Baja St. Martin

My words must have been heard! It is wonderfully cool today with sunny skies, no rain. Just beautiful. Yesterday the dog and I walked the spillway beach until I found a fallen willow in the shade. It was just a perfect spot to sit and read while the dog played in the water. For perhaps the first time ever I had brought my cell phone and had a nice conversation with my daughter and son-in-law as they drove back to Pensacola from visiting their daughter in Orlando.
I probably won’t do this again – take my phone – because to my mind that sort of defeats the purpose of being alone. I really don’t want to hear from anyone nor speak to people, but this one time I wanted to make sure my children were safely near home. And it was also the first time I’d ever used my new phone, which is not a smart phone, but not quite as dumb as the one I’d previously had.
I read in the Teche News about the EBT mistake in which a bunch of people in Breaux Bridge were able to get free groceries from a Walmart there. That must have been a sight. I had to laugh when the paper quoted an innocent customer who said she thought maybe there was a hurricane coming she’d not heard of when she saw all the people grabbing things off shelves.
l don’t understand why/how the mistake affected only some local stores and not others. To the best of my knowledge this didn’t happen to the Bayou Vista Walmart outside of Morgan City nor to any stores around here. I’ll bet there will be some “fur flying” over this snafu. Kind of funny, though.
I taught English as a Second Language once to adult men from Central America and we would have general discussions to practice our English. They were astounded when they learned how much free stuff is available to people in this country. In their country, they said, if you don’t work you don’t eat. No free government stuff. Now I wouldn’t want to live in some of these third world places for other reasons, but sometimes I do think too much free stuff takes away the incentive to work.
The recent Community Concert of Morgan City featured Pavlo, a guitarist. He has been here before and was brought back by popular demand. He is a very “active” guitar player, gyrating all over, raising one foot which maybe helps him play (???), crouching down, raising his guitar over his head. When he invited audience participation, a woman came on stage and danced with him, copying his moves, adding a few of her own. Even he seemed surprised by her facility. Pavlo, is of Greek background but said he lives in Tampa, Fla., now. He classified his music as Mediterranean. Most I enjoyed but didn’t recognize although I heard “Besame Mucho,” “Malaguena,” and “Never On Sunday.” It was a good program.
My husband and I went for a boat ride yesterday for the first time in months. We drove north up Belle River, just enjoying the beautiful weather. Saw two bald eagles, lots and lots of white herons, and the ones with curved beaks which are locally called Baycross, but I know there’s another name for them.
Food for Seniors is over for another month. It was so nice to sit in the nice, new Belle River meeting room, visiting with everyone, catching up on local news, comparing ailments. It’s kind of a long walk from the parking lot to the building, but so far that’s working out OK.

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be e-mailed at lcooke9417@bellsouth.net.