Have you ever had trouble with a purchase through Amazon.com?

My brother-in-law told me of a book about a friend of his who was shot in WWII. The book is “The Window at St. Catherines.” I ordered it through an Amazon seller weeks ago and still have not received the book.

Through Amazon you can contact the seller sort of anonymously and ask what’s going on. I’ve done that twice and after the last time, the seller replied to say that the book was sent, but I still haven’t received it yet.

Now what do I do?

I’ve never had trouble with Amazon before and technically this isn’t their problem but I’d still like to get my book and/or get my money back. Not to mention, the book sounded really good.

I attended a meeting of the Recreation board for Lower St. Martin Parish and am encouraged to report that progress is being made on the Belle River meeting room project and a room for Stephensville also. Not fast enough to suit me, but still maybe before I die of old age there will be a nice place to distribute commodities, have baby showers, birthday parties, maybe even a Farmer’s Market.

Lucien Cutrera was at the meeting. He works for T. Baker Smith now. He had plans for both parks so we could offer suggestions on changes. The Belle River one, which of course, I’m mostly interested in, will have bathrooms accessible for passers-by from the outside and bathrooms accessible inside when there is an activity going on. There will be a small kitchen and a big open room. The electricity issue is still not resolved, although I guess the power will come from Graveyard Island.

Eventually, but not right away, in Belle River we’ll have a playground for the kids, an extended walking trail and more parking space.

Personally, I look forward to doing some landscaping along the meeting room. The building will run parallel to the woods on the south side, so it will be pretty private but not isolated.

The pond at the Belle River site may be a problem. We all thought it would be nice and picturesque to have a pond, but we also realized that it might present a safety issue if and when we have a children’s playground.

Not to mention the alligators which currently like to use the pond now and then, but that whole issue will have to wait, the meeting room comes first.

By the way, the last Morgan City Community Concert program, “American Spirit,” was wonderful. Ten singers/dancers with songs from decades passed up to now. Things like WWII songs/dances, from musicals, the 20s, 30s, Age of Aquarius, etc.

It had lots of scenery and costume changes. (How on earth do they change clothes so fast?) It was really great and it was especially nice to have the Morgan City choral group, The Tuneweavers, join in on stage with Swing Low and the finale, God Bless America. A tear-jerker toward the end, but a great show.

The last Food for Seniors distribution until the new year took place on Thursday, Nov. 17, in Stephensville and Belle River.

There are more and more people coming to ask for help with food so I hope 2012 will bring the “OK” to accept more clients.

A 40-pound box of food isn’t very much, but sure helps out at the end of the month. And some of the people who come now are receiving a pitifully small amount of financial assistance from their Social Security. I don’t know how they get by!

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