Bucklin Cousins at Easter 1966

I was tempted to call this post “My Sixth Advent” as a follow up to a post from five years ago.  That’s when I had a dream and someone told me to tell them about my fifth Advent.  In the dream I knew that they were talking about my fifth Easter.  As I said back then, I know that Lent comes before Easter and Advent comes before Christmas.  I knew what they were talking about because it was in my dream.  In my post I said that I didn’t have any photos from my sixth Advent, which would translate to Easter of 1966.  Actually, I don’t have a photo to prove what I was talking about in that post, but I do have a photo from that Easter sixty years ago, and that’s what I’m sharing today.

I decided to not be too confusing with the title, so I went with “Bucklin Cousins at Easter 1966.”  The funny thing about that is that nobody in the photo has the last name Bucklin.  But all of our moms were daughters of Fred and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin from Hathaway, Louisiana.  Specifically, only the first three daughters are represented in this photo.  That would be Sylvia Bucklin born in 1931, Betty Lou Bucklin born in 1933, and Alma Bucklin born in 1935.  They had a younger sister named Loris born in 1937 and a younger brother named Austin born in 1942.  Loris and her husband Ernest Woolley had their three sons by this point, but they aren’t in this photo.  Austin and Aunt Margaret would start their family a few months later.

It’s not the best photo, because it is a bit blurry.  But it’s a great photo because we were just cute young kids on April 8, 1966.  It’s got all six of us Landry kids, three of the five Pilcher kids, and one of the two Seal kids.  It was taken at the home of Sylvia and Ronald Pilcher in Lafayette, Louisiana.  They lived on Leonpacher Drive.  I remember walking down their road on some of our visits and I remember it being a somewhat rural area at the time.  I haven’t been there in years.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry and my dad was Bob Landry.  We lived in Jennings at the time, so it wasn’t very far of a drive for us to visit.  Aunt Alma and her husband Chuck Seal lived in Florida, so they had a longer drive to make.

I will use the numbering system similar to the Borg from Star Trek.  Although the Borg were not known by the Star Trek universe of 1966.  It was much more associated with the Starship Enterprise, which was, by the way, built by one of my mom’s Bucklin first cousins.  His name was Mel Keys.  He, too, had a Bucklin mother.  So, the Landry children will have the designation L, followed by their birth order, and end with “of 6” since that’s how many there were of us. 

On the first row we have Rob L2 of 6, Van L5 of 6, Jamie L6 of 6, Kevin P5 of 5, and Rhonda S1 of 2.  Kneeling down behind them are Al L4 of 6, Toni P3 of 5, Jodie L1 of 6, Karen L3 of 6, and Lynn P4 of 5.   That looks kinda weird, but it does show you who everyone belongs to.  I’ve considered changing it, but as you can see, I haven’t.  And I won’t, because I’m stubborn like that.  As you should be able to tell, P1, P2, and S2 are missing.  Hopefully, they were having a fun time looking for Easter eggs or eating some Easter candy.

I wasn’t going to mention my mom’s Easter poem, but then I considered changing my mind.  And I did, because I’m stubborn like that, too.  Here is the poem she wrote long ago.

 

                  Betty Lou’s Easter Poem

That crummy, dummy Easter Bunny left no eggs for me.

That crummy, dummy Easter Bunny hopped right by with glee.

I tracked him to my neighbor’s house and stood outside his door,

and when I saw that Bunny head, I knocked it to the floor.

I tied up all his whiskers and macraméd his ears.

I sat down in my rocking chair and drank three beers.