Betty Lou in 1963

I can’t believe I’ve never used this photo of my mom before in all of my family history posts I have written.  It’s one of my favorite photos of her.  It is so 1960s.  The bright red colors in the photo show up so saturated in the photos from that time.  And with this photo, it really makes it pop.  Her bright red lipstick.  Her red plaid flannel culottes. The red striped potholder.  Even the handy red ice crusher.  It all just pops.

The year was 1963.  The day was July 5.  See?  You can see the calendar on the wall.  I’m pretty sure that was a calendar that we would get every year from the Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic church in Jennings, Louisiana.  We had moved to Jennings from Lake Charles less than a year earlier.  My younger sister Jamie was born in Lake Charles, and July 5, 1963, was her first birthday. 

If you casually look at the calendar, you might think that July 5th was on a Wednesday that year, but you would be wrong.  It hasn’t been flipped over to July yet.  How could my mom let that happen?  Just because she had six children under the age of ten didn’t mean she could let things escape her notice!  I’m sure it was the least of her worries that day.  She had a house full of people.  Her sisters and their families were coming over to visit.

The day of the week was actually Friday.  It was probably the fourth of July weekend, so that’s why everyone was able to come.  Plus it was time for summer vacation.  Of course, I’m taking the word of whoever wrote the date on the back of this old photo.  I know all of the cousins at the time were there, because there are photos to prove that.  I don’t see a photo of a birthday cake for Jamie, but maybe I didn’t get that photo.  There might be proof.  But like the calendar, the fifth and sixth kids of the family didn’t get as much undivided attention as the earlier kids.  We don’t have as many photos of us as the others.  Of course, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

I like seeing all the little details in this photo.  Like the potholders and that oh so familiar red ice crusher.  That thing lasted for years.  So did that pot that she’s cooking the shrimp creole in.  Again, I think my mom wrote that on the back of the photo.  Yes, she did.  I just checked the original that is sitting on my shelf across the way.  She also mentions that it was the old Dupuy place.  In another blurb she wrote that it was the Dupre place.  I’m thinking that Dupre might have been correct.  For years I thought we rented it from a Mr. Sonnier.  That’s the name of the man that came by to fix things, or collect rent, or do businessy things.  I was just a kid less than three years old.  What did I know about such things?  

We rented that old place for two years when we first moved to Jennings.  It was kinda in the country and it had a big barn in the back.  We had a dog, cats, cows, and horses.  I know the dog was ours.  Her name was Princess and there are lots of photos of her.  The cats were ours.  They were outside cats.  I always thought that they found food on their own in the barn and such places.  But tonight, I noticed the Purina Cat Chow on the top of the cabinets in this photo.  I also know that the horses were ours.  Another thing I was corrected about later in life.  I don’t know if the cows belonged to us or not.  Probably not, but Princess was good about rounding them up if they ever got loose.

Obviously, that first photo was taken in the kitchen in the house.  I don’t know how my mom could possibly have made enough shrimp creole for all of the people that we see in the photo of all the cousins.  Maybe they brought their own food to share.  Maybe Grandma Myrtle and Grandpa Fred brought some, too.  Though they do not show up in any of the photos.  It seems like they would have been there.  They only lived ten minutes away in Hathaway.

But look, there’s Rhonda, Larry and Rob, Toni holding Glen, Jodie holding Jamie, Lynn, Karen, and Paul.  And there are more on the floor!  Kevin, Al, Van (me), Keith, and Brent all look so painstankling cute.  Wouldn’t you say so?

Ok, they were all cute.  And so was my mom.  That’s what this post is all about.