Baja St. Martin

I have just returned from four days in and around Oxnard, Calif., to attend the wedding of my oldest granddaughter. The event was on the beach at Point Mugu State Park and the rest of the festivities were across the Pacific Coast Highway in the hills of the Santa Monica mountains. Everything was beautiful – the bride (of course), the ocean and waves crashing against huge boulders, the mountains rearing up. A spouting grey whale appeared in the background as the officiant performed the ceremony.
I met the nicest people, family and friends of the bride and groom mostly. My daughter and youngest granddaughter went with me and we three had quite some flights out and back. We left and returned from Pensacola, Orlando, and New Orleans, so we flew Southwest, United and Delta at one time or another. We each had at least one delay, and we all had connections in places like Houston where you literally had to run to reach a boarding area in time. Planes were full. Overhead bins were overflowing.
Nobody tried to hi-jack us, and nobody (that I saw) tried to take over a plane, although on one flight the captain came out of the front cabin and headed to the rear of the plane for a minute or two, but a stewardess pretty obviously took his place until he returned. (I really did think for a second of him banging on the door yelling Let me in, let me in!” but that didn’t happen.)
My granddaughter’s flight from Salt Lake City was delayed to the point she was asked (and said yes) if she’d take a later flight so she came home in the wee hours of the morning with a handful of vouchers.
The St. Martin Parish Council will meet on May 19 in the Belle River Recreation center on Hwy. 70. The meeting is at 5 p.m. It would be nice for some of the local people to attend to show the parish officials we appreciate their support in the FAS/Levee situation. No word yet on what the DNR is going to say. We’ve heard from one to three weeks yet before we get any news.
Pierre Part had an F-1 tornado pass through which did a bunch of damage. Hail poked holes in one mobile home. Several roofs were torn off. A tree fell on one house and messed up the roof. I can’t believe that I was such an idiot to be out driving in this storm. In retrospect, I think the tornado must have passed right over me as I drove home that morning. Branches were hitting the windshield, trash cans were flying across the road. It was really nasty and here I was creeping home in all this stuff when I didn’t need to be out at all.
We have a generator large enough to power pretty much everything in the house and shop so I wasn’t really inconvenienced all that much. We lost power for almost two days and my landline phone went off for a day. Our cable TV was off but that was really kind of nice.
Stephensville Elementary will be holding an awards ceremony for grades 1 through 7 on Thursday, May 21. I don’t have a time yet so check the school. The next day, Friday, May 22, the school will have closing ceremonies for pre-K at 8:30 a.m., Kindergarten at 9 a.m. and 8th grade at 1:30 all on the same day.
Before all the ceremonies, the 4th graders will go on a field trip to Kemper Williams park on May 15; same day the 8th graders will have a food fest at 11 a.m.; on May 20 there will be a family picnic/field day; on May 28 the 8th graders will take a field trip to New Orleans. I don’t know anything about the field trips so call the school if you’re interested.

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