LYDIA — Al Trautman used to be a spy, he said, more specifically part of a spy outfit for the U.S Air Force that flew over countries of the middle east in the 1960s.

Born in Pittsburgh in 1941 where Trautman’s father was supporting the family by working in steel mills there during WWII, they moved to Louisiana when he was a boy.

When he was a teenager, Trautman said he was practicing on an old upright piano given to him by his grandmother, and a music group called the Del Royals from Franklin heard him playing.

Al Trautman performs in The Last Coullion Standing comedy contest in Lafayette last year. Advertisement

“They drove into my driveway and they hired me on the spot, I was 17,” Trautman said. “I spent the next several months playing shows with them and also joined two other groups: The Wheels and The Shadows.”

He entered music contests with The Wheels and said it won several of them, earning the band the opportunity to play with Pete Fountain and Al Hurt on separate occasions.

At 22, Trautman was compelled by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, to join the U.S. Air Force.

“I thought to myself that day, I have got to do something to help save this country,” Trautman said. “I spent my time in the military with a spy unit. We took spy pictures. It was a hell of a job.”

Upon his return to Louisiana in 1967, he secured employment with Hobart Manufacturing as part of its research and development team. The company manufactured microwaves which placed Trautman, as part of the research and development team, on the cutting edge of technology.

“I looked at the amount of money they were offering for people to go offshore and I didn’t need much convincing,” Trautman said. “I went to work for Teneco at the beginning of the oil boom and spent the next 25 years working offshore.”

Trautman’s wife said the family had to adjust when her husband decided to work offshore.

“You have to learn to pump gas and all sorts of other things that your husband might do for you,” Sally Ann Trautman said. “I missed him a lot. Before that, we didn’t spend any time apart so it was an adjustment.”

His employers sent him to safety training schools, which gave him career opportunities when Exxon told him it was time to retire at age 55.

For the past 10 years, Trautman has done anything but retire. Always finding creative ways to occupy his time and make a little money, he started his own business called Quality Safety Training Inc. and his music keeps him busy.

Trautman wrote, arranged and recorded a CD called Bayou Teche Boogie after previous Louisiana Secretary of State Fox McKeithen heard him play, liked his voice and music and recommended that Trautman record something. He owns the copy write to 50 songs and works tirelessly perfecting his craft. He is always willing to play a spontaneous number or two on a willing, happened upon, piano.

“Its exciting watching your husband play for people and if we are out somewhere that has a piano and I hear it start up, I pretty much know its going to be him.” Sally Ann Trautman said. “We have a lot of fun together and sometimes he keeps me in stitches.”

Trautman’s music has been important to the entire family.

“The music is one of the brightest points of my childhood,” said Wendy Pete, Trautman’s 43-year-old daughter. “I can remember at age 6 hearing him play the piano, good old boogie woogie rock ’n’ roll and all the doors and windows open in the spring time. The whole neighborhood enjoyed his playing and it is something I remember fondly.”

Trautman has also found the time to enter a few stand-up comedy contests including one in Lafayette called the Last Couillon Standing.

“Some of his jokes are kind of corny and some others are pretty good,” Pete said. “He also gets material from his grandchildren like — What do you call a lazy baby possum? A pouch potato. That was one that my son told him and he incorporated into his act.”

Another of Trautman’s hobbies that captured his attention in the Air Force is photography. He has entered and won several photography contests, including winning honors at the local Sugar Cane Festival photography show. He busies himself with assorted assignments, sometimes weddings, sometimes events and most of the time snapping shots of his cherished family.