Bob and Betty – Two Would Never Do

It was difficult today to come up with a topic.  It’s time for the Landry side of my family, but the only thing I could think of was so similar to what I shared last month.  I guess that’s to be expected, I’m rotating between four different grandparents.  Plus Pee Paw – my paternal grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. – has the fewest photos for his ancestors.  Thankfully there are several photos of his mother – Marie Celeste Leveque, but there are only two for his father – Simon Alcide Landry.  What’s even more limiting is that there are no photos of Alcide’s parents – Narcisse Landry and Marie Carmelite Hebert.

I decided to change my search scope and went to look for the first color photo of my dad.  Last week I shared the first color photo of my mom from 1954.  That one was pretty blurry, but it came out pretty good when I sharpened it.  The first color photo of my dad was even worse.  There’s no way I could use it.  I kept looking for something good.  Then I found it.  It’s not a color photo, but it was a photo from exactly 70 years ago.  I’ve covered several events in the lives of my parents on their 70th anniversary.  Why not one more?!

The 70th anniversary photos started when young Betty Lou Bucklin was brought home by Bob Landry to meet his family.  Then there were engagement notices and letters followed by their wedding.  Not too long later, there was their first child – Jodie Lou Landry.  You remember her.  She showed up in that first color photo of mom last week.  She was also in a 70th anniversary Valentine post in February.

And now my older brother Rob has joined the happy little family.  Look how cute they all look!  The photo was taken on May 29, 1955, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the occasion of Rob’s baptism.  This photo reminds me of when our family was celebrating my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary in 2002.  I had to doublecheck that date.  It’s hard to believe it was that long ago.  It was almost in the 1900s!  Anyway, when we were preparing for that big event, I decided to write a song about their fifty years together. 

The song starts out with “More than fifty years ago is when their love began” and continues on to tell about their meeting and getting married.  Then I have the part that goes “So began their joined lives and along came Jodie Lou.”  This is when I choked up because of thinking of her death in 1989.  My siblings started singing along with the next part – “With Rob it became a pair, but two would never do.”  That’s where I got the title for this post.

If I keep doing these posts for the next seven years, I’ll have to make sure to add to the 70th anniversary collection.  Because as many of you know, there were four more children that made their appearance.  And since Mama and Daddy were such musical individuals, “they had enough for a family band!”