Baja St. Martin

By the time this column is printed, the last Food for Seniors of the 2013 year will have come and gone. Still, I’ll say a belated happy holidays to all the recipients and a huge thanks to Deputy Grover Angelle, his trusty helpers, Sheriff Ronny Theriot and Parish President Guy Cormier.

We really appreciate the sheriff and parish government facilitating this program. It’s not a small thing to send Grover all the way over here once a month with a loaded truck. Gas, wear-and-tear on the vehicle, and on Grover – if he ever stops coming we’re going to really miss him.

This weather has my sinuses in an uproar. It seems the older I get the more influenced my sinus cavities are by the changing air pressure. It’s either too warm, too humid, too cold, too dry. Lately it’s been all of those in rapid succession. My baby sister said it was 60-plus in Michigan and that’s pretty extraordinary for November. I guess the weather is a bit crazy everywhere. At least neither of my two sisters had to endure the recent tornadoes.

All the news about the tornado damage led my husband and me into a discussion based on memory of all the places we’d lived in Michigan that did or did not have basements. My parents moved around a lot but I know I lived in one house that did not have a basement. It was made of cement blocks on a concrete foundation. All the rest had basements – whole or partial. I even helped my dad dig one and that was not fun! I think we actually used shovels. Yikes!

My dad was a school teacher but a house-builder on the side and I well remember one house on which construction stopped for winter with only an uncovered, full basement completed. This hole filled partially with rainwater and my sister and I had our very own private skating rink until spring or at least until the main floor was put on. It was terrific!

I’m staying home this Thanksgiving. My oldest daughter will only have the one day off work and has a chance to make a few extra dollars. Her daughter, my granddaughter, won’t be coming home from Orlando because of work. My sisters and their extended families will be getting together at one sister’s house and while I won’t be there I sent a large box of blood oranges from the tree in my yard.

Sandra Gros, Stephensville Elementary secretary, tells me the SES Christmas pageant will be held in the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium on Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. I have only attended one of the performances since they started having them in Morgan City and it was really a professional production. I’ll try and make this one.

I am so pleased to be surrounded by B schools! Stephensville Elementary, Pierre Part Middle (where I taught for many years) and Pierre Part Primary. Congratulations to all for their achievement.

I saw in the Teche News a sketch of a proposed seawall for some of the Stephensville area to prevent flooding. I’ll have to dig out that paper and study the map more carefully but it seemed to not include the people on Stephensville Road going to Four-mile Bayou way. I suppose protecting the entire town with a seawall would be almost impossible.

I’m not complaining you understand, but the past few months the commodity boxes have always included multiple cans of spinach. I like spinach but it’s not something you can eat too often. All the recipients are exchanging recipes involving spinach. It’s getting to be pretty funny! “I smothered mine with onions,,” or “I put Alfredo sauce on mine,” or “I make a chip/dip,” etc. You know, of course, by the time we all try all these recipes the spinach will be replaced with something else!

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