Baja St. Martin

The recent bad weather did have a direct effect on me if nobody else in the vicinity. I turned on my TV on a Wednesday morning and watched the weather, then did a few computer things at which point I lost my internet service. Allen’s Cable came pretty promptly and found something called an amplifier down the road had suffered damage from the wind, rain and possibly a lightning strike the previous night. One of the guys said although the amplifier had been damaged hours before my connection was lost, the whole system was running on battery power for some hours. Anyway, all is well now.
The Nov. 6 Bingo and Birthday Bash in Belle River was really nice. I can’t express how wonderful my helpers are with decorations, et al. The center looked lovely. Ms. Brenda Boudreaux from Humana brought a decorated cake plus a few cupcakes so we had a nice birthday celebration for two November “babies.”
Our next bingo is on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 10 a.m. until noon as usual. On Tuesday, Dec. 15, it will be bingo plus a birthday cake for December birthdays and a Xmas potluck social. The latter date will be from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. and we hope lots of seniors will join us. If you’re in the Baja area, pass the word about the Dec. 15 event especially.
I need to tell you here how grateful I am to Charlotte Ratcliff and the recreation board for allowing the St. Martin Council on Aging to hold activities in the Belle River center. We are just getting things started but the Belle River community center is so wonderful.
You should know, however , that the site needs much, much more, not just for the COA, but the whole Baja community. We need an extended parking lot, playground equipment, longer walking trail and a host of other planned features but they all take money and that is hard to get.
If you have any way to help us – dirt, money, acoustic insulation, concrete – anything, contact Charlotte. It’s the giving season, you know, and soon after a good tax deduction time is approaching. Stop in if you’re passing and I can show you the graphic plan of what we, the recreation board, hope to do at this site.
You might have heard, like we have, that our current walking trail is a favorite because it is so scenic and shaded in places so walking on hot days is good. It’s almost rare to pass the trail and not see someone walking.
A really neat thing here lately: eagles everywhere! Bald eagles over the river, swooping and diving and whistling and flashing about overhead – six, eight of them at a time. Maybe it’s breeding season because the birds are in pairs mostly or at least they seem to be together. They’re so beautiful!
And I have to tell you, I finally found out that the giant structure being built in Cypress Cove on Hwy. 70 is (or will be) a single family house! I just couldn’t resist stopping the other day when I passed and saw workmen and that’s what they told me. It is three stories tall at one end, two the rest of the way and truthfully I didn’t drive into the development area to see what the other side looked like, but the whole thing is huge! Not huge for a spacious property but certainly huge for its location. Of course, I don’t know and it’s none of my business but maybe the owners have a large extended family or whatever. At least I have my curiosity satisfied. It was really beginning to bother me!
If I don’t talk to you before then, have a Happy Thanksgiving – especially Grover, Linda and Jerry, Faye and Gordon, Lois and Wilbert, Nancy and Lanny, Ken, Sally, and all the people at the Sydney Mae Durand center.

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