Month: June 2023

The Landry Family at Sam Houston Park in 1967

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It was really hot today.  As it usually is in southern Louisiana in the summer.  I’m glad that I live in the time when air conditioning is available.  I don’t know how those people did it.  Our family didn’t have air conditioning until I was in the fifth grade.  That means I endured about ten years without air conditioning in our house.  I remember sleeping with my head in the window so I could feel the ‘cool’ breeze drawn in by the attic fan.  We also had a box fan to blow on us, so we had it made.  Like I said, I’m glad for air conditioning.

Al, Van, Jodie, Jamie, Karen, and Rob Landry at Sam Houston Park north of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on July 26, 1967.

So when I was thinking about what to write about, I thought it should be about something warm.  And this is the photo that popped into my head.  It’s a photo of my siblings and me on a warm day in 1967.  How do I know that it was a warm day?  The date of the photo is July 26th and the sun is shining.  That’s pretty much of a guarantee that it was a warm day.

The place is Sam Houston Park, which is north of Lake Charles, Louisiana.  We lived in Jennings at the time, which is not that far away.  I suppose it was a day trip to go see the cypress trees and waterways.  When I looked up information on the park, it says that the place is now called Sam Houston Jones State Park.  It used to be named for Sam Houston.  I’m not sure when the name change happened, so I don’t know what it was actually name in 1967.  I just remember the Sam Houston part.

It’s a good thing the photo was labeled, because I would have thought this was a photo of when we went to Kisatchie National Forest.  That’s a bit further north in Louisiana, but I know we would go there from time to time.  But really, the place is not nearly as important as the people in the photo.  That would be the children of Bob and Betty Landry.  My dad was Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. and my mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  They were with us on all of our outings, but neither one of them is in the photo.  On the left in the white sleeveless shirt with red stripes (the red is from my memory) is my older brother Al.  He had turned eight years old just two days earlier.  I (Van) am the six-year-old boy sitting on the cypress knee/stump.  I still like wearing shirts like this when it’s warm.  Especially when I’m playing tennis.  I need some with a V-neck like this.  V is for Van, after all.

My oldest and youngest sisters are sitting on the ground in the middle of the photo.  Jodie is on the left.  What is she doing wearing a long-sleeved shirt?!  At least it’s white.  She was thirteen years old and it was the summer before she started high school.  The Landry kids were growing up!  I was going to be starting first grade and Jamie was going to be in kindergarten.  Why did she go to kindergarten when I never did?  Not everyone did back then.  You may have figured that Jamie is the youngest one sitting down to the right of Jodie.  She was the smallest.  

I don’t know what’s happening with Karen and Rob.  It looks like they have matching poses.  It does balance the photo, wouldn’t you say?  The other subjects of the photo can’t be ignored.  Look at the flock of birds clamoring for a taste of watermelon rind.  I can just imagine the squawking going on.  Can you?  Memories of a summer long ago.

Betty Lou’s First Band Photo Circa 1942

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The Rhythm Band at Hathaway High School circa 1942.

I like this photo because it one of the earliest photos of my mom that shows her interest in music.  It was a photo taken in school around 1942.  My mom lived in Hathaway, Louisiana, which is in Jefferson Davis Parish in southern Louisiana.  Southern Louisiana is well known for its Cajun heritage, but my mom was not from that culture.  All of her grandparents were from other states or an altogether different country (England).  She grew up around Cajun people, though.  Just this week I met a distant Cajun cousin whose parents were in school with mom and her sister Loris at good old Hathaway High School.

I think this photo was taken outside of that Hathaway school when young Betty Lou Bucklin (my mom) was in the 3rd or 4th grade.  My mom is not prominent in this photo at all.  The only reason I know that she is in the photo is because she always told me about what happened that day.  As I remember it, the school rhythm band was told that their group picture would be taken on a certain day.  Well, when that day came along, little Betty Lou completely forgot about it and did not wear her rhythm band uniform.  So instead of being kept out of the photo, she just got behind some of her fellow band members so you can’t see that she is out of uniform.  So if you haven’t recognized her yet, she is the third one from the right standing in the back.

It might have been shortly after this that she started to learn how to play the piano.  Maybe her interest in this little band was the impetus to get more involved with music.  I’m pretty sure it is her first band photo.  She was in the band in high school.  I think she learned how to play the baritone in her sophomore year.  She went on to play in the McNeese band when she went to college.  That baritone is how she met and fell in love with fellow baritone player Bob Landry (my dad).  Once they had a family, it wasn’t too long before they had a family band.  I’ve shared photos of the Landry Family Band before.

But as you can see, it all started back in 1942 with a little rhythm band.  The beat goes on.

 

Germaine, Bobbie, and Marie in 1933

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Little Bobbie Landry flanked by his older sisters Germaine on the left and Marie on the right circa 1933 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

I don’t think I’ve ever posted this photo before.  I know that I have sat down at the computer a few times and considered using it.  For some reason, I ruled it out previously.  But this week, I’m going for it.  Aren’t you glad about that?  Even though I ruled it out a few times, it wasn’t because I didn’t like the photo.  I kept thinking it was a bit blurry and I could somehow fix it.  But I’ve decided it doesn’t need fixing.  It is quite charming the way it is.

I think the first time I saw this photo was around four years ago.  It is part of the Secret Collection that is curated by my cousin Daphne.  She is the daughter of Germaine Landry Winn, the little blond-haired girl on the left in this photo.  When she was older, she had this photo and she wrote the names and ages of the subjects.  With those ages, I can tell that this photo was taken around 1933 or so.  Thanks, Aunt Germaine, for writing that information and saving this photo for all those years.

But little Germaine was only six years old in this photo.  She was born on April 6, 1927.  She was the fourth child of Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. and Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  While Aunt Germaine was named after her mother Erie, her younger brother (my dad) was named after his father.  He was a Jr. and when he was young, they started calling him Bobbie.  He was known by that name for the rest of his life – mainly by family.  He was more often known as Bob or Pluto by his peers.  But in this photo, he was just little Bobbie with his two older sisters.  There were two brothers born between these two sisters, but somehow they did not make it into the photo.  Neither did younger sister Wana who was born in 1932.

The oldest of all of the siblings was Marie Therese.  We knew her as Aunt Marie.  She is the one standing a head taller than the other two in the photo.  She was born on April 23, 1923.  This was a year and a half after the marriage of Rob and Erie.  No short pregnancies for my Mee Maw!  This photo looks like they are standing next to a field of some type of produce.  Maybe it was before a long day of working in the fields.  Isn’t that what people did back in the day?  Work hard from sunup to sundown.  I don’t think so.  That was definitely not my dad’s style.  If he would have ever had to work the fields when he was a child, I’m sure we would have heard about it.

So I’m not sure what is going on in the photo.  I just know that it is a sweet looking photo of my dad with his older sisters.  Sure the photo is a bit overexposed, a bit blurry, and their feet aren’t showing.  But somehow, I think all of that adds to the charm.  It’s why I’m sharing it with you today.  Behold.

 

The Bucklins in Prairie Grove in 1914

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Newspaper articles from 1914. The photo was taken in Prairie Grove, Arkansas.

I finally found something that I want to talk about today.  I didn’t know if I’d ever find something.  Sometimes I have so many ideas for posts, while other times I am blank.  I knew that I wanted something from my mom’s side of the family since the last two weeks were about my paternal side. 

I was also thinking about doing something about one of my maternal ancestor’s siblings to continue with last week.  So when this little newspaper article popped up, I thought it was just perfect.  It includes a photo of my maternal grandfather with several of his siblings.  And though he did have a big family, there were not this many kids in the family!  Only a dozen.

My maternal grandfather was Fred D. Bucklin.  The D. was just an initial.  Just like Ulysses S. Grant.  The initial did not stand for anything.  I’m pretty sure his maternal grandmother had the same situation.  Grandma Sue’s full name was Susan G. Stanbrough.  The G. did not stand for grandma, though. 

So Fred was my mom’s (Betty Lou Bucklin) dad.  He was born in 1907 along with his identical twin Clarence.  When they were born, there were five older siblings.  There was an older brother Paul who was born in 1903 and died in 1904.  The next Bucklin child born after the twins was Edna Bucklin.  She was born in 1909 in Roanoke, Louisiana.  Something happened between the time of her birth and the birth of the next Bucklin child – the family moved to Prairie Grove, Arkansas.  I’m not sure when they moved there, but they were there at least by the date of September 7, 1911.  That was the date of birth for Grandpa’s brother Robert Louis Bucklin, and my records show that he was born in Prairie Grove.

I also have a few letters from 1912 and 1913 that were written in Arkansas and sent home to family in Louisiana.  The information about that time is sketchy at best.  Just little bits of details for those few years up north.  One of those bits of information is this newspaper clipping.  I don’t know what paper it was from, but it talks about the school that the Bucklin children attended when they lived in Prairie Grove.  The name of the school at that time was the Illinois Chapel School.  Why would it be called that when it was in Arkansas?  I did a quick search, but all I could find was that there is a road in Prairie Grove called Illinois Chapel Road.  

The great thing about the newspaper article is that it names all of the children in the photo.  Not just the Bucklin children – all of them.  To make it easier for us, someone in the past has numbered the Bucklin children.  The first child on the front row has a number 1 in front of him.  That is Clarence Bucklin, my grandfather’s duplicate.  You will find 2 and 3 at the end of the front row.  Number 2 is Carl Bucklin.  He was Fred and Clarence’s older brother, and he was born in 1904.  There aren’t many photos of him.  I think he had some learning or developmental issues.  Number 3 is my grandfather Fred.  He was around 7 years old at this time.  On the second row you’ll find number 4.  That was Uncle Herbert.  He was just a year and a half older than the twins.

In the middle of the second row is a boy labeled with the number 5.  That was Ralph Bucklin.  He doesn’t look too happy in the photo.  Maybe it was because he looks smaller than his younger brother Herbert.  Though I doubt that he was aware of that when the photo was taken.  He only looks smaller because he’s sitting in a chair and Herbert was standing.  He was four years older than Herbert.  Two rows behind Ralph you can see the oldest of the brothers.  That was Leo with the identifying number 6 written on his chest.  He was the first-born child of Louis Charles Bucklin and Addie Hine Bucklin.  Leo was born in December of 1898, just six months after his parents’ marriage.  

And that leaves one more numbered Bucklin.  Number 7 was Mary Bucklin, the oldest daughter of Lou and Addie.  I suppose younger siblings Edna and Robert were too young to attend school at the time.  I’m not sure when the family moved back to Louisiana.  All I know is that the last two Bucklin children – Roy and Ruth – twins again – were born in Louisiana in 1915.  I know the family kept in touch with some of their friends in Arkansas.  There was a Clement family that came down to Louisiana to visit them when my mom was a child.  I see that there are four Clement children in this photo.  They were probably friends of the Bucklin children.

Ok, that’s it.  That’s all I know about this article and photo.  If anyone knows anything more about it, just let me know.  I always like more.

Speaking of more.  There was one other thing I wanted to share.  It’s an old photo I found online that showed farmers going to sell their produce in 1915 in Prairie Grove.  I don’t recognize any family, but the photo represents the time and place where my family was.

Prairie Grove, Arkansas, in 1915. Photo found online.

 

 

 

Patureau Brothers Circa 1917

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Germaine Erie Patureau Landry circa 1913. She was my paternal grandmother, and this post is about her two brothers.

Getting a late start tonight.  I just had an opportunity that I didn’t want to pass up.  But I still wanted to write this post.  I even thought about it off and on today.  Someone posted an article about one of the Patureau brothers on the Plaquemine Facebook group page and that’s what got me thinking about this topic.  I’ve written about Patureau brothers before.  I wrote one post called Patureau Brothers.  It would have been Part I if I had thought about it.  Then there are two other posts that could have been parts II and III.  But really, there are lots of stories about Patureau brothers – there have been so many of them through the years!  

But this one is about the brothers of my grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  I knew her as my dear sweet Mee Maw.  I didn’t know either of them, because they died before I was born.  I’ve mentioned them in posts before, but I thought they deserved a post of their own.  Plus, I have a photo of each of them from the same year.  And in both photos, they are wearing a uniform.  

Max Patureau and Marie Therese Landry were married in 1888 and set up their home in Plaquemine, Louisiana.  They had nine children that lived to adulthood, including my grandmother Erie.  Their second of nine children was Romuald who was born on December 27, 1891.  He was called Rome (rhymes with homey).  Erie was number four of nine.  Number eight was Vincent Maximilian Patureau, Jr.  He was called Vincent and he was born on November 4, 1901.

Vincent Patureau in 1918.

The major event going on in 1917 was World War I.  That’s not what it was called at the time, though.  It wasn’t like they were planning on having the second World War twenty or so years later.  But there was conflict going on in Europe, and America joined in on the fight on April 7, 1917.  That meant that Americans would soon be going to military engagements in Europe.  Men between the ages of 21 and 31 were required to register for the draft.  Vincent was not required to register since he was only 15 at the time.  

But I do have this photo of him in what looks like a World War I uniform.  I saw somewhere that some young men could sign up for the military at the age of 16 with their parents’ permission.  That would have been Grampa Max at the time.  Their mother had died in 1909.  Some boys also lied about their age so they could go to war.  I don’t know the story behind this photo.  It says that it was taken on Dec. 4, 1918, when Vincent was almost 17 years old.  According to the birthdate that I told you, he would already be 17 on that Dec. 4.  Not only that, but the war would have been over by that time.  It ended on November 11, 1918, a day known as Armistice Day.

That brings us to the other Patureau brother.  Rome would have been in that first group of young men required to register for the draft.  He was the perfect age for war!  So off he went.  There is a very interesting article that was written by a Patureau cousin.  It was written by Mona Mel Mouton.  She was the daughter of Erie’s oldest sister Emma Patureau Mouton.  I actually edited this newspaper article.  It was longer than what I wanted and it had a picture of somebody else she talked about.  I wanted a photo of Rome to go with the article, so I found one and grouped it together with the part of the article about Rome.  

This is an edited version of a newspaper article. I shortened the title, removed a few paragraphs, and changed the photo. My focus was on the Patureau family.

The topic of the complete article was Armistice Day, but I wanted this post to be about Patureau family history.  And this article says something really interesting about that.  Something that I haven’t been able to confirm or find anywhere else.

The part about Rome says that she (Mona Mel) first heard Taps at Uncle Rome’s funeral in Baton Rouge.  (He died in 1937 when Mona Mel was 15.)  I was listening to my brother Rob play that just the other day online.  He participated in Taps Across America on Memorial Day.  Mona Mel talks about how her Uncle Rome would tell stories about his war days in France in 1917 and 1918.  The photo of Rome was taken in Aix-les-Bains, France, during that time.

He was a motorcycle courier who delivered messages across the French countryside to military members.  Since the Patureau family originated in France, Rome decided to see if he could connect with some of the Patureau family.  His grandparents Pierre Ferdinand Patureau and Anne Rose Machet brought their family to America in 1840.

When Rome was in the Bordeaux area, it is reported that he was able to make contact with Patureau family members.  But the most intriguing part is that he stated that he visited the ancestral home of the Patureau family – a castle overlooking an expanse of land.  This made Rome wonder why the family moved away from that rich countryside.  He never found out more, because he had to get back to soldiering.  Fortunately for us, he told that story to someone who liked to listen and to write.

The article encourages me to explore the Patureau family even further.  Ou est le chateau de famille?