Author: Van

The Uninvited Guest

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Nothing could strike fear into my childhood heart like the unexpected and undesired visit from The Uninvited Guest – or as we liked to call it – The UG.  We all acquired a sixth sense that alerted us to the approach of the UG.  As we played our fun little innocent childhood games without a care in the world, something unseen would hit us.  We would all stop at once as if in a trance and chant together in a whispered voice, “Hell – fire! will kill a bug, but nothing stops the bumply UG.”  We all knew what that warning meant.  My younger sister would start crying, so my oldest sister would swoop her up and run as we all scrambled to our favorite hiding places.

But it wasn’t just our family who responded in this way.  The neighborhood kids would scatter in all directions as they ran home to their parents.  Their moms would look out the window, spit out a silent curse in our direction, and withdraw while pulling the shades tight.  It’s like there was a small dark cloud that settled down over our little section of the street.

Yet for some strange reason, the adults in our family were in thrall to this creature.  They went so far as to even allow it to rub its slimy bumply lips on their vulnerable necks.  It still makes me shudder when I picture it. Once this bizarre ritual had been completed, they would go inside and things would settle down a bit.  Then one by one each of us kids would sneak back into the house to see what manner of evil was taking place.  Many times the UG would be ordering my parents around and demanding what kind of feast they were to prepare for its dinnertime.  Thankfully, none of us kids were on the menu for the whims of the vile creature.

Later on in the night as we tried to sleep, I would be overcome by a feeling of dread.  I just knew that something was prowling around our bedroom, hoping to fulfill its desire for an innocent’s blood.  As I lay in bed with my skin crawling with goose bumps – goose bumps, mind you, not bumply bumps – I felt a need to see what was going on.  When I forced myself to pry open one eye, I would see this huge dark hand on the ceiling coming down to get me.  I realized it was the shadow cast by the nightlight of a hand coming toward me.  And not just any hand – it had the bumply bumps of the bumply arms of that bumpfully bumpedy bumply UG.  As I stared in terror I heard it rasp in a gravelly whisper, “Hell – fire! will kill a bug, but nothing stops the bumply UG.”  At that, it turned around and headed out the door snickering its evil little bumply UG snicker.  The end.

I admit.  This is quite a bit different than my usual Throwback Thursday, but I was inspired!  When I say that all of my cousins on the Landry side will know what this story is about, I mean every single one of them!  And probably most of the other relatives on that side of the family.  This story was inspired by and dedicated to Therese Wynhoven Mouton, my dad’s first cousin on the Patureau side of the family.  But everyone knew her by her nickname “Tez.”

She was quite the character, though she was not the detestable creature that I write about in my story.  Like I said, she was just the inspiration.  She did show up at our house unannounced and uninvited, we did run away from her when she showed up trying to kiss everyone, she did like to tell people what to prepare for dinner or what to watch on TV, and she told us scary stories at night.  Oh, yeah, and she did have bumps all over her body.

1970 - Tez Mouton and Erie Patureau Landry travelling

Tez and Mee Maw traveling circa 1970

The poor creature!  She didn’t ask for those bumps and she probably didn’t have slimy lips.  She was just a lonely single woman who was trying to connect with family.  She was very independent too.  She was a school teacher, she enjoyed writing stories and poems, and she liked to travel.  But she also liked to scare little boys who probably gave her bumpy profile a hard stare.  As she brought that shadowy hand down on me from the ceiling, she didn’t say anything about a bumply UG,  she was reading a poem by James Whitcomb Riley, “…and the goblins gonna get you if you don’t watch out.”  And that’s why I’ve been such a good boy ever since!

Addie & Lou

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1905 - Addie & Lou Bucklin

Addie and Lou Bucklin in 1905

This is a photo of my mom’s paternal grandparents in 1905.  They were married in 1898 and by the time this photo was taken, they already had five children.  But before I finish counting off their children, let me tell you a little bit about the two of them.

Addie May Hine was born in Noblesville, Indiana, on Sept. 23, 1876.  She was the oldest of six children born to George Hine and Susan Stanbrough.  She had five younger brothers and the youngest was only eight years younger than she was.  From the earliest photos of the family, it looks like they lived in a frontier area with a rough wood home.  The family moved to Louisiana in 1894 and settled in the Hathaway area of Jefferson Davis Parish.

Louis Charles Bucklin was born in Masonville, Iowa, on April 11, 1873.  He was the youngest child of James Bucklin and his second wife Mary Ann McGrath.  James was from a family line with a long history in Massachusetts, while Mary Ann was an Irish immigrant.  Louis had five older siblings – a half-sister and half-brother by his father and his first wife Rhoda Marie Gove, plus two brothers and a sister by his parents.  In the 1880 census they were living in Coffin Grove, Iowa, which was a very small community in rural Iowa.  Four years later the family moved to the Jennings, Louisiana, area and acquired homestead property in the Hathaway area.  Louis was too young to stake a claim, but his father, brother and sister were able to.

Louis kept a journal starting in January of 1893 when he went off to school.  He returned home at the death of his sister Jennie in June of 1893.  From that point on his journal was mostly about farming and such.  Except when he occasionally mentions a certain “Miss Hine” or “Addie” who came to help his mother with chores around the house.  I suppose she was worth mentioning because he ended up marrying her in 1898, which brings us back to the top of the story.

Soon after this photo was taken, the three most important Bucklin offspring were sprung!  In 1906 there came Herbert, who is the grandfather of our Joseph.  Then in 1907 there was a double dose of goodness – the identical twins Fred and Clarence.  Fred is my grandfather and Clarence is the father of Carla.  There were a few more after that, but they’re hardly worth mentioning.  I really shouldn’t joke about that because the next one, Edna, is the reason we have so many wonderful photos from way back when.  She collected and protected many photos, though this one was kept by Ruth.  Joseph and Louise visited and scanned numerous photos from both of them.

All in all, Addie and Lou had a nice even dozen children.  Now I’m feeling a little obligated to name them all, so here goes: Leo, Mary, Ralph, Paul, Carl, Herbert, Clarence, Fred, Edna, Robert, Ruth, and Roy.  That’s a lot of names to come up with.  From the look of the photo, they seem like somewhat happy people – salt of the earth.  I’d like to say that they lived long and happy lives, but sadly Lou died at the age of fifty-four.  Addie went on the live into her eighties and died less than a month after I was born.  I don’t have any personal memories of either Addie or Lou, but I do feel like I get to know them a little from the photos and stories that they left behind.  And now, hopefully, you do too.

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Update for July 9, 2026 – Added a few slight bits of information for a reissue of this post on Facebook after ten years.  I’m changing all of the older posts to change the spelling of Addie’s middle name to be consistently May.

Trasimond the Tirailleur

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1861 - Trasimond crop

Jean Trasimond Landry in 1861

I realized recently that I haven’t posted one of the oldest photos in my collection of old photos.  It is a Civil War photo of my great great grandfather Trasimond Landry.  He was my paternal grandmother’s maternal grandfather.  And being that he was from the South, he was in the Confederate Army.  The photo is dated as 1861.  It’s a pretty clear photo considering how old it is.

I won’t talk about the politics of the Civil War.  Oh, well, maybe just a little.  Slavery is wrong.  It is so hard for me to understand how people can treat their fellow human beings so cruelly.  I hear things like, “But they treated them so nicely.”  or “They kept the buildings they lived in nice and comfortable.” or “He really cherished him and left him a gold watch in his will.”

“Really?” I think, shaking my head.  If you treated them so well, why weren’t we freed?  If you liked the buildings so much, why don’t we trade?  If you want to leave something, leave me my free will – worth innumerable gold watches compared to the life you stole from me.  But I wasn’t there (thank goodness) and people are more enlightened now (hopefully).

So I’ll get back to talking about my great great grandfather, who grew up in a culture saturated with the slavery mentality.  When he was born in 1839, his family had seven slaves on their property.  The number increased continually until the time of the Civil War.   In 1859 Trasimond went off to St. Joseph’s College in Bardstown, Kentucky, to finish his education.  When that was completed in 1861, Trasimond then became part of the West Baton Rouge Tirailleurs.  This group mustered into service of the 4th Louisiana Infantry Regiment.  (For more information, see the book titled Tirailleurs by Thomas H. Richey, a cousin and fellow descendant of Trasimond.)

Trasimond fought in many battles during the war with people falling all around him.  The story about his battles is very riveting.  Fortunately for me and my relatives, he survived all of those perilous encounters.  Of course all of us descend from survivors of famines, pestilence, and wars, but to read a book that describes the experience makes it a bit more personal.

After the war Trasimond married Amelie Bujol and they had five children together.  In 1879 he was bitten by a mosquito.  But not just any mosquito.  This one carried the virus for the yellow fever.  It proved fatal.  To make it through musket fire, cannon shot, and slicing bayonets only to be taken down by a lowly mosquito.  When the pesky bug bit him, he wouldn’t have known that it would be his downfall.  Just the same, I hope he swatted it flat!

Feb. 26, 2021 – The website MyHeritage now has a feature that animates old photos.  Of course I had to try it out on this old photo.  It came out really well.

Girls and Their Dolls

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1938-Betty Lou Bucklin and Kara Lee Sowder

Betty Lou Bucklin and Kara Lee Sowder at Christmastime 1938 in Fayetteville, Arkansas

This is one of my mom’s favorite photos of herself.  It was taken in 1938, which was during the Great Depression.  The thing that made it special according to my mom was that it was a photo of her holding a “real doll.”  The thing that makes it special to me is that she was always satisfied with what she had.

Because she didn’t have a “real doll,” but her cousin had two and let her take a photo with one of them.  And that was pretty special for little Betty Lou Bucklin!  As you can see, she was quite happy taking her photo with that little doll.  And with her cousin, of course!

But she’s not really a cousin.  My mom’s mom’s sister was Grace Phenice and she was married to Ray Sowder who was from Arkansas.  The girl’s name is Kara Lee and she is the daughter of Ray’s brother Hugh who was a professional photographer.  Kara Lee and Betty Lou created a lasting memory on that long ago visit in 1938.  (At least for my mom.  She could remember Kara Lee’s name even when she had memory troubles.  I found Kara Lee on Facebook and she had the same photo, but she stated, “I don’t remember who the little girl is.”)

Isabel Crixell Champion on the right in about 1904

Elvira Crixell and her cousin Isabel Crixell circa 1904

I can’t remember when I first saw that photo of my mom with the doll, but I can remember when I first saw the next photo of Girls With Dolls.  It was a couple of weeks ago when I was researching the Patureau side of the family.  Some distant cousins on that line have been living deep in southern Texas for several generations.  The French Patureaus there have mixed more with the Mexican population as compared to our family which has more Cajun heritage.  And the photo of the the two girls with their dolls from circa 1904 definitely caught my eye.  The girl on the right was Isabel Crixell, my third cousin once removed.  She was born in 1900 and lived to be over 100 years old.  The girl on the left is only identified as “a Kowalski little girl.”  I’m positive that she is Isabel’s first cousin Elvira Crixell who was born in 1901.  She later married a Kowalski.

But in this photo, they are just little girls posing with their dolls.  They don’t look quite as happy as my mom was with her real doll, but they do look happier than one particular little girl in the next photo.  This time, instead of going thirty years in the more distant past, we’re coming forward thirty years from that first photo.

1966-12-24 Landry Family Christmas gathering

Landry cousins at Christmas time in 1966

No posting of Girls With Their Dolls in my family could be complete without this next photo.  This is from Christmas of 1966 at my Mee Maw’s house.  Tim was showing off a car, I was showing off my new sniper rifle, and the girls were showing off their new dolls.  Karen looked very satisfied with the doll she was holding.  Lauren and her doll both seem to have gotten something in their eyes.  Jeanne is happy that she and her doll made it into the photo.  Tricia (with the glasses) and Shirley (with the hair) have graduated to holding real children.  Tricia has Colleen, while Shirley has Mona.  Rob is happy to be the center of attention.

And then there’s poor little Jamie.  She wanted a doll of her own to hold.  She had her own doll, but she didn’t get to hold it for the photo.  Maybe she wanted Karen to have a special moment with a borrowed ‘real doll’ like our mom had?  Maybe she didn’t realize that she’d feel lonely without holding her doll when everyone else was holding theirs?  Or maybe something else happened.  Either way – that was long ago and all is forgiven.

Patureau: Patter-O, Patcher-O, Pat-trow, or Patch-Your-O

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Ferdinand Pierre Patureau 1827-1877

This post is about the first Patureaus in our family that lived in Louisiana – and in the United States for that matter. Since I don’t have photos of his parents Pierre Patureau (Hold on!  I believe this photo is a photo of Pierre.) and his wife Anne Rose Machet Patureau, the focus will be on their son Ferdinand. Ferdinand is my generation’s great great grandfather. He was born in France in October of 1826, one of four children. The family decided to move to the United States in 1840 (passport is dated Sept. 10, 1840, so it would be after that date) when Ferdinand was close to fourteen years old. After six months he returned to France by himself without letting anyone know where he was for at least half of a year. He worked his passage across the ocean.

1840 passport for Pierre Patureau, his wife and their four children. Pierre is identified as a boulanger, or baker.

If that’s not a Go Go Patureau, I don’t know what is! I’ve seen and heard different versions of this story, but they usually agree with what I wrote down. After he had been in France for a year and a half, he returned to his family in Louisiana. But when exactly did he return?  Did he make it back before his mother died in 1842 from yellow fever?  Or before the death of his sister during the same year?  And where did the family live?  I’ve read that they settled in New Orleans, yet Anne died in Opelousas.  Then I read that they moved to the Plaquemine area and settled in Turnerville, which in the northeast area of Plaquemine.

The next big important event in Ferdinand’s life was his marriage to Marie Emma Landry in 1847.  She was from West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.  They settled in Brusly Landing and started having children soon after.  Before the arrival of their eleventh child (my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian) who would be born in 1865, the family moved to Bagdad, Mexico, to get away from the Civil War raging in southern Louisiana.  Ferdinand Patureau’s sister Victorine was living there with a large, growing family of her own.  I’ve actually been exploring that big TexMex family that descend from the Patureau line.  It’s a large family that is more likely to identify themselves as Mexican in much the same way that we are more likely to identify ourselves as Cajun.  (I know I do!)  I’ve found some interesting stories and photos, but that is for another time.

After the war the family returned to Louisiana and settled in Plaquemine.  A few more children were born and then tragedy struck.  On Feb. 24 1877, Ferdinand had an accident in the sawmill that he owned which resulted in his death the following day at the age of 50.  His wife and two of his children witnessed the accident.  He is buried at the large Patureau tomb at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Cemetery in Plaquemine, which is where his father Pierre and many other family members are buried.

1877-FerdinandPierrePatureauDeathThe Iberville South Newspaper, Plaquemine, LA., Saturday Morning , March 3, 1877, Vol. 1, No. 17 reads:  Mr. F. P. Patureau, while working in his saw mill in this town, was caught by the band and thrown with such force against another portion of the machinery that he died from the injuries received on Saturday morning last. One of his legs was badly crushed, and was amputated by Dr. Postell, all efforts however were unavailing and a hard working, good citizen has been taken from our midst. A large concourse of friends and relatives followed his remains to their resting place on Sunday evening last.  (end of transcription)

It doesn’t mention his wife and children being witnesses, but I’ve seen an account of the incident that does mention that fact.  It doesn’t say which children were the witnesses.  I’d be curious to know who it was.

Aug. 10, 2017 – UPDATE – Replaced the photo with the new and improved version that I got from my dad’s cousin Marie Therese “Sis” Schafer Vicknair.  Thanks Sis.  Much better than the photo that I started out with.

Poor version of photo that I had for a few years.

July 21, 2022 – Another update! – Now I have found an actual photo of Ferdinand.  It could be the basis used for what I now think was a drawing of him.  I call it “The Real Photo of Ferdinand Patureau.”

A Shakey’s Remembrance

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June 17, 1976 - MountainMusic with the Landry Family Band

The Landry Family Band on the evening of June 17, 1976. We were playing the song “Mountain Music” with Bob on the guitar, Karen on the ukelele, Van on the bass, Al on the guitar, Jamie on the jug, and Betty on the piano.

Our family started playing at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Wednesday June 16, 1976.  We called ourselves the Landry Family Band.  This photo was taken on our second night of playing on June 17 – before we had the uniforms that show up in the later photos of our performances.

The anniversary almost slipped by me!  I had intended for the 40th Anniversary of playing at Shakey’s to be the main story for my Throwback Thursday series for today.  I didn’t think about it when I started my Wednesday evening preparations.  I’m kind of glad that I forgot, because I really like the feel that the story about my mom and her grandfather evokes.  But if I had remembered, that story would not have been written.  So we have an extra installment today.  More for everyone!

Van Landry at Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Jan. 7, 1978.

Van Landry singing at Shakey’s on Jan. 7, 1978.

Dec. 23, 1978 at Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles, LA

Bob on the trombone, Jodie on the bass, and Rob on the trumpet were all part of the Landry Family Band. This photo was taken December 23, 1978.

1978-12-23 - Karen

Karen was at Shakey’s the most. Besides singing there with the family, she also worked there while she was in college. Here she is on Dec. 23, 1978.

Jamie singing at Shakey’s on April 21, 1978.

The Landry Family Band at Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Dec. 23, 1978.

This was one of the few times that the whole family was there. It was just before Christmas in 1978. There’s Bob on the bass, Jamie, Van with trombone, Karen, Rob singing, Jodie with flute, Al with guitar, and Betty on the piano.

Dear Old Grandpa Phenice

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1949 - Harry Clifton Phenice and granddaughter Betty Lou Bucklin

1949 – Harry Clifton Phenice and granddaughter Betty Lou Bucklin

I found this photo recently hiding among some more recent photos.  It looks a little familiar, but the details of it are really charming.  It looks like Grandpa Phenice may have been out working in the yard.  He’s barefoot and it looks like he took his cap off for the photo.  (Betty Lou says, “Come on Grandpa, come take a picture with me without your cap on.  I’ll bring you a nice dessert after dinner tonight.”  He responds, “Well, alright.”)

The year is 1949 and the place is Hathaway, Louisiana.  (It is also called China.)  Mom was a sophomore or junior in high school and Grandpa Phenice was a 75 year old man.  From what I’ve been told he was a very strong man even late in his life.  In fact it wasn’t long after this photo was taken that his strength was his undoing.

Some kind of work was being done on a well and a heavy pump needed to be moved.  Instead of getting others to help or letting younger backs take care of it for him, he decided to move it himself. He succeeded in moving it, yet the strain from the activity led to him having a stroke which left him bedridden for the rest of his life.

So this is one of the last glimpses into the life that he might have considered normal.  Going about his daily business and taking a break to spend a little time with his granddaughter.  The simple joys.

Landry Unions and Reunions

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1888 - Marguerite Basalite Landry Leveque

Marguerite Basalite Landry Leveque 1821-1902

This week we are having a Landry reunion in Lake Charles, so I thought it would be appropriate to post a relevant relative.  The person receiving the honor this week is my great great grandmother Marguerite Basalite (aka Basilde) Landry Leveque.  She was born in 1821 in Iberville Parish in Louisiana.  She was the sixth and last child of Joseph Emanuel Landry and Clarice Celeste Bruneteau. Manuel and Clarice were 4th cousins through the Acadian Landry forefather Rene Landry.

I’ll try not to be too confusing, but that’s going to be difficult.  Because, you see , I also descend from Marguerite’s next older sister Anna Adele Landry.  I won’t explain how she fits in, because I want to get to the next older sister Clarissa Doralise Landry.  Clarissa married Joseph Auguste Leveque (I posted his photo last Christmas.) in 1831 at the age of 18.  She and Joseph Auguste had six children together.  Shortly after the last child was born in 1840, Clarissa died.

Now I don’t really know all the details about the dynamics going on in the family, but in 1843 Joseph Auguste got married again.  And I’m sure you’ve already guessed who it was that he married.  Yes, you are right, it was our very own Marguerite Basalite.  Was she sweet on him when he was married to her sister?  Did she want to make sure her nieces and nephews were cared for properly?  Was she longing to have servants of her own?  Did she want her headstone to read the same as her sister’s:  Mrs. J. A. Leveque?  Did he only want to marry a Landry?  a cousin?  Or did he think, “Hey, she’s over here all the time, maybe I should marry her?”  All I know is that they got married and had eight or nine children together (six lived to adulthood).  And I descend from a daughter of this second marriage, Marie Celeste Leveque.

Marie Celeste went on to marry a Landry cousin of her own.  That’s right.  She married Simon Alcide Joseph Landry, her half first cousin once removed.  And their son (my grandfather) married his first cousin once removed through the Landry line.  That’s a lot of Landry lines in this group of people.  Unions and reunions.  It reminds me of a poem I once read,

It must have been Cajun tradition
or kids with a lot of volition.
Whatever it was
It didn’t give pause.
It happened despite admonition.

Oh wait!  I wrote that poem.  Who else writes poems about their families marrying their cousins?  No one that I know.  Maybe my third cousin once removed.  Oh wait?  That’s me, too!  Like I said, I try not to get too confused.  But with a family tree like ours, that’s asking for a bit too much.

1888 -Marguerite Basilite LandryA note about the photo.  The first copy of this photo that I found was the one on the left.  It’s not a very big file, it’s very yellowed, and it has spots all over it.  But since it was all that I had, I worked on it and tried to make it look good.  It still looked a bit rough.

Then I came across a slightly better version and started working on that one.  Finally I got this better version from my dad and worked on it and retouched it.  I’ve been working on this photo for over six months!  I threw the first edited version away.  So you’d better enjoy it.  And if you have an even better copy of it, wait a while before you show it to me.  I’m not quite ready to throw away my new edited version.

“Mind if I stay for a little while?

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1969 - Germaine Erie Patureau Landry going on a trip

Germaine Erie Patureau Landry was better known to us as Mee Maw. She has packed her grip and is ready to go. Circa 1969.

This is my grandmother.  She was such a sweet woman.  All of us grandkids called her Mee Maw and she fit the name perfectly.  She became a widow in 1957 at the age of 62.  She had been a teacher before she got married.  She gave that up when she got married in 1921 because at that time it wasn’t appropriate for a teacher to be married.  But she was busy anyway.  She had eight children to bear and rear!

But that’s just the prequel to this story.  This story is about her being a grandmother.  As my wonderful godmother Shirley likes to point out, she was the first grandchild born.  But she wasn’t by herself for very long.  By the time Mee Maw became a widow, she had fourteen grandchildren.  Eventually there were twenty-nine grandchildren (though one of them only lived a few short years).

Yet she made us all feel like we were her favorite.  She liked to travel whenever she could.  She was known as a go-go Patureau.  (I think Jacko would have liked her.  He likes to be on the move, too.)  Then she would come to visit her grandchildren and bring them gifts.  I still have a monkey bank that she got for me when she went to the Grand Canyon.  And as you can tell, she must have paid attention to what kind of things I like.

But we didn’t need presents.  Her being there would have been good enough.  I remember her as being soft and warm and comforting.  She did snore a bit loudly when you slept with her, but that can be forgiven.  And she lied to me!  I remember asking her something about her skin (which was a result of aging skin – something a little boy like me didn’t know better than to ask) and she made something up that I believed for the longest time!  I love that.

She was a good grandmother.  I have many fond memories of her.  I wish I had a few more.

Newlywed’s First Kitchen

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1953-03 Betty Landry LoResThinking of my mom (Betty Lou Bucklin Landry) on her 83rd birthday. Called earlier today and wished her a happy birthday. Then later I came across some old negatives and found this photo that I don’t ever remember seeing before. I think is from March of 1953, which was in her first year of marriage. She looks so happy to be in her very own kitchen.  She gave birth to her first child seven months later.

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