter.  Mee Maw had written the letter on a church bulletin because they had posted the wedding banns for Robert Jos. Landry and Betty Lou Bucklin – mom and dad to me and my siblings.  Their names are on the bottom line on the page.

Wedding banns is an old tradition.  An announcement is read or posted for three weeks in a row at the parish church of the couple intending to get married.  It is to let people know about the approaching marriage and it gives everyone an opportunity to state any objections they have to the marriage.  As my mom would say, “Speak now or forever hold your peaceables.”  When I look through old church documents, I’ve seen wedding banns back in the 18th and 19th centuries.  I don’t know if they still call it that or not.  I just looked it up and I see that the Catholic Church requirement for the banns was removed in 1983, but some places still maintain the tradition.

So Bob and Betty Lou would get married at the Immaculate Conception Church.  It doesn’t give a date, so I guess it wasn’t an open invitation to the wedding.  But it wasn’t far off.  The date quickly approaches.