Baja St. Martin

It seems the installation of the acoustic ceiling in the Belle River Community Center will be slightly delayed. The contractor is suffering a lack of employees at the moment due to work slowdowns and cannot get to the center for several weeks. Therefore, bingo on July 19 will take place as scheduled and hopefully, Morgan Ochsner from Humana will arrive with her wonderful cakes or cupcakes for July birthdays.
It has been terribly hot here as in most places in southern Louisiana and it was just yesterday that we finally got some desperately needed rain. It wasn’t enough to make up for the weeks of drought, but it helped.
The weather has been particularly aggravating with almost daily forecasts of high percentages of rain which never seem to materialize. Most days it thunders loudly and often, sometimes accompanied with lightning flashes, then it all sort of fades away with not a drop of rain. I take my umbrella each time I walk – a small one which wouldn’t really help much in a downpour – but use it only for a sun shade.
The Belle River landing has plenty of sportsmen’s trucks on the weekends. During the week only a few local fishermen. I’m told some people are catching frogs now. And I think a few are still crawfishing.
I ate some boiled crabs for Sunday dinner not long ago and they were good. Medium sized and mostly full, $2 each. I confess I prefer shrimp or crawfish but crabs are OK. It’s just so much work for the edible result! I worked once for a short period as a crab picker at a now-defunct local factory and I did get fairly good at picking crabs but never as good as most of the ladies working there. I think I’ve lost whatever skill I had.
I guess it’s egg-laying time for turtles because I keep finding pretty large ones clumping across my yard. My “brave” dog barks at them but doesn’t want to get close so I usually pick up the creature and head it into the ditch or river. I have some pampas grass along one side of my property and it provides a hiding place for critters – turtles, armadillos possums, stray cats and probably other things.
I don’t normally watch the survival-type shows on TV, but I have watched some of the “Alone” series where those people live on Vancouver Island and the one who stays the longest wins $500,000. Last night the guy from Kentwood, Mich., turned out to be the winner after staying something like 63 days. It seems to be the “alone-ness” that gets to the people, not just the difficulty in getting food. Kind of makes you realize just how much we need society – at least some people or books or movement around us to survive.
I’ve heard that LSU’s Mike the Tiger has cancer and will only live a year or two more and that the school may be considering his replacement. I did not attend LSU and may be missing some deep-rooted spirit, but I hope there is never, ever another live tiger on that campus. Please don’t put another beautiful, wild, exotic creature in a cage on a school campus. Surely the quality of education doesn’t depend on the presence of some poor animal.

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be e-mailed at lindacooke1939@gmail.com.