Standing Tall

Was there ever a person who was a lighthouse in your life?

Having spent many years at Sea ... Lighthouses are indeed a comfort, and a welcome sight, Day or Nite ....... I like the Romance of the things too, and wouldn't mind living in one ... but I should have to give up every other part of my life to do so ... and I am just not willing to do that ... But, I do stop to inspect every one that I see, and think about the way some things used to be ... They are such a marvelous attraction to a Coastal Town .......

If you navigated your boat according to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, you would most definitely hit land unexpectedly now, and since about 1999. It was at that time so encroached upon by the ocean that the lighthouse was actually moved inland.

My father shot home movies of us visiting there in the early 70's, when the ocean seemed an appropriate distance out, and you were allowed to climb the helical stairs to the top. As of the early 90's, it seemed that at a high tide waves might break on the lighthouse, and going inside it was verboten.

As I understand it, the North Carolina coastline has been quite geographically unstable over time, and this effect has been ascribed to the influence of so many barrier islands (the Outer Banks). There has been a tendency for the islands to grow on their coastal side, and for the coastline to retreat. I believe that strategic rock jetties have been built all along to coastline specifically to disrupt ocean currents that cause this effect. Doing so has been driven by property and banking laws. To wit, it would be hard for a bank conscionably to give you a mortgage for a nice NC beachhouse when the data was suggesting that your property might well be submerged before the term of the mortgage was complete.

The person who could really really give us the straight dope on all of this is our friend Captain Neptune. Ahoy Cap'n, are you there?

This makes me think of nautical-speak and of something I heard a few years back that might be true or might be urban legend.

I have heard that one can do Google searches in pirate language. I can recognize pirate-speak when I hear it, but I don't that I can either understand it or replicate.

There's a famous Google prank that has now been discontinued but I am sure some people here know of it. It used to be that if you Googled "Chuck Connors,"
the result would be "You do not find Chuck Connors. Chuck Connors finds you."

I made a big mistake. It's Chuck Norris not Chuck Connors. And it appears that a version of the prank still exists.

lotlot~ I do enjoy your short and to the point remarks that start my day with a smile.
 

The schoolbooks I learned to read from were called "Beacon Readers" - in the days before lighthouses, beacons would be set on headlands to guide shipping and in foggy weather, the church bell would be rung - for those in peril on the sea. I was walking a coastal path with friends years ago and a sea fog rolled in, just as we were passing a lighthouse. The fog horn started up with a sound like the combined effort of 1,000 elephants farting, the ground shook and rattled your innards.
The UK being a small island, our shipping forecast is like a poem. The reports come in from lighthouses, many of them now electronic, and a posh BBC person reads it out carefully - a circular tour of the UK coast, with sea-speak like "precipitation within sight" Huh? You can buy tea towels with the shipping forecast map. I find it very soothing at midnight, listening to that cut glass spoken English. Then we go over to BBC World Service. Great. If you can get BBC Radio 4, it's brilliant!
If anybody is so inclined, I will pass on the baton and anticipate comments about lighthouses being phallic flashers.
 

 Lot - When I saw the topic, I thought it meant a person and yes, there have been several.  I'm lucky.

Climbing the many steps at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is a walk worth taking and gives one a new found appreciation of the important job the keeper of the flame had. The concept of safe passage is a paradox for there is no such thing as safety for we pilgrims on a sphere with a molten center and a surface of mostly water with volatile atmospheric conditions as we go zooming through space at mindbending speeds all the while under seige by microscopic dangers. Cheating death on a daily basis is our fate and finding peace in this chaos is indeed enlightening and fulfilling. Each day is indeed a miracle so carpe this bloody diem and...this little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine...let it shine...let it shine. 

I always wanted to live in a lighthouse, the only issue someday would be whether or not I was still ambulatory. When John Peterman's headline "Stand Tall" caught my eye, I thought that he meant times in one's life that are difficult, factually and morally, the times when you are force to either step up, or stand down.....

Whatever you do, when sailing the seas, don't take on a lighthouse as if it were another vessel! Famous scene of USS Montana demanding that the lighthouse move out of its way!
 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmQYzCyNBDs
 
Do you suppose the Captain of the ship got teased unmercifully about that?!

Tommy, you had me laughing all through your post. I'm sure the people at the next table must think I'm some sort of lunatic now. I had a similar song come to mind: "You can't be a beacon if your light don't shine..."

Bert, you've given me a new reason to like looking at lighthouses. From now on, when I see one I'll think of your "Stand Tall" metaphor. Lighthouses are meant to provide guidance, after all.

This topic is dear to me, as I have had a love affair with lighthouses for years! I have visited them everywhere I have gone from the Cape Cod Light down to the ones in South Florida. My photograph of the Cape Hatteras light is enlarged and framed in my living room, along with ones I have taken of the St. Simons Island light, the Cape Cod light, and the St. Augustine lt. house. As for supporting, I belong to the Florida preservation group that is trying to save the remaining ones, and most recently have aided in the moving and restoration of the Cape St. George Island light.
That one used to stand on a deserted barrier island, but was taken down in a storm, so the locals who cared, moved it brick by brick to the larger St. George Island, and have now rebuilt it int he middle of the island, landscaped the area, and built a replica of the Keeper's Cottage, created a small museum, and have it open for visitors! I am so proud of them, and have send cash to help. It makes a memorable sight as one enters the island.
The light on St. Simons Island, GA has been restored and is a main attraction for visitors. It is right in the middle of the village, and has its own keeper's cottage and museum. Likewise, the Tybee Island Light, just east of Savannah, GA has similar qualities. One of the smallest - and least attractive -  I have visited is the one on Cape San Blas, FL between Apalachicola and  Port St. Joe. It  was erected in 1847, is metal, painted black and white,  and has been moved several time due to Gulf of Mexico erosion, but still shines. Today it is maintained by a Coast Guard station there. It is said to have cracks made by Civil War musket balls in its Fresnel lens. 
http://www.stgeorgelight.org/index.cfm/m/13/dn/Lighthouse%20Challenge/
My trip to the Outer Banks also included the Ocracoke Island by ferry trip,a nd that was memorable. The place is like beaches were 50 yrs. ago...no fast foodies, no chain motels, etc....Just quiet, white sand, local inns, and a relaxing pace. Go if you can.
 
 I believe that Miss Blue resides on the barrier island coast a bit north of there in VA, and can tell us more about the upside of coastal living.
 
http://www.outerbanks.org/attractions/lighthouses/
 
 

As for the persons who have been "beacons of light" or mentors in my life, there are many.
 
I must say most were teachers who praised and encouraged me to do my best.
For example, when I married, still a senior in college, it was my favorite professor of English Lit, a man who had only sons, and who had made me love Browning, who "gave me away."   (My father had died when I was 17, and my mother was not speaking to me for marrying a "Yankee." That may be hard to believe, but true. Her prejudice was set in concrete over 11 yrs.!)
 
For each of us, there is a great challenge to be that" lighthouse" or mentor for some others! It goes along with "making the world a better place because you have been in it," I think.  If there is a test to see who makes it at the Rapture, maybe that is it. Ya' think?

Here is one more for today's Thought for the Day. Have to say it in music. There are dozens of versions, but here is Springsteen with gospel backup singers in a rousing rendition:
 
 http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/this-little-light-of-mine-by-bruce-springsteen/5ghll18?q=song+this+little+light+of+mine+lyrics
 
Just DO it!

Greetings: I live (for now) on a barrier island off the coast of NC. The beaches are always moving. I will bw back when I get to a computer cause it's to hard to think and type on this stupid phone. Was just off Cape Lookout this past weekend. Now I'm here waiting on thousands of visitors that will be here for the holiday weekend.

Thanks for the compliment, Rapidgirl. Lighthouses for me are a metaphor for how we have to take the high road in life, even (and especially) when that's the more difficult path.....

Watch your S, Mr. Peterman, it's  F-r-e-S-n-e-l.  Watch it, because it's silent, of course...

Not as wel known and not a magnificant, but it is the one my great, great grandfather helped build.
   www.aseconlighthouse.org ;

aaaah, Willie, all is forgiven with Mr. P for that throwaway remark that the Egyptians were "good with monuments"

Sorry folks.  That should be www.abseconlighthouse.org.

Rusty---how cool to be able to point to something and say..."My great great grandpa helped with that!"  I'll bet he had some interesting stories of things that happened during construction or episodes where the lighthouse proved its worth.  I hope someone in the family remembers if he did and that they preserve them for the family/neighborhood history.

Hazel---You've told all of us in the Village so many wonderfully fascinating stories and I do hope, most sincerely, that you've made some effort to preserve them for your family.  Just an off-hand telling to an offspring usually won't do--9 times out of 10 they're not listening...  Please make sure you journal them or record them in some fashion.  Your library story is too priceless to be lost as are all of your others...young years in Africa, traveling back to the UK, helping your dad, etc. etc.  

Karma -- beat you to Hatteras in 1967; we also did Kill Devil Hill, Dad being an aeronautical engineer; I remember having to walk a long way to get to the ocean from the lighthouse; havent been back since.
Mooseloop -- hey friend, been up the SSI lighthouse quite a few times; they have a nice park below it now with miniature golf!  Too dang hot today in SE GA.
A lighthouse would be interesting to live in but it would have to be near pasture land so I can have my horse too.
They must be pretty darn sturdy with the many hurricanes that have hit them -- next house, I want a lighthouse builder to build it!

MOOSELOOP: The little Light Shack on Tybee is a favorite place to visit, and just contemplate all around ... Few people go to see the Old Lighthouse, and it gets relatively quite around there, so quite and so still, in fact, that one can hear the Mosquitos straffing at nite .......

Carol~ Thanks {blush} - I do have a stack of notebooks/sketchbooks that are a mottley collection of writings, to-do lists, doodles, things I have  written down overheard in places like the supermart chekout queue and those telephone numbers that I never wrote a name next to - who the hell is that? Lists of seeds/plants I want for my garden. Some of it is a spasmodic journal. I am, to say the least of it, a bit random in my habits. The words routine, systematic, organised, tidy, orderly are as much a fantasy to me as science fiction. I enjoy writing on this page as I can usually pull out some comment from my rag-bag of memories, and I do so enjoy the company of the Village and seeing what other people think.

amelie~ hello. Great post - welcome.

Lighthouse keepers, librarians, typists & typewriters, cobblers, cotton pickers, milliners, steeplejacks, lectors, telegraphers, milkmen, elevator operators, icemen, switchboard operators, file clerks, lamplighters, copy boys, chandlers, wainwrights and guys who know how to swing hydrometers and why: all vital in their time and now, pretty much things of the past or headed that way.I'm okay with that.
We live in an old house and I have spent time rewiring the original electric light fixtures if you can call something original that replaced the gas lamps built into the place a hundred and eleven years ago but I have no argument with the natural gas boiler or electric washer and dryer.
Times change and it's our job to get past sentimentality, if we can, and change with them.
I like light houses, have been on boats with people who love them... the caps, sweatshirts, tees and totes are a dead giveaway.
The views are marvelous but the construction and maintenance costs are such that a lot of us will outlive them unless we care to queue up and drop sixty, or maybe a hundred and sixty dollars apiece to poke around in one for an hour.
I fed carrots and apples to the milkman's horse, Dan, but the milk was a lot colder when it came on a truck.

I did go visit him in his retirement though until we moved away. He remembered which pocket had the treats.

Amelie--yes, welcome and your post was lovely. I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite today--the shining beacon seems to have brought out the eloquence in everyone. Today I am just watching your lights and waiting.

Jalopkin~ You beat me to Tybee Light. Once upon a time I was Postmaster of Savannah GA and most evenings I would  take the short drive (15 mi <>) to Tybee and walk the beach...

Amalie~ Yes!!! Great post. Welcome. Ya'll come back and see us now , heah?

How timely.  We took a trip today from Norwich, CT
down the Thames past Groton and New London, then out through the sound past
Mystic and on into the Pawcatuck, then docked in Westerly, RI.  It was only a
short adventure but there were several active and inactive lighthouses on the
way.  To me, the most interesting historically is the New London Ledge
Lighthouse.  It is abandoned now but sits at the mouth of the Thames River and
the New London Harbor.  It contributes sound effects to O'Neill's Long Day's
Journey Into Night, was said to be haunted and if I understand correctly, as I
was told, while being set in place, the first lens fell directly into the sea
and had to be replaced.  It was found years later buried in silt but still
intact.  Today it rests in the Smithsonian.  I have not fact checked with Snopes
and any of this could be legend, but that is one other thing that make
lighthouse history interesting.
 
 
http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=800
 
I have climbed to the top of many, they are
fascinating creatures.  But today, dear friends, while most of y'all were
unfortunately inside thinking and writing about them, I was fortunate enough to
be out in the water visiting with more than my share.
Wishing a good night to all.

Lighthouses can never be diminished even if they have lost their shine, nor will they be reduced to a mere cliche no matter how often they appear in novels and movies.

They have the power to dramatically increase the "scare factor" of even the most mundane thriller/horror movie and the heat of any romance. Once the main character steps into one and starts climbing....there is only one way to go, and that is up......until you can't.

Lighthouses never settle upon being mere props, they always rate equal billing with the main characters.

Some things are always best featured in a canvas of black-n-white-greyand sepia tobed...... Lighthouses are very comfortable in that world.

PAOLOS ~
That's just a little coincidental. You must be an Hr 5.
Good idea you have there: go out and live life. I wonder if it'll catch on.
Meanwhile, we have been trying to get a handle on a box of eight antique dolls that belonged to my wife's grandmother.
One, with Heinrich-Handwerck stencilled on her backside has what a friend's brother (or was it a brother's friend?) called "long luxuriable lashes" on the sleep eyes in her pretty bisque head.
There looks to be some value there but who knows?

Now where have my manners r u n n o f t too. welcome to you amalie, very nice post.

I've been to the Burnham-on-Sea several times and thought I was the only person who thought it noteworthy - a light in the dark is tall and bright no matter what the height of the lighthouse. My late Uncle Ron used to work for the early British Telecom when operators were at the switchboards and he used to take a call every once in a while from the lighthouse at Muckle Flugga - a lonely spot at the upper-most point of the Shetland Islands.  Look it up on a map and then satellite image - hard to believe that a human actually lived there year-round. As the daughter of a WW-II English War Bride - there is no spot in the UK that I wouldn't love reside - from Land's End to John O'Groats from St. Kilda to Muckle Flugga.

I've been to the Burnham-on-Sea several times and thought I was the only person who thought it noteworthy - a light in the dark is tall and bright no matter what the height of the lighthouse. My late Uncle Ron used to work for the early British Telecom when operators were at the switchboards and he used to take a call every once in a while from the lighthouse at Muckle Flugga - a lonely spot at the upper-most point of the Shetland Islands.  Look it up on a map and then satellite image - hard to believe that a human actually lived there year-round. As the daughter of a WW-II English War Bride - there is no spot in the UK that I wouldn't love reside - from Land's End to John O'Groats from St. Kilda to Muckle Flugga.

I've been to the Burnham-on-Sea several times and thought I was the only person who thought it noteworthy - a light in the dark is tall and bright no matter what the height of the lighthouse. My late Uncle Ron used to work for the early British Telecom when operators were at the switchboards and he used to take a call every once in a while from the lighthouse at Muckle Flugga - a lonely spot at the upper-most point of the Shetland Islands.  Look it up on a map and then satellite image - hard to believe that a human actually lived there year-round. As the daughter of a WW-II English War Bride - there is no spot in the UK that I wouldn't love reside - from Land's End to John O'Groats from St. Kilda to Muckle Flugga.

I've been to the Burnham-on-Sea several times and thought I was the only person who thought it noteworthy - a light in the dark is tall and bright no matter what the height of the lighthouse. My late Uncle Ron used to work for the early British Telecom when operators were at the switchboards and he used to take a call every once in a while from the lighthouse at Muckle Flugga - a lonely spot at the upper-most point of the Shetland Islands.  Look it up on a map and then satellite image - hard to believe that a human actually lived there year-round. As the daughter of a WW-II English War Bride - there is no spot in the UK that I wouldn't love reside - from Land's End to John O'Groats from St. Kilda to Muckle Flugga.

I've been to the Burnham-on-Sea several times and thought I was the only person who thought it noteworthy - a light in the dark is tall and bright no matter what the height of the lighthouse. My late Uncle Ron used to work for the early British Telecom when operators were at the switchboards and he used to take a call every once in a while from the lighthouse at Muckle Flugga - a lonely spot at the upper-most point of the Shetland Islands.  Look it up on a map and then satellite image - hard to believe that a human actually lived there year-round. As the daughter of a WW-II English War Bride - there is no spot in the UK that I wouldn't love reside - from Land's End to John O'Groats from St. Kilda to Muckle Flugga.

I've been to the Burnham-on-Sea several times and thought I was the only person who thought it noteworthy - a light in the dark is tall and bright no matter what the height of the lighthouse. My late Uncle Ron used to work for the early British Telecom when operators were at the switchboards and he used to take a call every once in a while from the lighthouse at Muckle Flugga - a lonely spot at the upper-most point of the Shetland Islands.  Look it up on a map and then satellite image - hard to believe that a human actually lived there year-round. As the daughter of a WW-II English War Bride - there is no spot in the UK that I wouldn't love to reside - from Land's End to John O'Groats from St. Kilda to Muckle Flugga.

homepark2~ You are not alone. Ask Bert .... I have seen the lighthouse at Muckle Flugga in glimpses between being seasick. AND I have been to Burnham on Sea (or is that Burnham on Crouch?) I assure you that in England's Green and Pleasant Land there are plenty of spots where you would not wish to reside.
My nearest lighthouse is South Stack near Holyhead on the island of Anglesey atop North Wales.

aaaaand, yawwwwn, it's duvet time in Wales. Nos da i pawb. (Night-night to everybody)

Stoney--Hr-5 is still visiting at my seat on Thesepia........he's really kind of a bore and I wish he would leave, but he doesn't seem to get the hint.  And he still just goes on & on & on until I acutally say, 'Stop!'  If Paolos is an Hr-5, I'm sure he's more entertaining than the one at my seat now!  

George and Jalopkin - So right about the Tybee Light...and the  mosquitoes! If the mosquitoes don't carry you off, the No-See-ums will drive you to frenzy!  George, you must know my friend Batman  (G. Varnadoe?) there!  Savannah - city of many faces: restored historic district, Bay St., port city, SCAD, good seafood, cobblestones, oppressive heat in summer, and some very nice people.