Bobbie and Siblings Circa 1930

I came across this photo tonight and I just had to share it.  I didn’t remember seeing it before, but it is in a folder that I look through from time to time.  Tonight it really stood out to me, so I cleaned it up a bit.  It took me way too long.  I think my hand has a cramp in it from all of the cleanup.  It had lots of fine scratch lines all over it.  I had to make sure the faces were clear of blemishes.  Then I didn’t want so many scratches in the background either.  Like I said, it took way too long.

But doesn’t it look amazing?!  Maybe not amazing, but it is definitely a charming photo from almost a hundred years ago.  It’s a photo of my dad with his older siblings from around 1930.  My dad was Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. and he was born on January 31, 1929, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  He was known as Bobbie back then to his family.  They called him that the rest of his life.

The parents of these children were Robert Joseph “Rob” Landry and Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  Rob was born and grew up in Westlake, Louisiana, and Erie was born and grew up in Crescent, Louisiana, which is around Plaquemine, Louisiana.  So how did they meet?  They were related, of course.  Erie’s mom Marie Therese Landry Patureau was the first cousin of Rob.  Cousins marrying cousins was way more common than it is now.  They definitely didn’t have the same aversion to it that people have now.

So Rob and Erie got married November 12, 1921, in Lafayette, Louisiana, which is where the Patureau family was living at the time.  But Rob and Erie went to live in Lake Charles, just across the lake from Westlake.  The first child they had was Marie Therese who was born in 1923.  That’s Marie on the far right of the photo.  The second born was Alcide Joseph and he was born in 1924.  A. J. is the one standing directly behind my dad, who you see in the front of the photo.  Actually, I think A. J. is sitting down next to the other two siblings.

When I was working on the photo, I zoomed in quite a bit to work on all the fine scratches on it.  Did I tell you that it took a long time?  Yes, I definitely did.  When I got to one little patch, I thought I was looking at some trellis under the porch or whatever it is they are sitting on.  I zoomed back out and realized that what I had seen were the plaid stockings that A. J. was wearing!  He’s got on an interesting outfit.  Moving along in the order of birth, we come to Hubert Joseph who was born in 1925.  That’s Hubert looking all cool on the far left of the photo.  I’m pretty sure this was before he learned how to play the harmonica. 

The fourth child of Rob and Erie came in 1927.  Germaine Erie was named after her mother but went by her first name.  I was thinking this photo might have come from her by way of the Secret Collection – so many of them do – but it actually came from an envelope of negatives that I discovered a few years ago.  My dad must have gotten them from his mom many years ago.  And now you can see it in all of its glory.  There may be a few little scratches left, but I got rid of most of the serious ones.  I think it was worth it.