Category: Landry

I decided to go ahead and write another post for this series.  Even though it was only last week that I wrote the other one, it was still last year.  I’ve also spent a lot of time looking at this part of my family history all week long.  And talk about sad!  This is a really depressing period in the life of Acadians/Cajuns.  I don’t know why I didn’t think it would be so bad, since I have looked at it before and read books about it.

But when I start to look and see what exactly was happening to my ancestors and their families at that time, it’s a bit more personal.  And there are some really tragic events that occurred.  It sounds kind of morbid, but I am intrigued by sad events that I discover.  Mainly because I can write about them and memorialize them in some way.  That way we can get to know them a bit and make a bit of a connection.  But most of those other events that I discover are tragedies that are a result of illness, sickness, or accidents.

This time it is different.  This was intentionally done to my family.  Sure, the Acadians were ornery and refused to give an unconditional oath to the king of England.  But they were his (somewhat) loyal subjects, being that they were born in an English-ruled area.  Like I said last week, they were the third generation born in Acadie.  But they were treated like foreign invaders and prisoners of war.  It was a travesty!

One of those families that was treated this way was the Breau family of Pisiquit, Acadie.  My main focus when I was looking for information on this family was my 5Xgreat grandfather Anthony Breaux.  He is also called Antoine in various records and on the Wall in St. Martinville, but I use the name Antoine to designate his grandfather.  The last name is also variously spelled Breau, Braud, Brot, and Bro.

So Anthony is on the Wall as Antoine Breau, but then I realized that his parents are listed below him.  The listing is for “Claire Trahan veuve Charles Breau,” which designates Claire as the widow of Charles when she came to Louisiana.

But at the time of the Grand Derangement, he was very much alive.  He and his wife Claire were 50 years old.  They had been married for 26 years, and their family with nine children lived in Pisiquit.  I saw in one document that they lived in the Village of Breau.  There must have been a lot of Breau families that lived there!

One of those families was the family of their oldest child Anthony and his wife Marguerite.  Anthony was 25 years old and Marguerite, who was born a Landry, was 18.  They had two young children.  The oldest was 3 or 4 year old Scholastique, who was later to be my 4Xgreat grandmother.  She had a young brother Joseph just a year old.  They were just getting started with their little family in the quiet little hamlet of the Village of Breau.

Then things took a turn.  The Great Upheaval happened and things were never the same for these families.  These three generations of the Breaux family along with many other families were forcibly removed from their homes.  Many homes were burned, as well as churches and church documents.  This large Breaux group were made to board the ship The Dolphin on October 27, 1755, and they never saw the land of their birth again.

If you read my post last week, you may remember that this is the same ship that contained my Landry family that was Exiled at the same time.  The ship reached Boston on November 5th and Annapolis on the 30th.  While the Landry family went to Upper Marlboro, the Breaux group went to Port Tobacco.

There are a few documents of the time that was spent in Maryland.  Claire, the grandmother of my Scholastique, was a seamstress and she was able to make some money from time to time for the officials in the area.  She also must have had a green thumb, because at one point she helped Mr. Mundell with his crop.  She also grew rye.  She and Charles had at least three new grandchildren who were born in Port Tobacco.  Anthony and Marguerite had a son named for Charles in 1758, a daughter named Perpetue in 1761, and another daughter named Marie Rose in 1764. 

Those were the highlights of their stay in Maryland.  You already know the down side, because Claire was a widow when she made it to Louisiana.  I said that from the beginning.  Charles died sometime around 1764 or 1765.  I hope he made it to at least the birth of little Marie Rose.  That would be nice.  But we don’t really know. The main clue is a journal entry of a local priest on August 12, 1765, that says, “…my order to Clare Braux Widow for 3 bushels of Rye…”  So Charles was probably my age right now when he died (59 years old). 

The Breaux family group only stayed in Maryland a few more years.  On December 17, 1767, they boarded the ship The Jane bound for Louisiana.  They were hoping to join those other Acadians like the Landry family that went to St. Gabriel.  But when they reached New Orleans in Feb. 1768, they were brought to Fort St. Luis de Natchez in Mississippi aboard The Guinea.  It was here that after a few months Claire Trahan Breaux died.  She spent 50 years in her homeland, before spending a dozen long, hard years in Exile in Maryland.  She lived less than a year in the South.  She was buried on June 7, 1768.

On September 9, 1769, Anthony made his mark on a document giving his unconditional oath of allegiance to Spain.  A month later he made a request to abandon the land that was given to him in Natchez in exchange for land nearer to the other Acadians who settled between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  He was granted permission and the family then settled in St. Gabriel, Louisiana.

The 1771 Census shows the family living in St. Gabriel with 3 heads of cattle, 7 hogs, and 3 chickens on a piece of land along the Mississippi with 8 arpents frontage.  Just over a year later, another census shows them with seven head of cattle, thirty-seven hogs, and thirteen chickens.  They were moving on up!

On February 12, 1776, Scholastique married Joseph Ignatius Landry in St. Gabriel.  I mentioned him in the post last week.  He spent a dozen years of Exile in Maryland also, but in Marlboro.  In 1779, Scholastique’s younger sister Perpetue married Joseph Ignatius’s younger brother Mathurin.  That means all of my wonderful cousins descended from Mathurin are actually my double cousins thru this line! 

In 1781 Joseph Ignatius & Scholastique’s third child was born.  His name was Joseph Emanuel Landry and he is my 3X great grandfather.  The path to me goes like this:  Emanuel Landry had a daughter named Marguerite or Basilite Landry, Basilite had a daughter named Marie Celeste Leveque, “Granma Celeste” had a son named Rob or “Pappy” Landry, Pappy had a son named Bob, and Bob was my father.  But Emanuel was also my 4Xgreat grandfather.  That path goes like this:  Emanuel had a daughter named Anna Adele Landry, Adele had a daughter named Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol, Belite had a daughter named Marie Therese Landry, Marie Therese had a daughter named Germaine Erie Patureau, Erie had a son named Bob, and  Bob, as you know, was my father.

In 1782 Anthony Breaux died in St. Gabriel at the age of  52.  Joseph Ignatius and Scholastique had their fourth and final child in 1783.  Scholastique then died in 1785 at the age of 34.  After making it through a decidedly turbulent childhood in Exile and reaching the land of milk and honey and meeting the man of her dreams, she died after only eight years of being married.  This must have been a tragedy for the whole Breaux and Landry family.

But as you know, people recover and move on.  Joseph Ignatius did.  I have a total of five paths of lineage from him to me.  You will hear about the other three in the next installment.  That story entails a longer, more distant, and more tragic period of Exile. 

You’ve been warned…

 

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For other installments of the “From Acadian to Cajun” series, click on the following links:

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 1 – Landry/Babin

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 3 – Braud/LeBlanc/Gauterot/Aucoin

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 4 – Hebert/Melanson

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 5 – Bourg/Granger

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 6 – Bujol/LeBlanc

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 7 – Foret/Bujol

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 8 – Hernandez/Babin

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 9 – Dupuis/Dugas

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 10 – Bourg/Babin/Landry

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 11 – The Ones That Didn’t Make It

Earlier this year I went to the Acadian Memorial in St. Martinville, Louisiana.  It was on the same day that I met up with some cousins to exchange old family photos.  I have shared a few photos that I obtained on that day and still have some more in the queue.  But I haven’t shared any photos that I took at the Memorial.

I’ve decided to share those in installments, with each installment to cover a family name or family group.  Before I went to the Memorial, I looked through my family tree to figure out which of those family names to look for on the Memorial Wall.  There are at least seven or eight groups that were represented.  There would have been more if they hadn’t married their cousins through the years.  But as the sign says, they were Exiles in Louisiana and they were different.

One of those differences was pointed out to me when I visited the museum.  When I was telling one of the Memorial staff members about the names I was searching for, they corrected my pronunciation.  I’ve lived almost all of my life in southern Louisiana and I have more Cajun heritage than anything else, but I don’t really have a Cajun accent.  The area around Jennings where I grew up had a lot of immigrants from the northern states and western Europe, as can be evidenced by my mom’s family tree.  I also never learned to speak French, which would have been helpful at the Memorial because there were some visitors from France on the day that I was there.

Thankfully, the workers there spoke English and were willing to help.  If you ever go there, it helps to know that the first several columns are roughly in alphabetical order according to family group.  These include those Exiles who came to Louisiana from areas of North America.  Those fill up more than half of the columns of the Wall.  After that, it lists the seven ships that came from France in 1785 with those Acadians that had been Exiled there.  I descend from people from both groups.

I thought I would start with the most obvious group for me – Landry.  I feel more connected to that name since it is my last name and I have several lines that are Landry.  It identifies me as Cajun and I identify with that.  I have learned more about the history of the Cajuns, who started out as French settlers in Acadie.  They were immigrants from France who made a new home in North America, some of the earliest to do so. 

They had their own identities, too.  They didn’t think of themselves as French Americans or some such term; they were Acadians.  In much the same way, I don’t identify with the term Acadian Exile in Louisiana.  Mainly because it sounds like you are still displaced.  The Acadian Exiles who came to Louisiana made it their home and eventually they became known as Cajuns – hence the title “From Acadian to Cajun.”  These are my ancestors who started out in Acadie, were exiled from their homeland in 1755, and made it to Louisiana some years later.

That first Landry group from my family consisted of Augustin Landry, his wife Marie Madeleine Babin, and their family.  They were all born in an area of Acadie known as Pisiquit.  Augustin was born in 1719 and he was the third generation of Landry in my line to be born in Acadie.  He married his first wife Ann Rivet and they had two children together.  Their daughter Marie was born around 1747, and son Joseph Marie was born around 1749.  Then Ann died around 1750. 

Augustin married Marie Madeleine Babin in 1752 and they had Joseph Ignace in 1753.  I descend from Joseph Ignace, though I usually refer to him as Joseph Ignatius.  It is spelled a variety of ways in the records.  I probably pronounce it incorrectly, too!  After Joseph Ignatius, Augustin and Marie Madeleine had at least three more children – Mathurin, Marguerite, and Madeleine.  But the last of the children were not born in Acadie, they were possibly born in Exile. 

The birth records for these children were lost in the confusion of the next few years, if there ever were any records for them.  The Exile of the Acadian people began August 10, 1755.  People were pulled from their homes,  gathered into public spaces, then shipped off from their homeland.  There were a number of people who died in the process.  It was an ugly time for the Acadian people.  The Landry family that we’re looking at were put on board a ship called the Dolphin that departed Pisiquit on October 27, 1755.

This was not like going on a cruise.  No luxuries with options to choose from.  They also didn’t have many belongings with them.  It was all left behind.  The ship reached Boston on November 5th.  Most of the passengers stayed on board as leaders of the towns tried to figure out what to do with these now-destitute people.  A furious gale hit Boston at this time and 47 Acadians were removed.  Our Landrys continued on with the Dolphin down to Annapolis, Maryland, on November 30th.  From there, they continued on to Upper Marlboro.  They arrived in early December and this is where the Landry family spent 12 years in Exile.  Of the 230 Acadians that started off in Acadie on the Dolphin, 180 arrived on the shores of New England.

I don’t know if the Landry family had casualties during this time or not.  I have the names of two other children for Augustin and Marie Magdeleine with births before 1755.  They do not show up on the Memorial Wall for the family that made it to Louisiana.  Looking at the history of the Landry families before and after that point, it is likely that there were a few children born during that time period.  We don’t know all of the details, but we know that it was a very traumatic time for the Landry family.

Their time in Maryland was better, but it was still not home.  The Catholics in Maryland at the time were restricted.  They  could not own land, vote, or hold office.  If they did find work, they were double taxed.  They could not practice their religion.  It was worse for the Acadian Exiles because they started out with nothing and they did not speak the local English language.

I won’t go into all of the politics that were going on between England, France, and Spain during this time.  I don’t know it all and there are too many players to discuss.  It was a fight for land and people and power.  At some point Spain gained control of land in the area that is now Southern Louisiana.  They needed people to populate the area and they were willing to relocate people.  Not only that, they were providing land grants to these people.  Somehow Augustin and Marie Madeleine found out about this and decided to move their family to a place that sounded more promising.

So they packed up all of their belongings and took off on a new adventure.  In April of 1767 the Landry family and their two trunks boarded the ship called The Virgin that was chartered by the Spanish government and headed to New Orleans.  They reached the Mississippi River on July 12, 1767, and continued on to Fort St. Gabriel.  Augustin was given a land grant encompassing 8 arpents frontage along the Mississippi River at St. Gabriel.  Two years later he gave his mark (he could not read or write) showing his unconditional oath of allegiance to Spain.  He must have done this to avoid another period of Exile.

And, as anyone who has ever spent any time here would know, there have been Landry families living in Southern Louisiana ever since.

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For other installments of this series of blog posts, click on the following links:

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 2 – Breau/Trahan

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 3 – Braud/LeBlanc/Gauterot/Aucoin

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 4 – Hebert/Melanson

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 5 – Bourg/Granger

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 6 – Bujol/LeBlanc

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 7 – Foret/Bujol

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 8 – Hernandez/Babin

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 9 – Dupuis/Dugas

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 10 – Bourg/Babin/Landry in a short story called “Finding Home”

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 11 – The Ones That Didn’t Make It

I thought I would continue my grandparent theme again this week.  Two weeks ago I had my paternal grandmother featured.  Last week I had a photo of both of my maternal grandparents.  So that just leaves my paternal grandfather.

But not only that, I had photos that showed them in really good light.  In Mee Maw’s case, I meant that literally.  The lighting of the photo was really special.  Last week with Grandpa and Grandma, the photo was really good of both of them and the twinkle in Grandma’s eyes was noticeable.  So I had to do something special for Pee Paw as well.

Fortunately for all of us, I obtained a really good photo of him earlier this year when a few of us Landry cousins got together to share our photographic treasures.  This photo is from the Secret Collection.  It is a very small photo.  It might have actually been in a locket that my grandmother had.  I could be mistaken.  But trust me, it was small and it had several creases in it.  I cleaned it up tonight so I could share it with everyone.

As I said, this was my paternal grandfather.  His name was Robert Joseph Landry, Sr., though he went by Rob and Bob when he was this age.  He was born Jan. 9, 1893, in Westlake, Louisiana, to Simon Alcide Joseph Landry and Marie Celeste Leveque Landry.  Alcide had fought in the Civil War out of Brusly, Louisiana, and later married his half first cousin Marguerite Baselite Landry Leveque’s daughter Celeste.  The family moved to southwestern Louisiana shortly before Rob was born.  He grew up in Westlake and I know they were still there in 1912.  I have a photo of him in 1912 and another one of him from 1915, and this one looks like it was taken between those times.

It’s such a great photo of him.  It looks like a studio portrait.  Very professional.  I wonder what the occasion was?  He was mainly involved with baseball during this time.  I’m sure it was taken before he joined the military in 1917.  All this speculating makes me realize how little I know about the details of his life.  When we cousins got together to share photos, I discovered that his hearing loss was a result of a training accident during his time in the military.  That’s what led to his discharge and why he wore a hearing aid the rest of his life.

So I am discovering more as I keep exploring all of my relatives.  I’m also getting these great photos.   And I share it all with my adoring fans.  Can you believe it?  I’ve posted at least one post a week – every week – for the past four years. That’s a lot of posts!   l intend to keep writing them. 

Why stop now?  I’m on a roll!

It’s difficult to believe that thirty years have passed since the death of my oldest sister Jodie.  She was only 36 years old when she died and all five of us siblings have long passed that age.  One of the things she said to me when she was dying is, “I want you to remember me young and cute.”  That was an easy thing to do.  And it gets easier every passing year. 

I decided to use this week’s post to show a few photos of her during each decade of her life.  I also thought I’d share some of the writing from my journal for the year of her death.   So that is what will follow this paragraph.

Jodie died at 12:15 in Mamma’s arms on November 6, 1989.  I write this with tears in my eyes two weeks later.  I love her and will miss being able to talk to her and be with her.  She has always been there since I was born.  The first child and I was the fifth.  My earliest memory is from when we lived in Lake Charles and I was less than two years old.  I remember sitting near the end of the driveway at 1317 Clover Drive with her.  She was playing jacks and I was watching her.  All of my memories of her seem to be sunny now.  I like that.

In February Jodie called to let me know that she would be having surgery on Tuesday February 21 in the morning.  She called each of us siblings because she wanted the news to be heard from her.  The surgery was for what they thought was a hernia in her stomach.  When they did a CAT scan of her abdomen, they discovered a tumor at the bottom of her rib cage on the right side.  The surgery became exploratory and they later did tests on the tumor.  Sometimes later she let us know that it was lymphoma, a type of cancer that is easily cured (IF caught early enough).  The doctors felt positive in being able to get rid of it.

She began chemotherapy some time in March.  I called and talked to her on March 19, 1989, and told her about getting to meet Amy Grant two days earlier.  Jamie was there visiting and she told me that she was pregnant for the third time.

Sat. April 8, 1989 – Rene & Michael’s wedding day.  The wedding was nice.  Had good visit with college friends at reception.

May 7, 1989 – Crawfish boil with The Phone volunteers.  Yum!

May 12, 1989 – 10 yr reunion from high school.  It was fun to see everyone.

May 20, 1989 – Bought car stereo so trip to Jodie’s next week wouldn’t seem so long.  Called Mama for her birthday.

I went to visit Jodie and Randy and Chris and Kyle on Friday, May 26, 1989.  I got there around 7:30.  We had a good visit.  Jodie was in about her eleventh week of chemotherapy.  It was really toxic to the body.  She had lost weight and her hair.  She tired easily and needed lots of rest. 

May 27, 1989 – Went to the Rhodes’ camp after going to see Chris play T-ball…

May 28, 1989 – Went to eat at Dairy Queen.  Then we came back and watched “Robin Hood” and “American Tail.”  I talked with Jodie and Chris.  Jodie says he’s been a big help for her.  Getting things for her and taking care of himself more.  She says she’s trying to prepare them to do things for themselves…

During this time I decided to talk to her about the possibility of dying.  It is what we were all afraid of.  Why deny it and avoid it?  It is the thing that scared us the most.  I kept thinking it wasn’t as bad as other cases and that it shouldn’t be happening at all – not to our family.  But it was.

June 22, 1989 – Jodie called about doing a bone marrow donation… There was a possibility of doing a high powered chemotherapy that would destroy her bone marrow to get rid of any traces of cancer once the rest was in remission.

June 30, 1989 – Flew to Denver to visit Rob and Robyn.  Went hiking in the mountains and had lots of talks.

July 8, 1989 – Went to Winter Park for a music festival with Rob and Robyn.

July 15, 1989 – Went canoeing with young adult group with cousins Kim and Wade.

July 16, 1989 – Began getting depressed about Jodie.  Things just didn’t seem to be going good.  The chemotherapy didn’t do the trick… Things weren’t going as smoothly as they were supposed to be according to what the doctors first said.  The possibility of Jodie dying began to be real and that was depressing.

July 22, 1989 – Went with Kim to Evangeline Downs with a bunch of her (our) family. 

July 23, 1989 – I began to worry that Jodie was going to die quickly.  Like she was going to go to the hospital for chemotherapy and die.  I was planning a vacation and worried that she would die while I was gone and I wouldn’t hear about it.

July 28, 1989 – With help from Kim, Rex, Lisa, and Mary, moved some of my stuff to my new apartment.  Apt. 107 at Concord Estates.  Diane let me borrow her truck.

August 12, 1989 – Went to Mom and Dad’s in Jennings.  We went to the Hine family reunion.   There were pretty many people there.  Played horseshoes.  Back to Baton Rouge for going away party for Megan and Ruben.

Aug. 18, 1989 – Started vacation.

Aug. 21, 1989 – museums in Washington, DC

Aug. 25, 1989 – Went to the Statue of Liberty…

Aug. 28, 1989 – Went on the “Freedom Trail” in Boston

Aug. 30, 1989 – Back home

Sept. 1, 1989 – Chris’s 8th birthday.  Called and talked to Jodie and Chris.  Told her about my vacation, especially about the bear.  We had a good talk.

Sept. 3, 1989 – Went to Houma for Sarah’s 5th birthday.  Went to Sarah’s birthday party at bowling alley.  It was fun.  Later on everyone was sick and throwing up.

Sept. 18, 1989 – 2 years at BBECI.  Talked to Bob.  I got an eleven % raise because of re-evaluation.  I’m now making almost $30, 000 a year.  Good enough to keep me…  I’d like more, but don’t want to make any more major changes in my life:  just moved, relationship change, and situation with Jodie…

Sept. 21, 1989 –  Called Jodie…  she said the tumor in her abdomen was growing even with the chemotherapy.  She couldn’t undergo another treatment because of her low blood count.  Things were not looking up at the moment…

Sept. 24, 1989 – Went to visit the Moving Wall and went to the library.  Al called to see if I wanted to go skiing in January…

Oct. 1, 1989 – Mamma called to let me know what the doctors said to Jodie:  There is no more chemotherapy to try.  All of it has been tried and none of it worked.  It just hurt her and the cancer stayed.  There was nothing hopeful that they could do.  It was a very disturbing phone call.  I just want to yell for it all to stop.  Sobbed a bit.

Called Jodie.  She sounded positive about the possibility of radiation treatment.  She wanted to try anything to make it.  Especially for Chris and Kyle.

Friday, October 6, 1989 – Last visit with Jodie.  Al and Rob and their wives were also there.  Jodie’s abdomen had swollen noticeably in the last few weeks.  It was a scary thing to see.  She was slow in her movements and tired easily.  She was in good spirits.  We all played Pictionary.  It was fun.

Oct. 7, 1989 – Got up and visited… She talked about the tumor growing so rapidly in the last weeks and was really frightened because there wasn’t much room for it to grow anymore.  Mamma was there and I remember her telling me years before that she did not want to experience the death of any of her children.  I started to remind her of  that, but I couldn’t.  All I could say was, “I remember you telling me…” and I couldn’t go any further.  After I tried a second time, she got up and left.  She must have figured that if I couldn’t say it, she didn’t want to hear it…  Jodie was giving us some old photos of hers.  She was pretty sure she was dying and want to give us a few things.  She worried about how everyone was handling it and wanted to help us deal with it.

We were watching Chris and Kyle play.  Jodie said she knew they would probably play like that after she died.  Soon after she died.  She understood that it didn’t mean they didn’t care.  Kids play.  She said she could imagine Randy getting remarried and they would be a family.   I asked her if that is what she wanted.  She said, “Yes, I want them to be happy.  I want them to have a mother to love them.  I know that no one will love them as much as I do.”  Rob and Robyn left during the day.  It was difficult watching them say their goodbyes.

Oct. 8, 1989 – Visited for a while with Jodie and the family.  Then it was time for me to leave.  Jodie and I walked outside.  The boys were riding bikes and just playing around.  I was standing at the driver’s door of my car and she was on the other side of the car.  It was sunny and she was trying to block the sun from her eyes.  We were talking about a lot of different things.  She told me that Dennis had called her and talked to her.  She said she was polite to him.  He was a big part of her life at one point.  She talked about her family now.  She thought that her little family was so good the way it was.  She really regretted not being able to see Chris and Kyle grow up.  She also realized that they would be OK without her.  She had come to accept things really well.  She still had hopes for their family of four to continue a while longer.

She said that she was hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.  She said that we are never guaranteed another day.  I could die in a car wreck on my way back to Baton Rouge.  At least she had had time to prepare herself and those she knows as best she can.  I decided it was time to leave.  We both thought it would be the last time we’d see each other.  We hugged each other and started crying.  We talked a little more and then hugged goodbye again.  It was difficult leaving.  One of the hardest things in my life.  I told the boys goodbye and pulled out of the driveway.  Jodie had Chris and Kyle in the front yard on the bench and they waved to me.  It was sunny and nice weather.  I think I will always remember this day.  It was the last time I saw her alive.

I didn’t really journal much after this.  Jodie got progressively worse during the month.  We spoke a few times, but she was very weak.  As I said earlier, she died on November 6.  Actually, according to my mom, she died shortly before midnight on the 5th.  The coroner was called and came over after midnight.  Her death was officially listed as the 6th.  The family all got together in Franklin, Texas, for the wake and funeral.  I remember how comforting it was to have extended family there.  The most comforting ones were my parents’ siblings.  My younger sister Jamie and her family wasn’t there because Jamie was giving birth to her youngest daughter Beth.  We heard about it between the viewing and the funeral itself.  Such a bittersweet day.

I still miss you, Jodie.

I don’t know why I didn’t post this photo this summer.  I had thought about posting it since it was the 50 year anniversary of the moon landing, but somehow I overlooked it.  I posted a photo from this same vacation a year ago, so sometimes I hesitate in posting something similar too soon.  This photo was taken on July 25, 1969.  On the 25th of July this year in my blog, I stated that I was looking for a photo commemorating a 100 year anniversary of something, but couldn’t find anything that week.  I should have cut my goal in half and searched for a 50 year old event to memorialize. 

Then I would have seen this photo.  But that obviously didn’t happen.  The first moon landing was on July 20, 1969, and we posed for this photo at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on July 25, 1969.  It was so soon after that monumental event and we were so excited to be there.  When we were walking around, there was a commotion of some sort with a motorcade  on site.  We thought it was either the astronauts going into quarantine or the arrival of the moon rocks at the Center.  So exciting.

When we were growing up in the Landry household, there were eight people in the house.  That’s a lot of people considering that the house at 758 Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana, only had three bedrooms and one small bathroom.  So there were three girls in one bedroom, the three boys were in another, and our parents were in the other one.

In the boys’ room, we had two chest of drawers in the room.  Or as I always thought of them back then – chester drawers.   Above the chester drawers was a metal cabinet where we kept all of our treasures.  The main thing I remember about it – and the reason I’m mentioning it – is that we had several space-related stickers on the front of it.  During the last few years of the 1960s, space flight and landing on the moon held a lot of interest in the American public.   And particularly for young boys growing up in the Landry household.  Of course merchandisers took advantage of that fact.  We drank Tang.  We ate Space Food Sticks.  We watched “Star Trek.”

But mostly we begged our mom to buy the cereal that had those space-related stickers in the boxes.  When I just did a search for that, I see that it was more likely that they were stick-on patches that were in those boxes.  You could put them on jackets or clothes, but we collected them on front of the cabinet in our bedroom.  We had the Mercury patches, the Gemini patches, and of course the Apollo ones.  If I had a picture of that old cabinet, I’d share that photo, too.

But sadly, I did not grow up in the age that takes pictures of every little thing they do.  I’m sure we’d have hundreds of photos of that whole house and every pet and/or meal we ever had.  But I can’t really be sad.  I grew up in the time that we were putting people on the moon!  And I have this picture to prove it. 

Try not to be too jealous.

Just what was my grandfather doing on that tree stump?  I really have no idea, but I’m going to write a story about it anyway!  I didn’t even notice he was standing on the tree trunk until I started working on the photo.  The main thing I noticed about it is that he looks like he was singing.  In addition to that, there was an aura about him from that white shirt he was wearing.  I got rid of some of that, but there is still a hint of it.

I saw this photo for the first time a few weeks ago at the Landry Cousin Photo Exchange.  It was where we brought together the Tin Can Collection, the Secret Collection, and the Fort Knox Collection.  Those are the names that we’ve been calling the collection of photos in the possession of my cousin Tricia, my cousin Daphne, and myself, respectively.  This photo came from the Tin Can Collection.  The Tin Can Collection got its name from a tin can found in the attic of Tricia’s mom’s (my Aunt Wana) house.  I’m not telling how Daphne’s collection got named.  It’s a secret.

It’s a great old photo of my grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.  I’m pretty sure he went by the name Bob at this time.  It was about a year earlier than the Man in Black photo I posted previously.  I know this because the back of the photo says that it was taken in Westlake, Louisiana, when Bob was just 18 years old.  Not that everything that is written on the back of photos is correct.  But the age looks correct in relation to other photos of my grandfather.

And it sure looks like he is singing something.  He’s even standing on a make-shift stage, small though it is.  I’ve never heard any stories about him singing.  But this was when he was young and before he suffered any hearing loss from his participation in the military.  Maybe my dad got some of his love for music from his father’s side of the family.

But really, who doesn’t appreciate music?  I wish I could hear what was coming out of his mouth.  A song?  A poem?  A speech?  We’ll never know.  It does make this photo just a little more interesting.