The word from Old Scituate Light

Long Time

2012-01-15T18:29:00.003-05:00

The blog has been on the back burner as the day jobs have stacked up.

It has been pleasantly quiet on the Point. The holidays passed, basketball resumed, I have thought that this small task and that have not been worthy of a report.

One project that has emerged is a collaboration between Julie and I with some photographs she is taking. On their own, they may be the basis for the Historical Society calendar for 2013. We are going to tackle that challenge with some help from our friend Nancy.

What I have been fooling with at odd moments is adding in some special effects to the raw material of Julie's shots. Here are some examples:

The goal has been to enhance the light or the bring out a detail through cropping. They are pretty good to start. I am having fun learning how to put them through the software to a different advantage.

Remember that you can click on any picture to make it bigger.

In the Gallery

2011-12-19T19:06:00.002-05:00

Even December mornings have a unique feel to them here.

The colors this morning were like those in Surrealist painting.

I got to the kitchen sink and knew I had to take a few shots.

Perfect Day for an Elf to Visit

2011-12-11T21:18:00.001-05:00

A wonderful tradition was extended another year.

Flying Santa began visiting Lighthouses and Coast Guard stations in 1929. We welcomed here to Cedar Point today around 2:30 this afternoon. A great crowd was managed perfectly by the Scituate police and fire department and no one went home with out a smile. Julie's photographs are below. I will be adding in some video taken from the ground and from the Tower later. You will want to check back to see the sweep of the helicopter as it delivered Old Saint Nick to Old Scituate Light.

Santa arrived roaring out of the sun from the south and circled Lighthouse Park and the Light twice before swinging into place in the center of the parking lot. He was met by Betty Kincaid and Dave Ball of the Cedar Point Association, and then Julie, Haley and I were feted with glorious gifts just as the keepers of the most remote Lights once were. A bag filled with fruits and nuts and sweets to tide us over through the long winter ahead. I can guarantee we will not fall prey to scurvy here! I also received some amazing photographs and documents connected to the history of the Light. That package was signed Ebenezer Osbourne though. He was last seen serving here in 1849. I will need to figure out if I have a ghost story here after all.

Attending to Santa was Dolly Bicknell, the daughter of the New England icon Edward Rowe Snow. She shared some thank you notes that her father held onto, including one from Scituate Keeper Jamie Turner. I was even more thrilled when she passed those on for me to scan for the Historical Society. You see Dolly with Santa in the second to last photo above.

The kids were in awe of the helicopter as much as they were celebrating the visit of Father Christmas. It was one elegant bird. Below is a shot I got where you have the technology of today in the foreground and the technology of the past in the back. There were more dials in there than you would see in a nuclear reactor. Some kids were able to climb in for a minute or two and have a picture taken. I doing that next year for sure.

Curiously we ended up with a zillion candy canes once again. Either Haley has sticky fingers or Santa was even more generous than last year. Stacked together you would have one very long barber pole.

Check back in a day or so when I get the video edited and see for yourself the rush that this event brought to Cedar Point once again. Every day here is a gift and this one had many, many bows on it.

Behind the Scenes

2011-12-04T18:01:00.001-05:00

I noted last week that I had my hands on a wide angle lens to take a shot on behalf of Google. I took some others too that will give you a peek at the Cottage layout.

Remember that you can click on any image for a larger shot.

Next Sunday we have the annual visit from Flying Santa taking place here at 2:30 in the afternoon. An earlier notice had said the date was Saturday but the rendezvous has been put back a day. This is always a thrill for anyone who visits Cedar Point or who lives here. Cross your fingers that good weather will welcome the Jolly Old Elf to the Jolly Old Light.

You Pick!

2011-11-27T18:17:00.001-05:00

Last week Google's Cambridge office contacted the Historical Society with a request for a photograph they could duplicate for a wall size poster.

I looked through what I had and I sent a shot on. The response was a request for a wide angle, high definition image. I set out to get one.

First I had to visit our neighbor Linda who had the wide angle lens I needed. A trip to the top of the Tower though revealed that I had some work to do to make that lantern presentable. Birds get in there from time to time and they leave their mark.

I started by disassembling the lantern. I brought it down stairs where I gave it a scrubbing. This set of images shows you the before and the often asked question about the size of the bulb. The next set you see is the lens apart and reassembled.

With the lantern back in place I turned my attention to the windows. I have cleaned them all four or five times now and it was a perfect day to go outside for that chore. The wind was down and the squeeqee/towel combination took the brine right off. The prize here was this great shot of First Cliff in the reflection.

Working up there also let me adjust the web cams and rework the wires. I wrote about moving the cameras in the last post and you will want to check in there when a storm is on. The look North is a great shot that includes the ocean and the drive off up Rebecca Road.

The three shots I sent to Google are below. Let me know which you would choose in their shoes.

The final chore of the weekend was to meet my obligation to hang a Christmas wreath on the Tower and on the house. I am pleased to say I was able to do it on my own this time and do it right the first time. A photograph of the Tower with a wreath was described to me as an iconic Scituate image. Come on down and get one for yourself.

Thanks to Ronny and Cindy Simon of R&C Farms for the beautifully assembled wreaths. Consider them when you are shopping all year round. Drop by the Little Red Schoolhouse too and check out the cards, books, and other items for the holidays. Each purchase helps the Historical Society in its mission of education and historic preservation. The Schoolhouse is open 10-4 Monday to Saturday.

New Perspective

2011-11-24T12:05:00.001-05:00

Have you checked out the web cams lately. I have made a move.

Taking the suggestion of a neighbor, I took the Harbor Cam and pointed it north. The harbor has emptied out for the winter and the action in the upcoming season will come from the northeast the way it always does.

Just today there has been a significant spillover and the road is once again filled with seven or eight inches of rocks. Fred Flintstone time again here on Cedar Point.

The camera is set so that it is possible to watch the clean up that just began. As I was typing I heard the sound of a front end loader begin its scrape across the roadway. If you were clicked into the camera you could watch it live.

To give you one last look at the harbor I have put together a time elapse video that begins in April and ends in early November. Watch the moorings fill up and empty out again by clicking this link.

I have done some research into a camera that could be controlled on line to pan and zoom. I hope that just after the first of the year I can bring something like that on line.

I would love it if the word went out that checking in with these camera was the way to check out the waves. About a month ago now I saw five people knocked off the seawall by a rogue wave, all of them older than I am. Drenched and embarrassed, but thankfully not hurt, they made their way back to their cars. One woman may have voted for Truman in 48. She should not have been where she was. The cameras are a remedy for that. I get queasy thinking about the day when someone does get hurt out there.

My father regularly described his academic success in these terms, "I belonged to the half that made the top half possible." Watching people watch the waves makes me think he would have a great deal of competition today. The bottom half gets bigger with every storm. Tell them about the cameras before someone, especially a kid brought here by a dense parent, finds him or herself in the water.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Extreme Makeover - Lighthouse Edition

2011-11-11T18:20:00.001-05:00

Back in August the Utility room here at the Lighthouse went under the surgeon's knife. Needing more than just plastic surgery, this room had been the neglected Cinderella of the house since 1930.

Take a peak at this link to a You Tube video to watch the transformation. Then click back to read the rest.

The project had a great number of challenges. There needed to be a coordination of efforts on the part of the general contractor, the plumbing contractor, the electrical contractor, and the heating contractor. Working around an historic site was another. Each party had to be aware of the potential to discover a relic or a clue to how the room was used over the years. We had evidence of the store on site in the records from the twenties and thirties. We eventually found a LaSalle Club Orange Soda bottle cap and a advertisement for Schraft chocolate. The Schraft sign was an astonishing find as I was digging below the floor. It somehow survived there more than 70 years. There was also evidence as I noted in an earlier post that the room had been a cobbler's shop.

I also found several names carved into the wall boards and the studs. Iggy and Belz had a dart board and Vareika's ace foreman cut out those boards for me while working on the shingling of the western wall. You will see that next time you visit along with a piece of sheet rock I cut out from the years that George Downton was marking the storms and the cats here at the Lighthouse.

The name Roy was also carved into that same wall and a little digging revealed that in the 1920 census Roy Spear lived here with Captain Cushman. Roy was the brother in law of Cushman's daughter and he and his family were listed alongside the Captain's as boarders. I am thinking the Belz noted above was a nickname for Ellsworth Spear.

The biggest find of all came when Wood Electric needed access to a stairway that had been blocked off when insulation was added to the cellar floor in the mid 90's. I had been told to leave that door alone, but when we had to open that path for the project I jumped at the chance to take a few pictures. While taking my snaps of as old a door as there is in this place, I noticed that the stairwell walls were lined with cardboard. Peeling a piece back I found printing and my adrenalin began to climb. Retrieving a staple puller, I popped out light nails to reveal movie posters from the Satuit Playhouse. I eventually uncovered seven of them, four in pretty good shape. A quick trip to the Google machine uncovered that the August in question was 1945. These were posters from the week the Second World War ended.

In the last few weeks that stairway has been reworked into a closet. My brother in law took on the task for us and gave us a way to tuck a few things behind a door when the need arises. Deciding to retrieve the last of these movies posters I found another one. A week earlier, different movies, and a date that no history teacher forgets: August 6, 1945. Hiroshima. The Atomic Bomb.

Though not in as good a shape as the prior finds, this one will share a spot in the renovated room. The stories we have to tell are growing still.

A major part of this project was the replacement of the heating system. Shawn Harris Enterprises arranged for the donation of a boiler, an oil tank, and an indirect water heater for the Cottage. We are ever grateful to Shawn and to Smith Boilers and Roth Tanks for their generosity. 190 feet of copper were used in the rebuilding of the heating system. Having researched the burst pipes that Betty Foster and her family lived with here, this upgrade was 30 years over due. What had been a mess of crossed and corroding pipes is now akin to a perfect copper sculpture.

I can say the same about the work Tom Galligan and his plumbers did on their side of the job and Charlie Wood and his right hand, Charlie B. on the wiring. There was Knob and Tube in the walls of this room. Prior to this project I would have told you Knob and Tube were an 80's Punk band, but I found out that it was an old and currently (pun intended) dangerous kind of wiring. The junction box that was created to clean up this mess is a plain masterpiece of organization and efficiency. I was dazzled as I watched him work on it. We were very fortunate that Charlie was available as our neighbor Jerry Houghton originally was awarded the job in the bidding and had to withdraw at the 11th hour when he broke his wrist.

The room also had the floor taken up, planed and finished and reset in place. Above is the diagram that the star of the whole project, Vareika foreman Chuck, drew early on and worked from as the floor came back in. The floor is amazing now and a review of the video at the top of the post would prove me out. What was a blueish gray painted floor, in part covered by a white vinyl tile and an odd navy mesh rug, is now a glowing in the afternoon sun pleasure to slide across in your stocking feet. If the restoration did only that it would have been stunning. The ceiling was raised roughly 6 inches, light fixtures were found that fit the period when the room was once a store, new wall and trim colors went up, our washer and dryer were united side by side in a new spot, as at the start the washer was against the shingled wall and the dryer in the corner by the electrical panels. Current codes have that as a no no and I was thrilled to bring them together as a Siamese match.

What had been an eyesore and a hazard is now a room we can enjoy, work in, and use to teach the story of this amazing place. I have already brought a bunch of books into the house that I had dragged away to storage. Through the hurricane of late August and the subsequent power outage, through the looney tune wedding guests who came strolling up the walk to use the damned Porta Potty, through the unexpected need to replace half the roof when we discovered ceiling boards drenched through like sponges, through the search for a plasterer who could abide the regulations that came with the job, through the who knows how many welds it takes to snake 190 feet of copper and the patience of pulling wire after wire to a new destination, through the fun of speculating just what secret the place would spill in a given day, the project was never boring and always teaching. What's next in year 201? Check back here to find out.

We Have A Winner

2011-10-22T20:16:00.000-04:00

Late in August Carolyn Bearce approached the Historical Society with an idea and a painting.Mrs. Bearce offered the painting as a prize in a fundraiser for the Lighthouse. Sales of tickets began with the Lighthouse Anniversary Dinner and continued through the last Open House last Sunday. My sister Lee gave the jar a shake and pulled the ticket just before 4:00. Marie Sullivan of Scituate was the winner and she picked up her prize on Tuesday afternoon. Julie did the honors with the camera while I made the hand off. The Society wants to thank all who participated and offers its collective congratulations to Mrs. Sullivan.

Don't Try This At Home

2011-10-16T22:21:00.000-04:00

One part Smash Up Derby, one part Open House.

Preparations began early for the last open house of the season. Running the vac, hiding the sweatshirts, laying out the few things we put on sale each time, setting up the renovated Utility room to serve as the gate, these things take time and as a result we missed the big crash.

This was the scene at 12:40 when I finally made it out of the house in an attempt to drop Haley off at the Bates House on Jericho Road where she was going to volunteer today. An errant driver, (ya think), had put his car up on the seawall and it became the event of the day. He was not hurt badly as when he was removed from the car there was not the sense of urgency one might sense if there was a critical injury. He can be seen here on the right of the frame, his neck immobilized and the EMT's readying to move him to the ambulance. I was only a few feet away as they rolled him down the sidewalk and would describe him as a 50 plus gentleman who had one of the worst days ever. And wait for the bills to start rolling in.

Black humor emerged along with speculation as to how one could have arrived by car in such a spot. "Maybe he needs a new GPS." "Doesn't he know you can't drive to Dublin?" "Is that the new Ford Escape commercial?" The truth of the matter is likely to be a lot less funny. The fence that forms an angle with the handicap parking spot was clipped by the car before it did its Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang act. This could have been much worse if the usual crew of bicycles and baby carriages had been in the neighborhood. I don't know enough physics to figure it out, but he had to have been flying.

The story then shifted to how in the world were the authorities going to remove the car from the wall. Our tours had begun by then so I was cut off from most of the on the spot reporting. Julie and my sister Lee picked up the slack.

Having decided that the first flat bed truck sent to remove the car would not be adequate, those in charge shifted to the heavy lifters. Here you can see them rigging the car.

And at last it was up and off the wall.

Kudos to Julie for working her photojournalistic magic.

The highlight of the tours today was a visit from a couple related to the third light keeper Ebenezer Osbourne. They brought information that indicates that one of Keeper Osbourne's sons was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the Civil War. William Henry Osborne was wounded at Mulvern Hill, returned to the battle despite his wounds, and was wounded terribly a second time. While the couple were here I was able to check the census records for 1840 and saw there that Osbourne had a son of the appropriate age. It is another example of how each day this building pulls out another remarkable Scituate story or connection. I thank Ms. McKenna for her contribution.

With luck there will be a heating system in this cottage once again on Tuesday. The renovation is quite close to its finish and I am eager to get the giant pod out of the driveway.

I am even more eager to be rid of the Porta Potty. Last weekend, while Julie and I ran out to move the laundry from washer to dryer, an entire wedding party came up the driveway, turned the unit in order to use it, (I had turned it so it was blocked from use,) and rattled Haley with the racket they made.

I came back and thanked them profusely as they sat in their bus waiting for the bride and groom to head onto the reception. I thanked them again and again for ignoring the four different signs that mark the property as private, and for having the nerve to move the unit, and mostly for thinking nothing of spooking my kid. I told them they were a wonderful bunch of guys who probably thought of themselves as brilliant.

It was not the first time I thought that some members of a wedding party were only invited in order to be sure that they weren't going to break into the house of the betrothed. What happened to being a class act? Three weeks ago a young man walked into the house at 3:30 in the afternoon, in a tuxedo and with a beer in his hand. I turned him around and muttered down the driveway that there are all kinds of stupid out there.

I wonder if any of those guys owns a Ford Escape in need of some repair.

Long Time Gone

2011-10-09T21:51:00.000-04:00

Sit back. This could take a while.

The blog has been on the back burner for three weeks as one project after another has captured my time. The clubs I advise have been put on their feet at school, a new responsibility there has required some attention, and the ongoing renovation of the utility room coincided with preparations for the Lighthouse Anniversary dinner.

150 interested friends gathered at the dinner on Friday September 30, 2011 at the Barker Tavern. I was especially pleased to have so many of the former Lighthouse families have their work and affection for the Light acknowledged by an audience. Representatives of the Bates, Waterman, Prouty, Cushman, Cole, Abell, and Gillis families were presented with Certificates of Gratitude for their service. Other families not in attendance will be sent theirs through the mail as soon as we can get solid addresses.

One of the highlights for me was having Haley offer a toast.

I started with a lighthearted look at the many carvings you can find in the Tower. It was an icebreaker that worked. Who knows maybe Jennifer Lopez has visited the Light?

From there I was off on the history I have researched. I will offer the same thanks here that I offered last Friday night as this project was very much a pyramid and was built by many hands.

"First, to Dave Ball who handed me this ball and has let merun with it. He is the expert and I amthe apprentice.

To Betty Miesner and to Carol Miles I am grateful for theirdigging into things I could not get to or did not know existed at all.

To Chris Hall, Jesse Morrell, Connie and Laurie Abel, BettyFoster, and the local history belles ofthe Town Archives and Town Library. I hopethat they recognize that by their sharing of their personal memories all of us aremade richer.

To my cousin Joan who came through with more gifts fromUncle Tom.

To all the Trustees and Volunteers of the Society forputting up with my learning curve.

To my own Army of Two - They have given their time and putup with me talking to myself. No goodthing happens without them."

I have considered all sorts of things I would have liked to include in the talk. I should have done more on the Blizzard of 78. I should have asked if any of the other families had anything to share. I might have offered some of the unexpected stories I have shared here, of singing Light Keeper songs and being sea sick in bed for instance. Coulda, shoulda, woulda, is not really my style but I think a great deal is still out there to be said at another time.

Several noticed that I said little about the Army of Two. In 2014 we will remedy that.

We had the unexpected happen in the midst of the talk when an audience member was taken ill and the Scituate Fire Department was called in response. They were the epitome of professionalism as always and the audience managed to be enormously sensitive to this misfortune and to my presentation at once. Kudos to Paula McCloud who managed the evening for the Barker Tavern. She was a smiling grace under fire throughout the episode.

Another highlight of the evening was this photograph of former Light House residents gathered in front of the Barker Tavern fireplace. All those years ago the land for the Light was taken from Mr. Barker. You could say we gathered at his house to celebrate all the events and people that followed from that. Thanks to Kate Leary for this photograph.

The other track I have been following is the renovation of the utility room. I have a battery of photographs that cover that story and I will be posting them when there are no more trips to the laundry mat, no more tourists eager to use the porta potty brought in for the construction crew, no more twists in schedule that push back the completion date. The work looks spectacular and I can't wait to revise the manner in which we introduce people to the Cottage during the Open House days. I have learned a ton about that wing and a great deal has been unexpected. Some things I have shared earlier but there are a few new turns that for now will be left mysterious.

We have been extremely fortunate to have a great guy here throughout the project as foreman for Vareika Construction. He is extremely averse to having an attention turned his way and as a result I won't name him here. What I will do is state as clearly as I can that this guy is the best of the American working man. He earns every dollar and the work is going to hold up a long, long time.

We have been doing without heat as the new boiler is to be installed late in this coming week. There were a few nights this past week when we were truly roughing it here. The efforts of the turn of the century Jetty Light Keepers, Prouty and Cushman, became that much more admired when you could see your breath in the bathroom while shaving. Could that be why they had beards?

The last Open House date for the year is next Sunday, October 16, 2011 from 1:00 to 4:00. All the Society sites will be open. Of particular notice is the opening of the Stockbridge Mill for the first time in 20 years. This is the oldest working mill in the United States and millwright Andy Shrake is making a special trip to Scituate to help the Society run it. You will not want to miss a chance to see one of the most basic of technologies, and one of the most important, in action once again.

We Will Not Forget

2011-09-10T21:24:00.000-04:00

A year ago I offered a brief video of a brilliant day here on the Point. Today I offer this sky.

At the other blog I posted some remarks I was asked to give to the faculty and students of my high school. Check them out for a lengthier treatment of some fundamental ideas.

We will not forget and our ability to marvel at the sky and laugh with our families and share this place in all the ways we do is more evidence that even when our hearts are broken we find a way to thrive in our day to day joys. No enemy can take that from us and each day we live so well we reveal those fiends as liars.

Get Dressed Up

2011-09-07T17:30:00.001-04:00

Are you planning on attending the Lighthouse Anniversary Dinner?

If you are and will not be able to get to the Little Red Schoolhouse between 10-4 Monday through Saturday, drop me a line at scituatelight@comcast.net to let me know how many tickets you would like to reserve and what you menu choice might be. You can choose from rump steak, chicken marsala, or herb crusted haddock.

Send your name, a contact phone number, and your choices. I will take it from there and get back to you to figure out how we can exchange your check for these oh so valuable ducats. You don't want to be left out of this birthday extravaganza for Scituate's favorite historical site. Lets hear from you today.

No Sense

2011-08-28T10:25:00.000-04:00

I have been watching some real dummies here in the last few minutes.

One guy was texting as his daughter kept skirting toward the waves. He was not paying anything like attention.

Another couple took their dog a third of the way out on the Jetty. She had flip flops on. On Friday I had to call 911 when a gentleman took a fall out there on a perfect day. He had New Balance on. Just a dumb move on her part to event think about being there. If either one of them had gone in there was nothing to be done.

Lots of cameras have arrived. The wind is making focusing impossible but they are trying. The surf is starting to go sideways and more of it is airborne than before. Parents continue to walk up with 45 pound children. Not the best of ideas today.

Peaking at Irene

2011-08-28T09:31:00.000-04:00

The web cams are working. There is a limit to how many people can be viewing them at one time though so you may have to check back. Right now the Harbor does not look all that stirred up and the Jetty is where the action is. I may go up and make an adjustment to them to get more of the show on camera.

We are several hours from the big wind. There are people all around the Light and the parking lot. I have seen at least two kids in their pajamas and one lady who nearly had her dress whipping up like a reversed umbrella. It was not Marilyn Monroe and the Subway from Seven Year Itch; it was more like Karen Allen fighting her way through the cob webs and the mummies in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I am sure I will see more like it and I am waiting for the TV trucks to return.

Channel 5 gathered a crowd in front of the Tower last night. I was working at the desk when I noticed all sorts of people stopped and milling around on the seawall in front. Haley had gone out to retrieve the cat (one of these days I need to write about the cat)(Inexplicably, I have a cat.) and she filled me in when she got inside.

Not as many cameras as I expected from the crowd gathered now. A few holding on to their hats and their families as they navigate the sidewalk. I have reporter in the the little courtyard taking notes with a mother and daughter and he is getting a few frames. Former Selectmen Andy Zilonis just went up and back too. Julie tells me the parking lot is pretty full. A red hat just came flying back towards this window from the area of the Tower. And there is the guy who was wearing it scuttling along trying to catch it. High Tide is about 90 minutes away. I'll be back later to report.

Another First

2011-08-26T20:56:00.000-04:00

Thanks go out to the many callers and guests who have expressed concern during the last few days about the upcoming storm and our prospects here. We are prepared.

The flags came down two days ago and the lightest of the furniture in the yard has joined the grill in the runway. Water and batteries and a new crank flashlight/radio (with an alarm button Haley seems to enjoy) have been stock piled. Anything that needs to be charged up has been charged up, phones, computers, Ipods, electric screwdriver. I have planks if I need planks. We are good to go.

An usual twist has been that there is a great big storage container in the driveway for the household items that normally are wedged into the Utility Room. That came in handy for rafts and the like. The renovation of that room began this week and so far so good is the summary. The archaeology of the project has revealed a painted on dart board with the names of Belz and Igge, a bottle cap from a LaSalle Club Orange Soda, several pieces of old leather and a boot heal nailed to the wall above. The other items are pictured below.

I had never heard a word about the Utility Room being used as a cobbler shop, until Monday morning when plumber extraordinaire Tom Galligan threw it out as a given. He said one of his brothers told him. We did know of it being a store and I went to Town Hall Wednesday and tracked down all the store licenses from 1925 to 1939. The 1928 license is below.

Notice the list: "Ice Cream, confectionary, soda water & fruit." Bernice Cushman held the license until 1937 when Cora Cobbett took it over until 1939.

Another story confirmed is that the wing once took fire. At several points charring was discovered and this confirmed a story told to me only a few weeks ago. A one time neighbor, Joe Arena, shared that his father once got Jamie and Jesse Turner out of the Cottage after a lightning strike. The boards are on the floor behind me as I write. Between that and the old wire in place, and countless other opportunities for the match to have struck, it is a flat out miracle that we are having this birthday.

One last note on being prepared for the storm ahead while construction is taking place. Tonight, in what was a first for me, I used ratchet straps to lash a Porta Potty to the Storage Container to offer some protection against it tipping over in the wind. Ratchet straps and Porta Potty; I never dreamed I would ever use them in the same sentence.

What the Web Cam Might be

2011-08-17T21:13:00.000-04:00

Check out this panorama. I am wondering if I could place the web cams in such a way that you see this angle. It would fantastic to have this view of a storm. Maybe on the weekend I will fool around once again.

Tickets are on sale now for the Lighthouse Anniversary Dinner to be held on September 30, at the Barker Tavern. Head over to the Little Red Schoolhouse for yours. It is going to be a fun night paying tribute to the families who have cared for the place and remembering the many vicissitudes of life on Cedar Point.

Recharging the Batteries

2011-08-12T20:02:00.000-04:00

The week has run away from me.

Last weekend more than 400 were welcomed here for the two day Open House. Aided by Peter and Barbara Whitfield, Lee Coscia, and Nancy Fay, Julie and I put the best foot forward and had a good time doing it. I saw many familiar faces and the recurrent theme was enthusiasm to be out of the rain (on Sunday) and to hear a story or two. Guests who had already been to Lawson Tower wanted to know how many steps to the top of the Light. They were pooped from climbing the hundred plus at Lawson.

Friday night saw the annual Luminaria. Haley and I pitched in with the placing and the lighting of the candles on both jetties. There was a less frantic feeling than in the past two years. People walked the Point and out on the breakwaters but the buzz was subdued. I took a different approach to the photography this year too. I decided to be creative with the camera and abandoned the conventional. Some of the results are below.

It was great fun to fool around with the lights; a twist here and a slide there and the red and green of the navigation lights along with the candles and the moon were mixed up like a highway scene. I got the one below entirely by accident. A young man was walking by as I was chatting at the fence and his toy created this flare across the screen.

Another twist to the weekend was the question of where to fly our signal flags. "Don't Give Up the Ship" has become a mania here on Cedar Point, and all across Scituate. I couldn't take that flag off the pole and with it there the signal flags would end up in the bushes. Improvisation was called for and that is a school teacher's strength.

Hanging them off the Tower has shown off the colors and prompted question after question. It is always good to get people talking.

Preparations continue for the reconstruction of the utility room. A storage pod will be arriving next week for the furniture and appliances we have in there. In the middle of this week I was finally able to confirm the date for the building of that wing. In an 1838 Report Naval officer Edward Carpender writes the the (then current keeper) had built the wing for a tenant. Others had written this but I never knew how they knew. Thanks to Jeremy D'Entremont and to Dave Ball who helped out in that search. The binders are bulging with documents and with pictures. All that remains is to discover a picture of the store that operated out of that wing in the 20's and 30's. C'mon, I know its out there!!

Heritage Days 2011

2011-08-05T07:40:00.000-04:00

The Big Weekend arrives.

Tonight the Heritage Days kick off with the annual Luminaria up and down the coast. Haley will be out there helping the cause and I am eager to see what we can get from the web cams.

Tomorrow all the historical sites are open from 1:00 to 4:00 for tours. I have been researching over the past few days and I have found a few new things to share. Never mind the brickabrack for sale in the harbor - visit a historic site and put the Heritage back into Heritage Days.

Local historian David Corbin will be speaking tomorrow night at the Grand Army of the Republic Hall. Tickets are still available. David has a wealth of knowledge and weaves together the neighborhoods of Scituate as well as anyone can. On August 19th Bob Chessia will speak on Thomas Lawson, drawing from his deep supply of stories and slides. That event will also be at the GAR Hall.

Kayak Panoramas

2011-07-30T18:54:00.005-04:00

I paddled out this afternoon and took some snapshots with a little camera we have here. Then I worked them together in Photoshop. Neat looks that most couldn't ever see. Makes you want to get a boat I bet. Be sure to click on them to get the best look.

Perfect

2011-07-28T17:51:00.002-04:00

Click on the image to check out a perfect twilight hour here

Full Days

2011-07-23T16:30:00.000-04:00

The projects are adding up and the weeks flying by.

The second Open House of the year took place on Sunday July 10, 2011. Aided by Peter and Barbara Whitfield and Dick Egan, Julie and I welcomed about 160 guests through the Cottage and the Tower between 1:00 and 4:00. It was our first effort without Haley who had a prior commitment and against the odds we managed.

Family came by on Thursday the 14th with a visit from the Hills. Nadine, Annie, Sophie and Clark caught some beach time. We can't get enough of the cousins. And because I was working, Clark broke tradition and did not fall asleep on my lap.

Peter and Barbara returned later in the week with the Arizona contingent of their family. Scott and Lisa arrived with four of their eight children and the pleasure was all ours. There were stories of the old Satuit Playhouse where Scott worked as did my sister Christine. There were stories of the Old Golden Rooster where Scott may have crossed paths with my old friend the Roches. Good Scituate in the late seventies stuff. There was also an education in vocabulary as the Arizona kids had to be introduced to terms like "chop" for waves or "breakwater" for jetty. None of those phrases are in use in the land of the cactus.

Last Saturday Haley and I took to the seas with the Historical Society on a cruise to the Cape Cod Canal. The narration by Doug Bingham was a perfect complement to a beautiful day on the water. I was glad to have my cousin Susan on board with her husband Mike and got to chat with different groups all through the afternoon. Haley was in charge of the raffle and was at her most entertaining. Thanks to Dick and Margaret Egan for their help with that game.

The highlight for me was the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. It was an incredible campus to see from the water, inspirational, in fact. I thought of the many friends who are graduates of the Academy and was reminded of their justified pride in that place. If there was one surprise in the day, it was that we saw so few day tripping fishermen. I expected to see boat after boat with an anchor down and a line in the water. They were not out there last Saturday.

Work on the shed continued Monday and was wrapped up on Thursday afternoon. I have returned most of what will be stored there permanently to its new place. It is as tight as a drum and as solid as a Marine's belly. Thanks once again to Chuck, Rodney, Jay and Pete. They will be back in August to work on the utility room and put the fence back in place.

Tuesday saw two school groups arrive just around 1:00pm. The first was a group of French students from the Sister City program. David Givens and Patricia Jacquart were taking the group around and despite the language barrier they seemed to enjoy their time here. All of them went home with Lighthouse T shirts to help remember the visit.

The second group was from a camp in Cambridge MA. 28 kids between 15 and 6 were split into two groups with Haley handling the Tower and me sharing the history in the Cottage. We swapped sets after 20 minutes or so and everyone got the full ride. Having these groups here is a treat. There are conversations you would never have otherwise. There are insights into just how much people are the same and just how much kids want to strike that balance between fitting in and standing out. The people watcher in me does not have to go far. The crowd comes to me.

One of the more interesting stories I was told over the two weeks happened in the middle of the Open House. I was discussing the grounding of Etrusco and a gentleman who had been in the room popped back in. He shared that he was from Paris and that he summered in Portugal. While on vacation outside of Lisbon a freighter of similar size to Etrusco ended up on the beach of his little town. It was full of corn though and the hull breached spreading this corn up and down the coast. One of the solutions suggested was that the corn be fed to fatten up the chickens. The chickens would not cooperate though and the beach was a mealy mess for a while.

I can't imagine another setting where anecdotes like that would fall into my life so readily. The days are full and it isn't all work. And that's not chicken feed.

Updates

2011-07-14T22:21:00.006-04:00

Several images to serve as a follow up from the last post. Remember that you can click on each image in all the posts to see a larger version. Clicking the back arrow on your browser will return you to the Blog.


Harbor at Sunrise

This is a web cam shot taken at 6:00 am as the sun comes up and bathes the boats at the moorings in a soft coral light. The next is from the same camera at 8:30 at night. The bright glow on the right is the Yacht Club.

Below is a sign that the construction of the new shed nears its completion - I will take another when I fill it up.

Varieka Construction of West Bridgewater has done a terrific job this week. The work they did with the excavation and return of materials after the foundation was set was tremendous. And when that nail gun gets going, look out. They came with a plan and they have followed it to the letter, even as horseflies buzzed and visitors questioned. Comparing this shed to the last one is like comparing a loaded Lincoln to a two wheeled tricycle. These guys are bona fide Pros. Thanks Chuck. Thanks Pete. Thanks to the others who spent a day on site but whose names were never shared.

Moving On

2011-07-06T22:47:00.001-04:00

Two positive developments trump one dope.

The last post included the term "web cam" in the title. We got two.

Having developed a relationship with the Raytheon Corporation over the past two years, specifically with engineers Colin Pellagrino and Tom Doyle, I have been able to get their assistance in placing two web cams in the top of the Tower. I am thrilled about this development as it is one I daydreamed about in the months prior to being selected Light Keeper here. Just when they will be accessible is not clear but I am linking to a YouTube preview of what is in store.

Tower Web Cam 01

The second positive is that work began today on replacing the damaged storage shed. The pictures below tell that story.

Tomorrow the digging begins for the new foundation. By the end of next week The Boxing Day Blizzard will finally be a distant memory. The contractors told me today that six bent nails were all that was holding the shed to the runway. We will do better this time around.

Another Reason for the Web Cam

2011-07-02T20:27:00.002-04:00

Bear with me readers as I figure out a way to share this story with you delicately.

There is no task that makes me feel more like an old time light keeper than washing windows. Time and again in the Light House Service inspectors' reports there are black marks against this keeper and that, on just how clean the windows were up in the Tower. Right now those big panes are pretty good but for a drop here or there from a bird or two.

Late yesterday afternoon I decided to break out the squeegee and the cloths and capture that elbow grease and vinegar feeling again. The window by the kitchen sink is always a challenge in and out. It picks up a lot of dirt when the window box gets watered and it takes the rain and wind from the east. Up and down with screen and storm; inside and outside, and the view improved. From there it was the other big windows in the kitchen with the same routine. The setting sun showed that the big window that looks out on the parking lot downstairs was as foggy as the mists of Brigadoon. That required a ladder. The ladder was recovered from the mess that is the utility room; the panes scoured and wiped to satisfaction.

As the hour approached 7:00 the numbers of visitors grew. While up on the ladder I remembered that I had promised myself I would not quit until I got the bathroom window washed. That window had been the genesis of the whole project as I opened it for the breeze in the morning and saw the neglect. Just as I opened the curtain and pulled up the shade I saw a man, my age or older, approaching the window. He was beginning to unbuckle his belt. His intent was clear. Discretion was not a choice.

"Hey!, Hey!, What on God's green Earth are you doing?", I yelled out the window. "Are you some kind of moron? This is my house!"

His wife was with him and the pair scampered up the walkway and up around the Tower.
(And isn't that a great Friday night for her. 'Honey, lets walk up to the Lighthouse and maybe I can get arrested for public indecency'.) I wasn't done yet.

I headed for the kitchen door. Finger wagging I started yelling again. "Hey!, Hey! What's your name? What's your name? I always like to know who the stupidest SOB in Scituate is!" With his neck almost breaking from counting the bricks in the Tower to avoid eye contact, and his wife grabbing his elbow like a department store detective who has just caught a shoplifter, they made tracks down Rebecca Road. Better there, I thought, than on the wall outside my office.

Then my thinking went in a million directions.

There were easily 100 people around the Point at the time. A big group of kids and adults was on a scavenger hunt (these have become the rage around here) and I feel certain that finding the spot where Uncle Leaky let loose on the Cottage wall was not on their list of things to find.

I wondered if, on other days, his wife followed him around with a baggie on her hand as the dog walkers do.

I wondered if I had been able to get a cop here fast, could I have delayed the discussion long enough to have the guy hoping from leg to leg like a five year old after a Big Gulp and a two hour car ride.

I wondered if he only did this at historical sites the way that people take on the challenge of visiting every major league ballpark.

I wondered if he made it home.

There are nuts out there and they come here from time to time. I had to share this and I hope I have avoided offending any sensibilities. It was crazier than the three brides side by side, with mothers cursing. It was crazier than the Sunday morning dog lady. It was crazier than the kid who was going to climb up the flag pole line.

This morning, out watering the flowers, I thought of a line from the film director Billy Wilder, a Holocaust survivor, "No matter how cynical you are, it is hard to keep up." All I wanted to do was clean a few windows. For my trouble I get to chase Watering Plants off the reservation.

The Word I was Looking for was Scattershot

2011-06-23T19:40:00.005-04:00

If a lack of a unifying theme has seemed the rule in this blog it is because I am living a scattered life of late.

First up, Betty Miesner had a request of me last week and I can't deny her. She was contacted by a friend who's sister has a blog concerning the labor organizers known as the Molly Maguires. I include the link here to that blog. This was a fascinating era in American life and the teacher in me could not resist it. Sometimes you have to go a bit off topic when a healthy curiosity grabs hold.

Moving on, gardens are on my mind in the rain today and I hope to have a new one to share soon. I had written on the work done Memorial Day weekend by the neighbors. Pictures of that work follow below. I got a most generous donation of 12 buckets of compost from Abby Fasanella of Booth Hill Road and created a base of a garden near the handicap parking spots. With luck I will get to some planting by Sunday.

Thanks go again to Bette Kincaid for sharing these photographs and to all the neighbors for pitching in that day. I have added some perennials to the mix and will get some more in place in this new addition to the reservation.

I have been asked a number of time this week about the Jug In the Chimney house right up the street. Some work was done on the chimney and the jug removed. I have it on solid authority that this is temporary. I got to hear a great story about the Jug the other night as I watered the flowers. A High School classmate of mine recounted walking the Point with a young nephew. She was holding him in place with a tall tale of pirates and treasure and the dangers of the rocks. Just as they were passing the Jug she was telling him of this feared pirate and how the Jug would blow when his ghost returned. The Jug blew and the little boy had an accident, started crying and bolted. She said she had never heard the Jug before and has never heard it since.

Last Sunday was the first Open House of the year and we got some ink out of it. Sue Scheible and Gary Higgins offered this article and these photographs on Monday. We are always grateful for the attention. The day went by very quickly with somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 guests coming through the house and more going through the Tower alone. Haley was on duty out there with Julie and Lee at the desk out front. I was very glad to look up to see my uncle and his wife come to visit. We want them to come back and stay a lot longer next time.

In the middle of the day an impromptu parade took place. These pictures tell their own story.

I remember vividly the day the Big Bad Bruins came to Scituate after winning the Cup in 1972. Loads of convertibles converged on Hatherly Country Club and there may not have been a bottle left up there when they got through. This parade was significantly more tame. Good on the real team and good on these fans. It is fun to have a Champion in your area code.

A final note: I am still looking for photographs of the variety store that once was in my current laundry room. Bernice Cushman is listed as the operator in 1926 and Cora Cobbett was granted the license in 1938. Where are these pictures of happy faces eating Plymouth Rock Ice Cream? Ask someone who you think might know and pass the news back this way will ya?

What a Neighborhood!

2011-06-16T20:06:00.002-04:00

I have written before about the great people out here on the Point, tonight I owe them big.

On the way to a recognition ceremony for the sixth grade at Jenkins School, I got a flat tire on Rebecca Road. The spare was tough to get off the car; it had rusted to the undercarriage and I had to break it off. Up went the car, off came the flat. As I cranked to get the car up those last fractions of an inch, to put on the donut spare, the jack broke and down came the Old Pontica Montana.

Enter Bette Kincaid. I had borrowed a second jack from Dave Ball and was back to cranking up the car. Bette visits to check on me and gets my explanation. Before I had finished the story, she is offering me her car to get to Jenkins. (Julie had taken Haley over and I had said I would be right over. Then the jack broke.) I borrowed Bette's beautiful Volvo and made it in time for several speeches and the presentation of the certificates.

Back to the roadside I returned. Now Bette has drafted help. Brian has the best possible jack and he steps into the breach. The car goes up, the lug nuts get tightened. Bottom line, the car is in the driveway and I have amazing neighbors. I will do my part when the time allows.

"Fire Faster ..."

2011-06-02T19:26:00.013-04:00

The days have been jam packed. I hardly know where to start.

It has been more than two weeks since I posted here and the issue has been time. Project after project has presented itself along side the end of the school year culmination of initiatives.

The gardens have been planted. After weeding out several islands and around the flag pole I moved some perennials around to create a base for later annuals. Northern Oak Landscaping was hired by the Cedar Point Association to clean up the islands most damaged by the Boxing Day Blizzard. These were loamed and mulched. The effect was to wipe out the winter in a day. The Association spent nearly $1000 dollars, as they did last year and the year before, to beautify Lighthouse Park and Hart Park.

On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend the neighborhood planted the annuals. Geraniums and Marigolds joined the Seedum, Hosta, and Astilbe already taking root. Bette and John Kincaid organized the clean up and I was especially pleased to see a potential new garden take shape.

In doing research at the Little Red Schoolhouse I found a set of photographs that captured the grounds in peak condition. (Above) The whole of Lighthouse Park was rebuilt in 1989, with new shrubs and a rolled out lawn. Adjacent to the handicap parking spaces was a green patch that has been demolished by storm and rock over time. I had gone out on the prior Wednesday to rake that path out and to try to begin a restoration of what in the 89 photos was a clean border of shrubs. While I was teaching that Saturday, a neighbor recognized the start I had made and improved upon it by placing beach stones to delineate a garden from the path. I will be filling that in as soon as I can and a new garden will be born.

It is enlightening to see that the hope was for trees to be restored to Cedar Point when the work was done in 1989. Those island are covered with beach roses in places and one has a giant Montauk Daisy. The trees never had a chance in the storms that followed.

The 375th anniversary of the Town of Scituate has begun and several events have taken place already. Spearheaded by Ed Covell, the 375th Committee has plans throughout the summer and into the fall to celebrate the charms and the history of my home town. The Fourth of July event scheduled for Cole Parkway looks to be as memorable as last year's was.

A marvelous exhibit of photographs from 1938 were on display at the Grand Army of Republic Hall for the week of May 21st to May 28th. I gave a hand with some of the audio visual needs but the real work was done by Mary Porter with assists from Carol Miles and many other volunteers. Hansel Mieth was a Life photographer, the second woman to be hired for such a job with the Luce empire, and she photographed Scituate in that window when the Depression was a fact and the World War was looming. The photographs were true works of art and were complemented by textiles of the time, commentary on the issues of the day, and up to date photographs taken by a pair of high school students that mimicked the images from 38.

Especially fun was a contest that invited school age kids to submit their photographs of Scituate today. Haley contributed the photograph below. All of the submissions were collected into a book that is available to order by calling or visting the Schoolhouse.

A second event that I got to share in was a talk given by Mat Brown on the Tall Tales of Scituate. This was a laugh from start to finish. Given to help raise funds for the 375th (and if you are feeling generous you can drop by the Treasurer's office at Town Hall and feed that feeling) the talk was very well attended on the first glorious night of the spring. The eccentric, the silly, the irascible, and the incorrigible came to life again in the lower level of the Town Library. Thanks to Kathy Meeker for being a perfect host.

Yet another 375th event took place yesterday at the Scituate Maritime Center on Edward Foster Road. Highlighted by the singing of Kati Sullivan of the Gates School and the Presentation of the Colors by members of the crew of Old Ironsides, the event was the commemoration of a naval battle 198 years ago to the day between the USS Chesapeake and the HMS Shannon in the waters off of Scituate. It was at this battle that the battle cry of the US Navy, "Don't Give Up The Ship" was uttered in the last breaths of Captain Lawrence of the Chesapeake. When his good friend Oliver Hazzard Perry took the phrase as an inspiration during his victory at the Battle of Lake Erie, a greater meaning was born. It was an honor to be included and to be presented with a replica banner by the Captain of the Constitution, Commander Timothy M. Cooper. The banner was proudly flown today.

I jumped ahead a bit to save this story for last. All over the country, one community after another has been challenged by extreme weather and last night we had a sample of the same. A horrific thunderstorm blew through beginning at 9:00 and I was able to set the camera to capture flash after flash as it passed over the Cottage and the Light. I share a couple of these shots below.

Yes, that is a boat on the far left of the bottom picture. Bet they had an interesting couple of hours. Notice too just how calm the ocean was. It was amazing to witness here and horrible to be presented with the loss of life in Springfield this morning. Let us hope that, just as with the battle of the Shannon and the Chesapeake, something better will emerge from the heart ache.

Symphony Hall

2011-05-14T15:04:00.003-04:00

If you believe as I do that music began with the mix of rain drops, booming waves, whipping winds, and animal calls, then this has been the week of the symphony.

A large storm front established itself earlier this week in a place where it could tear the flag on the Tower to pieces, knock at the big jetty like the most persistent missionary ever, and send a mix of sun and rain and fog in and out from sea, in a round robin of the skies. Screens are filthy with dirt, car windows streaked with salt, the grounds scoured by a flailing wind that scooped up sand and top soil the way a poor man grabs up a dollar in the gutter.

The garden around the flag pole has been looking pretty good. I had thought that I would be posting photos of its progress soon. Today there are a few plants that look scarred, black at the tips instead of green, all from the hour to hour wind. The dirt on top is as dry and sandy as the Pharaoh's back forty. The garden that is protected by the utility room still looks great. Several new plantings that went in under the kitchen window on Mother's Day held up. Those beds get shelter from the Cottage and the Runway. The garden on the ocean side by the walkway is even more sandy than it was a week ago. I stopped in at a horse farm on Booth Hill Road today where I was able to pick up some compost to add in around the flagpole. Nature has brought all these sounds but my flowers need to eat.

I was asked several times this week about the noise from the waves and if it kept me up at night. I love that noise and I loved the noise of the hail stones last Saturday night, and the rain on the runway roof later in the week and the calling out of the gulls and that buzz I can hear from a family unloading and approaching the Tower. I can hear conversations when I am putting out the recycling in the shed; the questions of kids to their parents. The only cringe is when I hear some part of the Lighthouse story recalled incorrectly and I can't yell through the wall to set it straight.

It is quiet today, the ocean settled down to a normal back and forth. Two days ago the sea was that last movement of the 1812 Overture, cannons and all. The umbrella that I watched Mary Poppins out of its stand last week remains in place (for now.) I could wash a window or two and not get a mouthful of Windex for my trouble. The Blue and White Lighthouse sign is in place when two days ago one side had been blown free yet again. The symphony is in intermission for the moment.

Dates to Know

2011-05-02T20:42:00.004-04:00

A busy season begins.

Several dates to share as the perennials knock through the sandy garden right outside this window. The Boxing Day Blizzard is a gift that keeps on giving as I clean up around here but the Hosta and Seedum have begun to show.

The Scituate Historical Society will be presenting the 1938 photographs of Life photographer Hansel Meith at the GAR Hall on Country Way beginning May 21st with an early evening reception. The cost is $10.00 for the reception and allows the buyer to use that ticket all week. Hansel Meith captured a slice of life and focused especially on the Town Meeting that year. If you can't make the reception you can drop in any day for a $5.00 donation.

In addition, photographs have been entered by current Scituate students in a contest to be judged by a panel of eminent photographers. A book is being assembled of these photographs and will be a must by for parents and grandparents alike. This is the deal of the century. Don't miss this educational and entertainment opportunity. The show runs from May 21 to May 28.

On May 27, Mat Brown will be at the Scituate Town Library with his Tall Tales of Old Scituate. If you have never heard Mr. Brown on the fables and foibles of the town, you have missed a raconteur at the top of his game. Tickets for this talk are available at Town Hall and at the Front Street Bookshop. Do not pass up a chance to learn a little and laugh a lot.

June 19th will see the first of the Open House dates here at the Lighthouse and at the Bates House on Jericho Road. I have been working with the materials for display at the Bates House and am discovering a tale of Old and New Scitaute. It has been fascinating to dig into this history and I feel certain visitors will not be disappointed by setting time aside for this event.

As I noted in the last post, there will be a five hour cruise to the Cape Cod Canal on Saturday, July 16th. These tickets are limited and it would be a good idea to get yours soon. Last year this was a sellout with just over 200 welcomed aboard for a three hour cruise north. Check out the archives for last June for the blog post on that amazing event. This year's hopes to build on that tradition. Call or visit the Schoolhouse today in order to secure your spot.

Calendar Update

2011-04-22T13:44:00.002-04:00

The Open House Dates are set.

The first Open House will be on June 19th from 1:00 to 4:00 and will coincide with the first ever opening of the Bates House on Jericho Road.

The second date this year is July 17th and that follows on the heals of the Historical Society cruise through the Cape Cod Canal the day before.

The Heritage Days weekend of August 6 & 7 will see the house open on both days from 1:00 to 4:00.

On August 21st the Cottage and Tower will be open as will all the Historical Society sites.

The last date for this year is October 16th and lets hope the weather is better than this past year. It was a cold raw day with Julie and Barbara Whitfield bearing the worst of it.

Be sure to set one of these dates aside to be part of the 200th year of the Lighthouse here on Cedar Point.

Town Meeting

2011-04-12T20:48:00.002-04:00

Good news for Lighthouse fans from last night's town meeting.

There were two articles on the warrant that directly concerned Old Scituate Light. One concerned the repair of the storage room damaged in the Boxing Day blizzard, the replacement of the decaying oil burner, and the restoration of the west most wing or utility room. That wing is loaded with old wiring and has only two walls that are properly sided. The ceiling is falling in places and there is a 1950's era TV antenna tucked into that same broken ceiling. This work was approved with the majority of the funding coming from Community Preservation funds. I can't wait to be able to use that room during the open houses as it was once a store and will provide me the opportunity to talk about the twentieth century keepers and caretakers in a new way.

The second article that directly affected the Light concerned improving the foreshore protection in front of the Tower. This was also approved by acclamation. Regular readers know of the need for this; anyone stumbling on this blog needs only to check the older posts to learn of it. Once again the Community Preservation Committee brought this proposal to the Town Meeting, having combined a Town proposal with a Historical Society proposal during their deliberations. Should a study (with an allowed $50,000) determine that a seawall of some sort would better protect the Light and Cottage then funding would be made available to do that work up to an amount totaling $425,000. The timetable for the project is unknown just now but the hope here is that the study will be expedited. Next winter could be a winter of breathing easier and enjoying the wild storms in a unprecedented way.

Indirectly benefiting Cedar Point and the Light were two proposals concerning funding seawalls. The capital budget included a line item of $400,000 to address walls damaged and failing throughout the winter. There was also money proposed in an override question that would be dedicated to seawall maintenance going forward. The seawall that protects the neck of Cedar Point is more than one hundred years old; tests have shown that it has been reduced to sand at its center. To have a mechanism in place for its replacement has been a long desired goal of Cedar Point residents. It was fantastic to find that the rest of the town recognized the need for this work and were willing to include it in the override question. The next step is a referendum question scheduled for Saturday, May 7. While many will be focusing on the impact this vote will have on school staffing, I will be looking at it through a lens of better protection for the Light and increased safety for my neighbors.

Behind the Times

2011-03-27T21:53:00.008-04:00

I am behind a week on my reporting.

Last Saturday marked the closest passing of the moon to the earth in 18 years. The first cameras arrived at 5:10 for a 7:15 moon rise. I had been anticipating the angles for 10 days and thought I had my spots picked out. I had two film cameras ready and the digital on a tripod to move around with me in the car. The film is still in the camera so I can't fill you in on those results just yet. There was a collective gasp as the moon rose and I was in the Tower. The first shot below has an orange glow that will stick with me as unusual. What you see on the left of the image is the Light as it turned. The second is a long exposure I got two hours into the event.

A better view of the real story was sent to me by a colleague. Kevin Black is a long time Whitman Hanson teacher who clearly has a handle on photography. The collage below is made from two different images.

When I went out to count how many people had gathered I got up to 150 before I stopped counting. Once again this is the place to gather when nature presents the fantastic.

The story the next day was of a seal on the beach. Haley took the shots you see.

This guy (or girl, for all I know) was about 40 inches long, grey, brown and white. He sunned himself on the rocks for twenty minutes or so then maneuvered himself around for a swim away. He headed toward Jericho Road happily it seemed. I had thought we were past the season for such a visit. I was pleased to be surprised.

New to Me

2011-03-05T21:10:00.006-05:00

Several images to share that I discovered today in the archives of the Little Red Schoolhouse.

This is an image of the Living room in the Cottage in 1982. I have seen this green when opening the windows that overlook the harbor. The Gillis family was in residence that year and, not surprisingly, they kept a nice place.

This image is the room I am working in as I type. The painting remains here but is on a different wall. The spinning wheel is no longer part of the setting. I can tell it is this room by the notch in the corner beam.

This week I caught up with Jesse Cole Minehan Morrell who lived in the Cottage in the early 1960's. She shared some memories of the Tower being largely off limits to she and her sister Nancy. She also remembered knocks on the window and requests for tours that her mother turned away. After her marriage she returned to the Lighthouse with her two boys as she and her husband built a house. This was just before the Society took the site over and she recalls the Cottage as a Spartan place to live. I have been hoping to track down some pictures from those years but she was not hopeful. Maybe she'll surprise me when we get together again.

On a more positive note I share this picture. This image was marked on the reverse, "Photo by Wellington Furlong, 1961" I hate to argue with late Colonel but Haley and I have concluded that these two young women are the same two young woman who appear in a set of photos from 1936. The 1936 collection highlights a number of events that commemorated the 300th anniversary of Scituate and are very clearly of that occasion. This image gives me a great deal of hope all the same, as it was new to me. I am looking for images from this period and that today I found one I did not know about grants me a reason to be optimistic that I might find more. I so much want to discover a photograph of the store that was run here by the Cushmans and the Cobbetts. The goal is to bring that room into the open house tours and share the twentieth century stories better than we currently do.

My newest scans will go back into the archives tomorrow. I will start digging again when I am there.

A Significant Date

2011-02-21T20:20:00.002-05:00

The first of many notable anniversaries was today.

On February 21,1811 The Congress of the United States of America approved a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to take no more than 6 acres of land to build a Lighthouse at Cedar Point, Scituate. I was working with some documents today when I came across that citation and noted the date. That wasn't the day the whole ball got rolling but it must have been some sweet satisfaction for the petitioners who had lobbied Congress for a Light. They would not have heard the news for at least a week but surely there was a great sense of anticipation and pleasure when they heard.

I wonder how they celebrated. I just went out and got myself a piece of carrot cake.

Lots to tell

2011-02-13T16:30:00.005-05:00

A great deal to report on from out here on the tip of Cedar Point.

In a follow up to an earlier post I have a photograph to share. Just after the Boxing Day Blizzard the family pictured found the plaque described. Lost for nearly twenty five years it is recovered, cleaned up and ready to be part of the permanent record at the Mossing and Maritime Museum. Thanks go out once again to all the Concannons and especially to Brett (far right) who wanted to escape from this notoriety but could not.

Brett's mom Meg dropped off this photo earlier this week. She described a tough dig out at the spot where the small jetty meets the beach. I was told that there were a few anxious moments and some wondering just which of those giant pieces of granite might move when this plaque was removed. In the end no harm was done. Dad Concannon had his arm in a sling before the find.

In another follow up to an earlier post, I received a DVD in the mail this week from the BBC. Titled "What is Reality" this is the documentary on physics that was filmed in part here on Columbus Day. The old house never looked better and the topic was as far away from the every day lives of most of us as can be. MIT professor Max Tegmark appears at the top of the Light using the window panes as his chalkboard. He writes down a number of equations and explains how they express physical realities like gravity and the motion of atoms. While sitting by the jetty he explains how he believes reality is math, that reality is not just described by it but that math is the basic building block. This is Platonic philosophy for the twenty first century. I will forward a date for the program when I get it.

No group will ever have a finer day than Helen, Leili, Sam, Tobey and Max had that day and they took complete advantage of it. How they managed to get what they needed and not show the Cub Scouts, the families, and the hundreds of others that walked the jetty and played on the beach that day is the miracle of movie making.

Scituate will be celebrating its 375th birthday this year and as events become finalized I will include mention of them on the blog. We are hoping that the Light will be a focal point for several of the events as the milestones of the Town and the Light coincide.

Preparations continue for the 200th anniversary dinner for Old Scituate Light to be held this September 30th at the Barker Tavern. The tickets are being designed as I write and I will have news on their availability soon. The Historical Society currently has tickets to a five hour Lighthouse cruise through the Cape Cod Canal this July. Contact the Society at 781-545-1083 for more details. Tickets are going fast so call ASAP. Last summer's three hour cruise was one of the highlights of the season. Don't miss this one.

On February 23rd I will be speaking on Life at the Lighthouse at the South Shore Audubon Society in Marshfield. I have been looking forward to this chance for some time now and will offer the audience some brief remarks on the past two years here as Light Keeper. It is enormously flattering to have such an opportunity. My thanks to John Galluzo for the chance.

In the last two weeks we have taken the house room by room and given it a scrub. Just as we saw two years ago when moving in, Murphy's Oil and elbow grease has done the trick. The old floors come right back with some soap and water and the the wood work is free of dust for the moment. If I could get ten more degrees somehow I would get to the windows and knock that off the list. This office is the next room to get the treatment and that means it is time to wrap up this post. When next I write there will be a sheen to the desk and picking a book out will not risk a dust storm.

Something I Forgot to Do

2011-02-02T18:27:00.003-05:00

A huge thank you is in order and I forgot to do it here.

Tom Greland teaches Building Construction at Marshfield High School. In the first week of 2011 he emailed me to let me know that his students could and would do the repairs to the wall torn up by the Boxing Day storm. Shingles were purchased and the students arrived.

The work has been complete for a week and a half and I have neglected to post this picture. The guys did a terrific job. We are water tight again.

I had hinted at this work when I posted the panoramas. In the top photo of that set you can see the guys at work along the runway and at the damaged wall.

I could not be more grateful and I hope you can see on these faces how these kids responded to this opportunity. Good people doing good things. I should have said thank you here sooner.

To the Airwaves

2011-01-30T22:13:00.022-05:00

Storms come and with them our local television stations.

Julie made the big time on Wednesday afternoon, when in anticipation of another 10 inches or so of snow, Channel four prompted her out into the wind and rain to show them the prior damage and to gauge her feelings on the night ahead. A couple of facts got hung up in the gusts but I hope you enjoy the Tale of the Wind Blown Wife.

I was given a chance to go on the air with our neighbor Channel 5 meteorologist Mike Wankum the following morning. He had asked me to come out and to go on camera during the last storm but I think he was being polite as he caught me in sweats and a t shirt when he came to the door. This time he called ahead and I got myself ready. He and his camera man were set up at the beginning of Rebecca Road and we did 30 seconds or so right around 7:00 in the morning. School had been called at 5:00 for Haley and me and I waited out the worst of it before shoveling out around 10:00.

There were a fair number of rocks thrown up around the Tower again but they were small potatoes against the storms of last winter and spring. I went out today and began a clean up but only did about 40 minutes of what looks to be a 90 minute job. Every time I start shoveling stones I feel like Rocky training to fight Ivan Drago. After 40 minutes I am ready to get revenge for Apollo.

One of the stories yet to be told of the Boxing Day Blizzard was the discovery of a plaque thought lost for nearly 25 years. In 1986 The Cedar Point Association placed a plaque on the Tower commemorating 30th anniversary of the Grounding of Etrusco. A short time later the bronze sign was noted as gone from the Tower and vandalism was suggested. In the aftermath of the clean up in late December the missing plaque was discovered and turned in to the Scituate Police by a high school student named Brett Concannon. It was weather beaten and caked with sand when discovered. I cleaned it up some and it sits behind me as I type. Shortly it will make its way to the Maritime and Mossing Museum to join the other artifacts dedicated to that shipwreck. Call it the silver (or bronze) lining to what was otherwise a terrible storm.

There is another hit coming on Tuesday into Wednesday this week. As usual we are on the rain/snow line and the temperature will be the key. The tide is the most important ingredient for trouble here and that doesn't look to be extreme. If it gets bad, I will be back outside with the Rocky theme playing in my head, shoveling stone.

Thanks Tom

2011-01-17T16:14:00.008-05:00

Several neat photos to share today. A follow up post later in the week with more details about one of them. (Click on each for a better look)

Tom Greland is a colleague who teaches boat building and construction. He shared the first photograph taken amazingly with his cell phone.

I was intrigued by Tom's photo and downloaded a program that would let me fool around with panoramas myself. The bottom two images are the result of that experiment.

I have got a new toy to play with here and several ideas on how to use it best going forward. Expect new looks at the old place as we continue along 2011.

Like Clark Kent

2011-01-06T21:15:00.006-05:00

2011 has been mild mannered.

The first week of the new year has been a marked departure from that of last year. When teenagers arrived to take a new year's plunge last year their language was blue and so were their lips. Not so this year.

Mild temperatures greeted visitors to the Point on New Years and that has carried over into the first week. I was able to take the wreath off the Tower today with little wind or cold to bother me. It had been up there a full month and may have dinged up the Tower in the wind last week. We will know better after a hard rain if the mark I see up by the small window is just grime or if it is a scar.

The last of these pictures shows you this year's plunge. These two girls walked and talked up to their knees in the Harbor for about fifteen minutes and never flinched. Maybe some day I will think that is a good idea but I doubt it.

Alfred E. Newman No More!

2010-12-31T18:33:00.020-05:00

All I can say is thank goodness for Russell Totman and Son.

I have mentioned before that there is no easy way to pick up 1,000 rocks. Turns out I was wrong. The Town of Scituate had Mr. Totman return the stone and sand thrown up on Boxing Day to the beach that protects the Tower and the Lighthouse Park. He moved his 1,000 (1,000,000) rocks with three neat machines that could hoist in bulk and with precision. It was a tremendous operation to watch.

My role was to run a shovel and get to edges, especially near the house, that the machines could not get to. I also worked on rounding up the shingles caught in the sea roses. There is a full wheelbarrow in the driveway ready for a dump run. Late in the day I took shovel and broom to the flagpole bench and got that looking a little better. Not Fourth of July better, but New Year's Day better at least.

A year ago there was the first of the many storms that culminated with the Tower wrapped in stone for two months. This time around, the stone scattered more widely and the loss of the fences, shingles, and shed wall demonstrated the power of water is even greater than that of stone. Last year three blocks of granite had shifted toward the beach, opening up a path that funneled the stone around the Lighthouse. As I posted two days ago, this storm moved a block of granite roughly 15 feet, plucking it as cleanly as a kid loses his first tooth. Yesterday, the dentist arrived to cap the gap and to reset the others properly. The MAD magazine look is gone: hopefully gone for good.

Wednesday had been my day to clean out the shed. The top is before; the bottom after.

I discovered that there were several things broken but nothing prized. We fit a lot of stuff in there though and I look forward to having it put back in order soon.

So, bit by bit, ground was gained over the last two days that left the yard in the shape you see below. I washed windows today. I got the Christmas tree out and down to Mr. Lopes, and rehung one of the wreaths. The Christmas decorations have been packed and stored. I graded papers and will do a few more when I wrap up this post. This afternoon Julie and I did some work on the fence in the background, using pieces of the fence that snapped on the walkway side of the house. A wedding party caught the last great light of 2010 as we hammered and moved, all the while crossing our fingers against the next event.

I have been asked several times if this was a warning shot for me and if I have had enough. Not so fast I have answered. Where else could I get the sunrise shot you see below and minutes later notice that there is a refrigerator washed up on the beach. This place places the sublime next to the absurd every day. I am not going anywhere willingly.

Earning Stripes

2010-12-27T18:22:00.041-05:00

This one is going to need a name.

A blizzard was forecast and a blizzard arrived with a very dangerous tidal surge in its sidecar.

Knowing that high tide was set for 3:30 am, I put myself to bed at 10:00 and woke at 1:15 to follow the action.

Other than the wind I had noted in the last post there was not much to see until stuff started to move around the yard around 2:15. The small flower bed I had added to the courtyard on the Harbor side of the runway vanished in a single wave just about that time.

At 2:40 there was a large crack and I flew to the window to see the fence had been reduced by several rails. The wave action in that courtyard was amazing. The wave would hit, the wash would drench the Tower to a height of 15 to 18 feet, then the runoff would fill the courtyard, swirl in a counter clockwise direction and rush off down the walkway and into the road.

All night long the air was filled with foam - a froth of meringue as thick as a ream of paper let loose in the wind. The movement of lots and lots of very large stone was apparent on both sides of the house.

If there was one wave more memorable than every other, it hit at 3:15. This wave broke over the runway and into the yard. It sent me scurrying downstairs to see what I could see. The fence on the harbor side was broken in two pieces, one long timber aligned with the runway, the other torn into the yard. The decorative buoy that held my thermometer was gone. (I found it this morning with the other logs we use for kids to sit on.) The yard furniture was a tangle but none was bashed or damaged. The Adirondack pair that is connected with a table anchored everything that landed against it.

I tried to take some pictures through the storm windows and got one half decent shot that I share below. There was not a single temptation to head out into it for better shots. (I saw this movie once where it got really windy and a whole house fell on this lady and this little girl stole her shoes.) I did check the runway and got a picture of it with the floor covered with an inch of water. It was very, very, cold out there and I had a great deal of trouble closing the the door from the kitchen to the runway. I finally pegged it closed with a screwdriver.

By 4:30 it was apparent that the tide had changed so I tried to settle in to get some sleep. The power dropped out at 6:35 and I rousted myself at a little past 8:00 to check into the damage.

The first thing I noticed was that the yard had been scoured by the water. The finger piers had moved even more than I had noticed in the night and the bench/bar was tipped over in the hole that had been created when the piers moved. The picnic table was wedged between the logs and the fence and a window box from under the kitchen window was on the ocean side of the fence. That got my attention as I had to wonder if a rock got it or if the wind got it. (The picture directly above shows the bar removed)

Moving toward the Tower to shoot the whole of the yard from that angle I saw that there was a whole new level to the yard. Each wave must have brought a fortune in sand with it and there was a new elevation. Where I had stood two plus feet below the level of the walkway to raise the Tower flag, I was now nearly even.

My biggest shock was turning around from those photographs to find that one of the granite restraining stones that creates the chief barrier for the Tower was missing like a kid's front tooth. I asked out loud, "Where did it go?, where did it go?"

Noticeable too, was the way the beach was so much more level. The slope I walked down in the summer to get some photographs had been filled in with sand. (I confirmed this later from the Tower windows. What had been a clumsy rock path at a 20 to 25 degree angle to the ocean was now an flat area you could lay a dozen beach towels in comfortably.) I attended a hearing three weeks ago in front of the Community Preservation Committee on proposals to add storm protection to that very stretch in front of the Tower. This storm has demonstrated the need for that protection once again.

Continuing around the Tower on the ocean side I may have found the block. Six or seven yards from where it belonged, the granite had displaced four other blocks that protect the northern side of the runway. They had shifted four or five feet from their original positions and the plucked stone was wedged in against them. This storm had moved this granite like a preschooler stacks LEGOS.

The next shock was the discovery that the eastern most side of the shed had been caved in at the bottom. A gap of 3 1/2 feet must have been been created by tidal surge as there was not a body of rock pressed against the broken wall. I wondered if this was the loud crack I had heard at 2:40 and mistaken for the breaking of the fence. This also explained the extreme cold in the runway.

The final surprise was to see that courses of shingles had been removed from the wall outside the window of the office. Ruth Downton had told me that during the No Name storm of Halloween 1991, George Downton had gone out to buttress that wall as water had it shifting with each surge. As a result of that story I had watched it (going so far as to move the desk away to feel under the window for any sign of weakness) as I moved through the house during the night and only suspected that a gutter was lost for a trinkle of water I could hear running down the side of the house. I never considered that the shingles were being shredded by the wind.

Moving back inside with the camera, I checked the shed to discover that while items were moved they were not damaged. We keep bikes and recycling and sporting goods and other bric a brac in there. All of it was moved but there were not fatalities. The floor was covered in rock and brick however, stones ranging in size from pebbles to stones you would use in the middle of a wall. The unexpected element in the shed was a four by four floor board wrenched up under the bashed in wall. This plywood was forced up by water and floated the three plus feet the wall was moved. The nails were barely bent as if the piece was forced straight up by the sea.

I sent Julie and Haley to warmer quarters and coffee makers when the tide was low around 10:00. They drove through some deep water by Otis Road and saw first hand an apartment with water flowing through it on Jericho Road. Haley had been hoping for some sledding but got this education and a visit with her new little cousin and her aunts and uncles instead.

After they got on the road, I gathered what pieces of wood I could gather and patched up the outer wall against the wind. (It was noticeably warmer inside the house after having done it. The hardest part was the way the wind caught the big pieces like a sail) The picture of it will not win me any wood working awards but I might get a few points for improvisation. I might have earned some stripes there.

The rest of the day saw the inconveniences of power and water loss but that was small potatoes against other losses neighbors were dealing with down the road.

Following along with WATD on the radio I heard about two house fires, an unprecedented battle by boat and with divers to fight those fires, and the catastrophic collapse of a stretch of seawall I ran almost daily as a kid. Sand and water were combining every where to force evacuations and the hassle that follows an event like this.

My brother and my brother in law arrived to lend a hand and to deliver some water. I gathered the batteries I needed and tuned in the radio for word on National Grid. Power was restored at 5:30 pm and with that the heat was cranked into gear.

Yesterday I called this storm the Boxing Day Blizzard. I know that the snow started on Christmas and all that, but I like alliteration. It was a blow by blow battle for people up and down the coast and for this monument to staying put in bad weather. The Old Light has taken lots of punches and took this one. All the same a plan to keep it safer needs to be ramped up sooner rather than later.

Boxing Day Blizzard

2010-12-26T19:45:00.002-05:00

The phone has been ringing all day with questions about the weather here.

Wind, wind, and more wind is the word of the day - to step out into the runway is to hear a rain as thick as crickets and a deep voiced howl of wind. We are staying put and will be looking out for the high tide at 3:00am.

As I write it is low tide and there is an inch or so of slush in the driveway. Checking the Weatherbug map I saw we are right on the line between rain and snow. Late last night I checked out our neighbor Mike Wankum with a report he had on line that predicted the snow would not add up to much. He said the ocean is warmer than the land just now and that would knock down any potential snow fall along the coast. "Good Job, Mike" I have thought more than once today.

A steady dose of football and frosted baked goods have carried us this far, with a movie or two and a card game thrown in for good measure. Haley had friends here until almost 7:00 with everyone getting home safely in between tides. Channel 7 news set up in front of the Tower around 5:30. While watching them get knocked around by the wind, I found I had to explain Shelby Scott to Haley. Shelby was the pioneer of the freezing cold news reporter. No one has ever filled those frosty boots as well for me.

Two days ago there was a small amount of rock thrown up on the ocean side walk way and around the Tower. I worked on the walk way as high tide was coming on. The buzz from that splash against the rocks was addictive. Everyone that came strolling up could feel it. My brother and my brother in law helped me move a few things in the yard and to clean up around the base of the Tower. Within in 10 minutes past the high tide things had settled right down. With this wind it will start sooner and stay longer.

So tune in tomorrow to find out what the overnight tide brings. Will it be more hockey pucks, more torn up dollars, more golf balls and lobster traps? It is the proverbial box of chocolates here on Cedar Point in bad weather. The Light is on though and we are under the blankets listening to a torrent blow around. I have been reminding the callers we signed up for it because we like it so much.

The Year in Pictures

2010-12-24T19:37:00.010-05:00

It has been a very good year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!

Dueling Sunsets

2010-12-24T09:20:00.005-05:00

Today's contest is a simple one - guess which of these was taken by Julie and which was taken by your devoted Light Keeper.

Each is a view from the porch as you enter the Cottage. I have been assembling a set of shots to post that will sum up the year in pictures. Look for that on your next trip back.

Checking the statistics today I discover that we have visits from Australia, Canada, Dubai, and Istanbul, Turkey. We are up to 30 countries now.

Flying Santa update

2010-12-18T15:38:00.001-05:00

Today's Globe has a story on Brian Tague, the keeper of the Flying Santa tradition. Take a look.

One Hand Washing ...

2010-12-17T18:42:00.003-05:00

Last Sunday we welcomed the annual Scituate Arts Association House Tour from 1:00 to 4:00. A rough estimate would put the guests at 150 for the day. Great fun and high interest mixed together for terrific day.

For a peek at the Cottage and several other homes visit this link to the Scituate Mariner.

We had wonderful help from the Arts Association volunteers. Sharing this house with another non profit organization involved in the upkeep of a Scituate treasure like the Ellis House seemed like a natural when it was first proposed and the day flew by. Thanks to all.

A Prize

2010-12-14T17:16:00.003-05:00

A guest photographer graces the blog today. This is what it means to do it right.

Patrick O'Connor, (as regular readers of this blog know) is a Naval officer originally from Cohasset. Pat has become a much anticipated correspondent from the great carrier USS Enterprise, sharing the stories of the great ship's operations. He has also shared a great number of photographs. It looks like that talent has been passed on to the next generation.

On New Year's Day 2010 Patrick's son Ryan took the photograph below. If there is a more perfect shot of the Lighthouse and Cottage at peace in the winter season, I have yet to see it.

Thank you Pat and thank you Ryan. Season's Greetings to all the men and women in the service of the United States. We owe you all more than we can say.

The Jolly Old Elf

2010-12-11T17:01:00.013-05:00

Flying Santa picked a great day to visit!

The tradition goes back to the 1930's of pilots ferrying Santa Claus to isolated Light Keepers all over the United States. On our coast the late, great, Edward Rowe Snow played a part in keeping this tradition alive. The whole story can be found here.

The weather for a visit from Saint Nick was ideal. Dolly Bicknell, daughter of Edward Rowe Snow joined the Jolly Old Elf in keeping with her own family tradition. With a tremendous effort from the Scituate Highway Department the parking lot was freed from rock and sand. Scituate Police LT. John Rooney coordinated the placement of barriers for cars and pedestrians, with the Scituate Fire Department keeping a watchful eye in case of mishap. For the Cedar Point Association, Dave Ball and Betty Kincaid did their usual conscientious job. I had it easy; getting gifts and taking pictures is not heavy lifting.

We start with a video clip of the landing:

Below are the photographs Julie grabbed as people anticipated the arrival:

Once the helicopter was down and I had welcomed Santa to the Point I made a run for the Tower to get a wider view of the event.

Julie was up close for these shots.

When it was time to go Santa returned to the chopper and headed North across the marsh.

We eagerly await his return in two weeks!

I will be awarding Lighthouse T shirts to the first five people who correctly identify the singers of the song in the landing video - use the comment box for your replies. Good Luck.

100

2010-12-04T21:40:00.008-05:00

A few pictures as the holiday season moves along:

This is post 100. 3 pictures is said to be worth three thousand words.

Its Beginning to Look A Lot Like ...

2010-11-29T17:20:00.009-05:00

Neighbors make a difference.

The Christmas Wreath flies on the Tower for a second night as I write. There is another on the West Wing lit by spotlight. Purchased from the great R&C Farm on Saturday, the wreaths were rigged and poised for installation yesterday morning.

I had done this alone last year. I had found myself awake on a relatively windless Sunday morning and decided I would not bother anyone with the task. I had no doubt that I could navigate my way through the hoisting to the top and the tying off of the lines once there. Up it went and then the trouble began. (I refer you to the blog posts of a year ago which line up along the right side this column)

This year I called. Dave, George and Jesse arrived, with Haley on camera duty. The pictures follow:

We even have a tree up in the house - before December! The Scituate Arts Association has asked us to participate in their annual house tour to be held this year on Sunday, December 12, 2010 from 1:00 to 4:00. Flying Santa will make his annual visit (weather permitting) here the day before on Saturday the 11th at around 1:00. Check out the Flying Santa link for more information on this amazing tradition. The Friends of Flying Santa

My deepest thanks for all the help.

Update on a prior post - Israel and Saudi Arabia can be added to the list of countries peeking in on this blog - may their holiday seasons be happy ones.

With Thanks to Martha Reeves

2010-11-24T20:47:00.005-05:00

"Calling out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat..."
I have argued over the years, (when the topic is music, it is a blast to toss out your favorite then step back) that the song that lyric comes from, Dancing in the Street by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, is the greatest of the great Motown Sound. It grabs you from the first lick and gets you on your feet while giving you a geography lesson at the same time. "...Don't forget the Motor City..." This blog is hoping to do the same.

Below is the chart for the current visitors to the blog over the last three months. 24 different countries, nearly 3000 visits by 1108 visitors. It is flat out amazing to me that this could be possible.

The idea for the blog came to me, as so many do, while driving. Haley was attending the terrific YWCA day camp in the Marshfield Hills and to get there you must take a left off of 3A after you cross the Michael Jason Kelley bridge, then wind along Summer Street for 2 plus miles. You have time to think on the way. We were soon to be interviewed for this position and I was anticipating what I might be asked and how I might respond. I was considering what I could tell the Historical Society I was going to bring to the table that might be unique among the field. Somewhere along that road the word blog rose like a trout and I thought why not.

Russia, Poland, Bangladesh, Armenia, Yemen, Yemen, it is beyond imagining at this point. I thought that maybe a cousin or two might dial in to show one of my aunts, or that my sister Christine in Oregon might want to see some of the pictures I knew we would put up, but I never, ever, dreamed that there would be an audience for this blog in countries where the language is posted on signs in Cyrillic or Arabic or Hindi.

Now I am getting greedy. I want Egypt, Israel, Japan, and Peru added to the list. I want South Africa, Madagascar, Austria, and Panama. I want this blog to be stickered like an old steamer trunk. I want The Word to be tattooed like lifer in the Queens Navy. Carmen San Diego will have nothing on us. She will look like a Emily Dickinson before we are done. The blog is going to wrap the world like the strings that wrap the core of a baseball; like the bandages that wrapped Tutankhamun; like the grooves wrapped the label on an old Motown LP.

Take a peek:
1. United States 2,812
2. Philippines 33
3. United Kingdom 19
4. Australia 7
5. Canada 7
6. Germany 5
7. France 4
8. Ireland 3
9. Netherlands 3
10. India 2
11. Portugal 2
12. Sweden 2
13. Singapore 1
14. Yemen 1
15. Russian Federation 1
16. Poland 1
17. Korea (South) 1
18. New Zealand 1
19. Greece 1
20. Spain 1
21. Bangladesh 1
22. Brazil 1
23. United Arab Emirates 1
24. Armenia 1

Total 2,911

Which one is the biggest surprise to you?

11-11-10

2010-11-11T10:58:00.003-05:00

In my course on the 20th century I teach that World War 1 was the most important event of all. I argue that the generation killed in that war was the most talented the world had yet seen, skilled in arts and in crafts, supported by the fantastic sums of wealth generated by the second industrial revolution. By the winter of 1915 they were gone, millions of them, gone, and the door was open to the second rate minds and ambitions of Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler. Americans in service then, including the great Pat Delaney, were told that their efforts would ensure the rise of democracies in place of the decrepit dictatorships that brought on the war. After training with broomsticks and being in sent into the field with French rifles the American Expeditionary Force was the fulcrum used to leverage both sides into a truce. Today marks the 92nd anniversary of that truce. Below are two links to songs that prompt reflection for my students each year. Finally, there is a poem from Carl Sandburg.

John McCutcheon - Christmas in the Trenches

Liam Clancy - And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda

GRASS

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo,
Shovel them under and let me work--
I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?

I am the grass.
Let me work.

Skies

2010-11-09T17:22:00.004-05:00

Several steady jobs has left less time to blog of late.

The end of the first term of the school year sees events compress and time for reflection diminish. I have a long list of students this year and my juniors are especially talented. Assessing their work takes time and attention to detail. It is an ongoing conversation with 64 young people simultaneously. With my seniors the challenge is to convince them of relevance. That class is a government class and the issues seem at a distance to many. Blogging has been left in the dust as I work out those tests and papers and planning. Add in the other projects, advisory positions, and a steady gig helping students prepare for the SAT and time vanishes like pocket change.

What I have noticed of late, when I look up from this desk, are the skies. A look to the horizon has become a giant comic book panel for me. Last Thursday, late in the afternoon, I looked toward Humarock and noted the sky. The clouds formed a giant, gray eye, with the cliffs as the lashes and variations of light serving to create the brow. As the sun would pass behind clouds behind me the affect was that of a wink. I couldn't photograph it and it has taken almost a week to figure out how to describe it.

A few days later the image was one of a road running away from the ocean; the clouds were banked like a turn at a NASCAR track. The effect was the sun flashing in spots like the reflections off the race cars. All that was missing was the sound of engines in Doppler mode.

At night the skies have traffic. Planes in formation zigging and zagging. On the horizon you can see the first fishermen or lobstermen; klieg lights glowing as very near stars, a small parade of fireflies. (And it is still night to me, it is early morning by the clock, but it is night when they go out.) The planes and boats supply the sound that the clouds do not. It is a steady up and down of pistons punctuated by a propeller noise any six year old can duplicate on demand. When the roar of the rocks is just right, there is a keen percussion to it all.

The image below is of a group Julie was photographing last weekend. Take a look at that sky and figure out just what story it is telling for yourself.

Thanks to Linda Martin for the wide angle lens and all her help

And to that nurse that met my sister last Saturday: You were right. You can always get in without her.

Link to Look At

2010-10-21T16:52:00.003-04:00

Jessica Bartlett of the Globe visited several of the Historical Society sites this past weekend and posted this photo essay.

I would like to thank her for taking the time and for getting all the names right.

Plus One

2010-10-16T22:18:00.002-04:00

Paul Simon had a song lyric that included the phrase, "These are days of miracles and wonders .."

So it is as this week, far from Cedar Point physically, but not in spirit, Jennifer Hynes gave birth to Hope Delaney Gallagher. Ken reports that thus far Hope sleeps like him (that is, like a boat mooring) and that in an effort to conserve water he is waiting for the lawn sprinklers to turn on when he needs to clean her off. (I think I saw that in a Jim Carey movie.)

So it is that a romance once begun in the shadow of the Tower, way back when, comes forward.

A miracle and a wonder in deed.

We all Scream ...

2010-10-16T21:49:00.002-04:00

Over the past 6 weeks I have worked diligently trying to assemble a documentary record of the Lighthouse and Cottage over almost two hundred years.

One era that has remained difficult to document to my satisfaction is the period of the late 20's and early 30's. Keeper Cushman was in residence, (at least part of the time) and later Arthur and Nora Cobbett were here the latter running a store and the former serving as "Special Officer for Lighthouse Park." My issue is that there must be photographs of this store or, at least, someone who can describe it in more detail than I currently have. We have the chairs that were used, donated by the Hall family, Cushman relations so we know you could sit down. What I want to know is what was on the menu, who came out on a birthday, or who visited after going fishing.

So, blog readers of far and wide, more than 700 of you at last count, who is going to fill in the blanks for me. Who knows someone who knows someone who has a box in the attic that is a missing link. I need them, the public clamors for them, you will be doing a good deed in finding them and sending me word. You will be as renowned as Howard Carter or Indiana Jones. You can see in this 1935 picture from the Library of Congress that there was phone service and a sign for some kind of soft drink in the window. What else could you get?

So in a paraphrase of the old, annoying, chant of my childhood, I scream, you scream, we all scream for pictures of the Lighthouse Ice Cream and Penny candy store.

Reality through a British Lens

2010-10-13T08:03:00.005-04:00

This time the Keeper's daughters did not scare them away.

A team from the British Broadcasting Company arrived on the Point Monday morning to film a portion of a science documentary on the nature of reality. Leili, Sam, Toby, Helen and Professor Max used the Tower and the Jetties as their setting to film a segment that will likely air next spring. It could appear on the Discovery Channel, on the BBC, or on PBS as a NOVA episode.

The crew's enthusiasm for the site was apparent from the start. Their intelligence and workmanship emerged over the course of the day. As it was a stunning Columbus Day holiday there were crowds around. Boy Scouts, high schoolers having yearbook portraits taken, fishermen, and the usual dog walkers joined the those getting in their exercise, or the meditations and, in the midst of it, Max was describing reality as mathematics.

It is a very old idea. The Egyptians and the Greeks were looking for the eternal and found it in the relationships we express mathematically. The square of two sides of a right triangle will always equal the square of the longest side. Sine, cosine, and tangent are permanent relationships. A professor at MIT, Max used the Tower windows for his equations and a decahedron for a prop. It was very cool to see.

Toby, Sam, Leili and Helen were relentless workers. They moved around the grounds for angles and light and attitudes and did it all without so much as a single shout. There used two cameras. A more conventional looking, big, battery driven, tape recording camera that wirelessly sent a signal to a monitor that looked very much like a lunch cooler. It took me 90 minutes to figure out that Helen was watching playback rather than checking for an apple. They also used a Canon Digital camera could shift between stills and film and was a help in the cramped quarters of the Tower. All were more than patient with my questions about the gear and about other jobs they had been on. It helped that I had some familiarity with the topic and with the ways light moves around the old place. The time flew by and I was able to get a great number of chores done even as I checked in with them regularly.

There were two mishaps. They lost the footpad to a tripod about half way out on the small jetty. We attempted a recovery but the ocean washed it away. A bigger issue emerged after they left when I got a call from Toby asking if I could check in the yard for a battery pack. Initially I had no luck in the yard or in the Tower, but a 9:30 walk out along side the big jetty with a big flashlight found it, and they sent a courier by that night to pick it up before their Tuesday morning flight to California and Stanford University.

We could not have had more gracious guests. Each had stories and that light behind the eyes that tells you that there is a mix of the creative and the just plain smart going on in there. No need for the Fife and Drum this time; we hope to see them again one day.

Tonight I arrived home to find a bouquet of flowers sent by our British Invasion crew. Very kind, very classy, very them.

Sunset October 2

2010-10-02T19:26:00.003-04:00

I was just fooling with the camera to see what I might get - dare ya not to like it.

The Count and the Amount

2010-10-01T21:35:00.004-04:00

A quick update -

The statistics engine reports that this blog has been read in eleven different countries now - the latest to be added, Greece. I would love to know why and why Sweden, the Netherlands, and New Zealand too. Know that if you are far from home and this spot on the cyberspace map brings you back, we are more than pleased.

Reviewing, I found the neatest name for a town, Dripping Springs. I believe it is in Texas. Also we can add Germany, Berlin specifically, to the list of countries.

Hush

2010-10-01T21:17:00.002-04:00

Two weeks ago the silence fell.

As I assessed the lighthouse and cottage last fall I put together a list of projects that I hoped could be addressed over time to better secure the buildings and to improve the quality of life here. There was work to be done in the bathroom and this past February that work was done to my immense satisfaction. Late in the summer that work was complemented by the replacement of the mixing valve in the shower.

Also on the list were things like a rotted board on one of the runway windows that my brother in law took care of for me in a snap. There was the painting of the message board and some green on a wall that gets little sun right in front of this window. Shingles on the front wall as you walk up the driveway, a door for the cabinet under the kitchen sink, the latter fixed, the former still to come.

The top items on my list have arrived however, and have been installed, and have brought with them a hush even in a gale that has arrived tonight. Storm windows have been put in place on every window on the cottage. Only four of the sixteen windows had them in place. The utility room had three wooden storms and the initial thought was to manufacture replicas to match. The cost proved to be prohibitive and a choice was made to mirror the modern storm window that was in place by the kitchen sink. I have taken two of the wooden storms and installed them over the windows in the runway to the Tower.

They are perfect and the quiet is profound. This a new experience and opening the door to the day is much more a surprise than before. You have to check the flag before deciding if you need a jacket or a sweatshirt. Our most humble thanks to Bob Snow and his crew and to the Trustees of the Historical Society for letting me cross this off the list. I had spent some time this summer opening up old, old, old windows to let the breezes waft through. I am every bit as glad to be able to easily close new windows to keep them out.

Searching Harold Ryan

2010-09-19T20:53:00.008-04:00

I can't always resist the pun.

I have spent the better part of the weekend on two errands. I have been researching a man named James Arthur Cobbett as he was one of my predecessors here in the late 1930's and early 1940's. With the anniversary of the Light coming preparations are underway to note all the contributions made by all the families who once lived here. I was approached last summer by George Cobbett, who very much (and rightly) would like to see James Arthur included in the long role going back to Simeon Bates. George, along with Dave Ball, fired emails fast and furious all day Friday. When I got around to helping out, I found that by using a commercial web site, I could have access to census data and military registrations that will help us tell the story. Thanks to George and to Dave, it is a growing file and the next step for me is to prepare a check list of documents and photographs that can be blown up and shared with the audience next September at the anniversary dinner. I will give you a sampler below.

The web site also expedites the creation of a family tree and that was the next errand. Haley had come home from school with an interest in such a project, (thank you Matt Poirer), and it took me over. If I did it right I made it back to the late 1770's with a great, great, great, great, grandmother who in the census of 1860 was listed as 83 years of age and described in a column as "idiotic". Apparently this was the term in place for those infirm who had lost themselves in illness. Mary Sullivan was spared the slight in the 1870 census by failing to appear there.

On Julie's side the story headed to England where generations of Wilsons must have covered the land like clover. One ancient grandfather had two separate families of great number. They might have suited up against one another for some football there were so many. I have found passport registrations for my Great Grandparents. I found the Abington Branch and that led me to the twice married and perhaps twice widowed, Theresa Hickey Dunn, who on the census report of 1900 recorded that she had had eleven children with 7 living. One of the living was my great grandmother. Mr. Dunn has yet to be found as the 1890 census was largely destroyed by fire. I never knew that and it may be the most important lesson of the weekend.

One of the facts that amazed me was that men born between 1877 and 1897 had to register for the draft in both the First and the Second World War. My maternal grandfather was 51 years old, my paternal great grandfather two years older and both have registration cards for World War two. Those follow:

It is a lesson about another era, another ethos, that these two and so many others like them registered in their fifties. Extraordinary.

And for those of you who are not members of my family, Harold Ryan was an uncle who saw service in Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. I haven't found his stuff yet, but I will.

Two stories of the Lightkeeper and the Barker Tavern

2010-09-12T09:58:00.006-04:00

An envelope with a surprise inside.

I have written regularly of the many brides that share the Point with us on all the days of the week. Julie has photographed some of them and been chased off by the hired photographer other times. This week we received a card from the Barker Tavern thanking us for letting their brides "invade, ... to take those beautiful lighthouse photos." The card included a gift certificate as well. It was an envelope with a surprise inside and an in the hand example of civility in an age when the same is in doubt.

Just yesterday I was forwarded several documents concerning a Supreme Judicial Court case involving Simeon Bates and the original Mr. Barker. In 1829 Bates and others took timber off the beach at low tide and Barker sued claiming the right to all such lumber. Witnesses spoke to the the taking and to Barker's belief that he had been done wrong. It was from Barker that the United States government had taken the land that became Lighthouse Park and another parcel of land on what is currently Rebecca Road as an alternative site. He clearly felt that he had given all he intended to give to the USA and to Simeon Bates. The Supreme Judicial Court fined Simeon Bates $15.00, an amount the ship builder Luther Briggs testified he believed it to be worth. These hard feelings went on and on as there were continued disputes between the Light keepers and the Barker (later Allen) families about access to the Point by Jericho Road.

Two stories: 180 years apart. I feel certain I got a better deal than Simeon Bates did and that there are a much friendly bunch up on the hill now. We are grateful for it.

Postscript: We had a great dinner at the Barker Pub last night - Chicken Saltimbocca for me and Rib Eye for Julie - she also fit in some Shrimp Cocktail and we mopped up with Cheesecake and Strawberries - Awesome service, atmosphere, dinner - Simeon Bates never had it so good but he also did not have the brides.

Brilliant Day

2010-09-11T15:30:00.003-04:00

I am linking to a brief video I took this afternoon - it is as perfect a day here as it could possibly be and you should get to see it.

It is spectacular to be here just now. On the anniversary of one of the most difficult days in the country's history there is yet, all around us, signs that we continue to live well and continue to celebrate all that the enemies of the U.S. would deny we notice and nurture.

Parade Pic

2010-09-10T21:34:00.003-04:00

I thought I would mention that the Globe is using a photo Julie took last Sunday without attribution. It is a picture of several girls leading the annual Labor Day parade and it appears on their Your Town page. I would have thought that they might have asked or at least given her a credit, but I am not surprised as I often think of things that might be done that others do not do. I know I do my best to give credit when I assemble a Power Point presentation for school or even when I use the thesis of a history book as a starting point for a debate. History can't be studied in a void. There are big shoulders to stand on and, in this opinion anyway, they ought to be acknowledged.

I do like it that the paper is routinely linking to the blog and my data collection tells me that many readers are gaining access to the blog that way. I just like it when the girl gets credit for her good eye I guess.

Who are you?

2010-09-08T16:05:00.002-04:00

I have been looking over the data.

I installed a new counter the other night and signed up for a service that offers some raw data on who is looking in on The Word from Old Scituate Light. The results are fascinating for the geography of the readers alone.

New York City, Brooklyn, Maine, Florida, Connecticut, Australia, The Netherlands, Sweden, Providence, Quincy, Lowell, I am playing a guessing game trying to figure who is who and where is where. I had been told this summer of a teacher who took a position teaching to the children of our troops in Cuba and who had logged in to read the blog from Guantanamo Bay. I have written of Pat O'Connor at sea on the Big "E" (keep those emails coming) and from Mrs. Tilden in Hawaii. However when I see a link to Lebanon and it might be the country and not New Hampshire, then I have to wonder and to call for comments. Chime in under the comment section and let me know where your interest lies.

Are you in the legions of Lighthouse buffs who get a kick out of my tales of wows and woes?
Are you part of the great Class of 78 who Googles old classmates to find out the dirt from today?
Are you in momentary exile from our coast and long for the smell of low tide and fried clams?
Lets wrap the map with readers of The word from Old Scituate Light.

Just LIke Buddy Holly

2010-09-06T20:20:00.005-04:00

Its me and the crickets tonight.

The evening of Labor Day brings with it a quiet to Cedar Point. While the crowds were thick all weekend, enjoying a couple of brilliant days of soft breezes (not so soft at first but easing up) and warm, clear water in the Harbor, tonight the only gathering is the roll of the ocean, the blinking of the stars, and the chirp of the crickets.

Yesterday, music covered the Point with a band playing a house party and traffic zipping around. There was the annual parade that I usually skirt, but a song got me out and about when I heard the Blues Brothers Theme dancing up the stairs and knew that my own Marshfield High School Marching Band was rolling down the road. I had heard them practicing on the field outside my class room window on Friday and sure enough Kirsten and Kathryn led them down the street. From that jaunt I got into a few conversations with retired veterans and with the parents of students and with passers by.

Last night I had occasion to dial up the police for the first time all summer. I was reading when I heard a loud group mosey up the sidewalk. One sure fire Ivy Leaguer offered the idea to his friends that they climb the flag pole rope on the Tower and slide down. I took a walk outside and heard that, "Hey theres a dude over in the yard" from a potential valedictorian. When they began to brag of how much they had been drinking and I began to count heads I decided to call the station. Three cruisers moved them right along ten minutes later.

On Saturday the wind was a great deal steadier in the aftermath of Earl. I could not fly the flag on the Tower and it was hard to sit in the yard. I weeded and weed wacked and headed in to finish off a book. The highlight of the day was running off three young people in their late teens or early twenties who had decided, despite the wind, to take up roost in the Adirondack chairs that look out over the Harbor. Haley reported that there were people in the yard and I stepped out to find them sitting comfortably. I barked; they jumped. They jumped so fast one young lady left her purse in the yard and had to retreat from half way down the driveway to retrieve it. HL Mencken once said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American People." I don't normally hold with it; it goes against my grain as a teacher. As an observer of the human condition though, there are times it is an appealing description.

On a similar note, this morning at 6:00 am I was awakened by a blunt, nasty, shrill voice cursing as it made its way up the walkway to the Tower. It was a teenage girl who was limited in her vocabulary. I know this because she used seven words as she declaimed; one of which is capable of taking on a wide variety of parts of speech. She used it in nearly every way. The last statement was a declaration that her life was of a poor quality. It took a great deal of restraint from me to not go to the window and offer from above that in my short experience of her I could not help but agree.

We will see if the quiet lasts very long this year or if it is washed away by the pull of gnawing ocean as it was last fall. Waves have their own gravity and if storms start knocking the rocks around again, you can be sure crowds will gather to feast. In the meantime leave me the crickets and the stars and the back and forth of an easy sea. Even if only for a little while, they are an antidote to vulgarity and ignorance. Truth told, the beauty of this place, night or day, makes it hard to stay mad all that long.

Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke of Earl...

2010-09-02T16:01:00.006-04:00

We wind up summer with some rain and wind.

After one of the driest summers on record, with nearly every day an image of San Diego skies, we get a visit from Hurricane Earl tomorrow and Saturday. The image above is from a thermometer we have in the kitchen. The highest temperature we saw there was 136 degrees but we did not take a picture. I think we got the Klondike bars out to cool off instead.

I have been asked all week about preparations for the storm and if we will evacuate. To the first I say that I have tucked a good number of things away that might blow and to the second, that I will go if I am told to go. We agreed to that moving in here.

This summer had its share of fun and every day allowed us to take full advantage of living on the beach. Haley and her friends were prunes from their hours in the water. Tubes, boats, kayaks, floats, goggles, snorkles and many, many, many beach towels (why do girls need three towels each for each time they go into the water?) were the order of each day. We got very comfortable new lawn furniture that had me out in the sun late in afternoons to read. Julie saw her freckles multiply. We learned to despise the music coming from the Ice Cream truck, while continuing to love what you could buy from it. Woe is me though, as there was never any change left over from a trip down the driveway. The nights meant baseball and struggling through the Sox injury lists. (They never had a big league outfield, never) Society projects, preparing for the new school year, cooking on the grill, getting out after 8:00 to water filled in the rest.

Its a new season now and as usual the expectations are high. Meeting and working with new students, working through the policy debates in my government class and the timeless American debates in my US history class are the best things I do that I do without the girls. If the tide don't rise and the Good Lord's willing, I will get back to that on Tuesday. If we don't lose power I will report in later if something cool happens in the storm.

Sorry about that!

2010-08-30T15:39:00.003-04:00

It has been brought to my attention that I have posted the wrong date for the next Open House. The correct date is October 17 from 1:00 to 4:00.

I was on the radio this morning - WATD asked me on to talk about Lighthouse living. Rob, Dave, and Lisa were terrific and made the visit fast and fun. Dave Skill has done a great deal of work telling the stories of local lighthouses and you can hear for yourself at this link It was neat to meet yet another person who was influenced as a young person by the Scituate legend John Y. Brady. The world is only as big around as the edge of a quarter.

Results and more

2010-08-28T10:17:00.004-04:00

The people have spoken (or at least clicked.)

I added in the counter on Wednesday and as of this morning it is reading over 160 visits. If you take out the number of times I have checked in to see the progress, over 150 visits have been made to this blog in about 72 hours. I am astonished at the number.

The news this week includes some good and some bad.

The bad is that we have been invaded regularly by adults who are keen on ignoring the five different ways that the driveway and the yard are marked private. Each of them has been older than I am and I am going on 50. Each of these adults was born during FDR's first term. They remember radio as the chief form of popular entertainment. They rationed in the war years. James Michael Curley was either their nemesis or their protector. They rode around in automobiles with back seats that mirror the size of current living rooms. They did not burn anything in the Sixties. They were not at Woodstock. They have been around the block and around again several times. It is perplexing that people with such vast experience can not read the well marked signs that indicate the drive and the yard are private areas. I have been tactful in addressing them but it is a cause for wonder.

Part one of the good news is that we had another busy open house last Sunday with more than 200 guests in the Cottage and the Tower. The Whitfields and my sister Lee chipped in on a rainy day, working with Julie and Haley and our friends Kristen and Paul to bring people out of the cold and into the light and comfort of Old Scituate Light. By 3:30 I was losing my voice, but it was great fun. It is encouraging to see some people returning who had visited earlier in the year or even last year and to hear of their enthusiasm for the work we are doing here and the shape of the grounds. I also heard of the docents at other sites and of the work they are doing. I am told that The Mann House and the Cudworth House are worth a look.

Part two of the good news is that we have had several guests from the United States Coast Guard.

Haley made the acquaintance of a Guardsman this week and asked for the chance to show he and two lovely women accompanying him, the runway and the Tower. Their curiosity was fantastic and their gratitude apparent. It was yet another example of the opportunities she has here to make her world bigger.

A day later we were visited by an old friend who brought with him a member of the Coast Guard. They too were taken by the stories of shipwrecks, storms, and surviving, all described in the panels of the runway to the Light. We are glad to include as our guests those that serve us so well in the Coast Guard.

New Look - New Counter

2010-08-25T11:49:00.002-04:00

Lets figure something out.

I have been wondering how many people check in to read this blog. I have been hearing anecdotally that I have readers but I don't get all that many comments to get a true sense of it. With each Open House I have been told that guests are reading. Curiosity has the best of me.

I have come up with a new look that makes the pictures jump. I have also added a counter. Let me know what you think of the reworked blog and lets watch that counter jump up as people visit.

Army of Two on the Web

2010-08-13T13:03:00.002-04:00

The singer/songwriter Greg Cherone writes that his song, "Army of Two" is now a video available on You Tube - the Lighthouse never looked better. Check it out!

Thank you Tom Sawyer

2010-08-13T09:49:00.004-04:00

Julie has been asking me to do a chore

But The Wind needed to be less and it seems it is always, always more

I love a whitewash on a door.

______Before _______and_________ After______

Big Numbers and Hockey Pucks

2010-08-09T20:27:00.011-04:00

Heritage Days is history.

Over the weekend thousands came to the Point for the annual Luminaria Friday, and for tours of the Cottage and Light on Saturday and Sunday. Friday saw perfect conditions for the lighting of the coast and there was a feeling of community and gratitude in the crowds that moved all around Lighthouse Park. Up and down Cedar Point the neighborhood was flying the American flag. It was beautiful to see them all. The air was cool, the relentless wind died down and I walked around in the crowds listening to people ooh and ahh while encouraging kids to notice the brilliance of the scene. Folks who don't normally move easily on the rocks were helped over them by strangers and there was grace and humor in the gestures. Scituate had nothing to be embarrassed about on Friday night.

Saturday and Sunday the wind returned and with it music from across the harbor. With a new location for the annual outdoor concert we could hear it quite well here. We had tent trouble on Saturday which led to it being taken down only a few minutes into the tours. My audience took it quite well and headed up to the Tower to see our neighbor Richard Egan who was helping out that day. I took a peek outside to find Julie and four unknown guests holding down the tent turned kite. With that crisis averted it was back to the groups who wanted a look-see inside the Cottage and a chance to hear of its history and especially of Etrusco and The Bates family. Incredibly I heard from Mrs. Majorie Bates Harrington through the post just as we were starting the day. She was writing me from Colorado to offer thanks for a book I had forwarded to her. This is the Mrs. Bates who had recently donated the amazing telescope belonging to her great, great, grandfather. The Bates legacy here is phenomenal.

Sunday the crowds were even larger. There was a group on hand all the time and I got to see some faces from the past. High School classmates dropped in with their kids; old comrades in arms from past jobs were seen smiling across the room; even a babysitter from my youth came in and heard the stories. Several of my past students came and that was a thrill. I heard a great number of good things about this blog and about the South Shore Living article. I had a reason to unload a bunch of cards with the web address. The day flew by and I somehow held onto my voice. All told nearly 600 people came through in the two days.

One topic that came up again and again over the weekend was the debris thrown up by the ocean across the winter storms. I have a tattered dollar framed and on a shelf here, and several youngsters wanted to know the story behind it. I told them of the earlier post where I shared its discovery. I also told them of the strangest thing found in the detritus - two hockey pucks. It was a light hearted break from the heavier history. You could see the wheels turning in their heads considering how two hockey pucks could have washed into this yard.

My thanks go out to Peter and Barbara Whitfield for service beyond the call, to Nancy Fay who made Saturday fun for Julie, to Lee Coscia who manned the T shirt table while hawking books, calendars, and postcards Sunday, to the aforementioned Richard Egan who I hope got home in time for the first pitch of Sox/Yankees Saturday, to Kristin McDermott, Sophia Ferrara, and to Hales. And to keep me off the couch let me remind you that Jules rules.

The next open house date is August 22nd from 1:00 to 4:00. Tell your friends, tell people you don't like, but tell somebody.

Heritage Days 2010

2010-08-06T17:21:00.006-04:00

The annual Heritage Days Festival begins tonight with the Luminaria and continues Saturday and Sunday with Lawson Tower, the Cudworth House and Barn, the Maritime & Mossing Museum, the Mann House and the Lighthouse open for tours from 1:00 to 4:00 each day. Take advantage of the Weekend Pass for $8.00 and visit them all.

Hard Work

2010-08-04T10:44:00.002-04:00

Meet the Beach Girls.

As we did last summer, we were fortunate to have a team of students work several mornings a week around the grounds. This year they called themselves the Beach Girls and I share their picture with you. They weeded, watered, painted, picked up, and their efforts went a long way toward making the Cottage and Tower shine. We can not thank them and their supervisor Margaret, enough.

See you next summer!!!

Dream Sequence?

2010-08-04T09:55:00.003-04:00

It began with a group gathering outside the Cottage.

I heard mutterings and whispers, there was applause and oohs and ahhs. The crunch of footsteps on the rocks and the click of cameras filled in the brief silence. There were well dressed and well mannered children and adults organized around a center couple and a person dressed in ceremonial garb. Suddenly,the dream turned nightmare.

A wailing began, a keening. I was surprised I didn't hear or see running from the crowd. They somehow stood in place despite the cacophony. I thought of the barrage used to taunt hostage takers into surrender. The noise took on a military aire. All I could think of was this was a twisted version of the Marine Corps Hymn being played by screaming cats as they were swallowed by wolves being chased by hyenas tracked by chain saw rattling zombies intent on mayhem. I heard something like Amazing Grace and I begged for some; for some relief from this ear splitting torture, this screeching plague. I half expected to hear glasses break, eye glasses, windshields, the faces of clocks, glass eyes and seaglass too.

What could I have possibly eaten to spur this type of dream; what was leaking from my sub conscious that could prompt such terrible imaginings? Where in my experience had I been exposed to this facet of Hitchockian horror? In which of Dante's circles had this bruising bedlam been born? Why does this sound like an animal shelter on a carnival ride hit by lightning and an 18 wheeler pulling on its horn at the same time? And don't you have to be asleep to have a dream sequence?

Worst - Bag - Pipe - Player - at a wedding - Ever.

Ever.

Gratefully

2010-07-29T16:34:00.007-04:00

There have been 8 ships christened USS Enterprise.

I got a history lesson in the last few days as I prepared to write this post. I looked up the history of ships named Enterprise and found out about balloons and blimps and America's Cup winners. I read about the "Old Gray Lady" of World War Two fame, seemingly on the job at the most important moments of the Pacific War and victorious in those moments. On humanitarian missions and in battle, an Enterprise has served the citizens of America going back to the Revolutionary War. The name might prompt thoughts of a star ship or of the space shuttle but it was an old and honored name long before those references gained hold.

This research was prompted by a visit from the family of a sailor who comments regularly on this blog and is currently serving aboard the Enterprise out of Virginia. Patrick grew up in Cohasset, had the good sense to marry a Scituate girl, and in each note his appetite for the stories of this place has seemed to grow. I love that I can bring a glimpse of home to someone who clearly has it on his mind all the time. When Stacey, Ryan and Emily visited they brought me the hat you see pictured below. We loved having them and watching them drink the place in to share with Dad later. The hat will find a happy home here and I look forward to the day when Patrick and I can have our pictures taken wearing the matching lids. We loved having this family visit us and look forward to their return soon.

Anchors Aweigh, my boys, Anchors Aweigh.
Farewell to foreign shores, We sail at break of day, of day.
Through our last night on shore, Drink to the foam,
Until we meet once more. Here's wishing you a happy voyage home!

Glossy Paper

2010-07-27T17:44:00.004-04:00

Hot off the presses.

Julie discovered that our long awaited appearance in South Shore Living magazine is on the shelf today. There are several amazing photographs from our friend Jack Foley and I was given the chance to write the article. I haven't had a byline since I was in college so this was a real thrill. The issue also contains an article on local fishermen including Frank Mirachi. John Galluzzo has an article on walking around the South Shore in the spirit of Thoreau and there is focus on all that Scituate has to offer commercially.

The photographs are spectacular. Jack is a genius who was able to capture the joy of this place for us in print. We thank him and the South Shore Living editors for the glossy paper treatment.

Archeology

2010-07-27T16:48:00.002-04:00

Houses can be archaeological sites.

In the past week I have opened up three windows long painted shut here at the Cottage. I started with the window in the room we use as a TV room. Once a part of the original west wall of the cottage, this window was painted shut at least three colors ago, perhaps four. Currently yellow, this window gives evidence of blue, green and white paint and those clues send you back in time.
I highlight this window on Open House days as it was a part of the story that I did not know when we first arrived. (I had thought it a decoration Ruth used to make the room seem bigger.) I never gave it a thought that the house as I had known it had been built in phases.

The second window was the window at the new west wall, next to the chimney for the oil burner. I had opened a window in that wing last summer on the door side of the utility room but thought I could get a true cross breeze now that the interior window had been opened. This project took some patience. There can be no hurry in an archaeological dig. I worked at it slowly with razor blade, paint scrapper and the tap, tap, tap, of a hammer. Half way through I found that it was nailed shut and that the cord on the left looking out had been cut away. This window had the white paint that matches the others currently, a brownish tan interior and hints of green and a dark brown at the lower strata of paint. More evidence of time and work in a room that is a great number of colors.

The third window is one of the living room windows. I had opened the right most last summer and chose to dig in on the left Sunday. Again patience was the key. This window was heavily weighted with silicone to insulate it and I needed to take off the aluminum storm window to get at it. The razor was the chief tool and then the scraper was used to break the paint seal. A drop in screen tucked into the freed storm window completed the job.

Along with the investigation of the paint colors what I was really doing was using our experience with the winds here. This has been a relentlessly hot summer. We have seen temperatures in the sun of over 120 degrees. But we have also learned the winds and now it is possible to get a breeze from the east, south, and west and to have that breeze sweep through the downstairs. The north breeze is only available through the bathroom window which always opened but was blocked by a pull down shade. I swapped in a mini blind and now there is a wind chime in the kitchen that tells us if there is a north wind. You can check the flag and figure out which room will give you the most relief. As I write the wind is from the south. The curtain in the living room is pushing at the back of the bench and I can feel a little of it on my legs.

One thought I had while I worked was that opening these windows moves The Cottage closer to its original condition than it had been for a while. In the early 1840's this cottage was criticized by Keeper Osborne as a, "miserable, leaky, smoky, and uncomfortable tenement." I have made it leaky again but it is far from miserable or uncomfortable and no one smokes inside. Two hundred years and a lot of paint later there are still stories to uncover layer by layer. There are two more windows to open too; a little one in the kitchen and another in the utility room by the oil tank. The kitchen is on deck for the weekend.

Who Needs Vegas

2010-07-13T13:28:00.006-04:00

A Jackpot, a historical jackpot has come in.

Yesterday morning Julie received a call from Virginia Bates Hale, the great, great, great, granddaughter of Simeon Bates, the first Light Keeper of Old Scituate Light. Rebecca and Abigail Bates had twin brothers named Ruben and Joseph and Joseph was Virginia's great, great grandfather.

Virginia called to say that her family wanted to donate a spyglass that had belonged to Joseph and Julie arranged the time. At two o'clock promptly we met Virginia and began to unravel the connection. Duncan Bates Todd joined us and she and Virginia caught up with each other and clarified the tie to the Cottage and to Simeon, Rebecca, and Abigail. Virginia brought photographs of four generations of Bates men, beginning with Joseph's son, Joseph Irving Bates (1832-1905), his son, Louis Frederick Bates (1864-1956), his son, Clinton Irving Bates 1895-1995, (Virginia's Dad) and ending with Virginia's brother, Clinton Irving Bates (1925-), a New Hampshire resident now and a true genius in wood working judging from a magazine article Virginia shared with us.

Then we got around to opening the package. Closed, the glass is 21.5 inches long. The barrel is wood and looks most like walnut. Open, the glass is 36 inches long. The optics aren't perfect but there is no problem bringing a boat passing the end of the small jetty completely into view and having it fill the eye. There is no obvious maker's mark on the barrel. The glass weighs about 4 pounds using a bathroom scale. There is a heft to it. You can almost smell the salt air and feel the waves crashing, while imagining Master Mariner Joseph Bates using it to check for whales at a distance or simply for home port. It is a remarkable thing to have been donated back to Scituate where as a young man, Haley's age, Joseph Bates would have played and worked and perhaps, slept, in the very room I write from now. Who needs Vegas? There is treasure enough here in a Monday morning phone call.

Our deepest, most heartfelt thanks go out to Virginia Bates Hale of Quincy, Clinton Bates of New Hampshire, and especially to Marjorie Bates Harrington of Colorado Springs, Colorado who received this glass from her father and with staggering generosity has returned it to Scituate.

Smörgåsbord

2010-07-11T09:44:00.026-04:00

First a bride.

Julie took these photographs yesterday and promised the bride I would put them up. This couple managed to dodge the rain that finally arrived offering small relief to brown yards and sunflowers that are so close to opening.

This week reversed the adage - it went from hottest, to hotter, to hot. There were some tough nights for sleeping, even here where there is always some sort of breeze. Early in the day Monday a thermometer in the kitchen read 122 degrees outside. The bulb sits just outside the kitchen window and the sun pushed it toward melting. Getting a hose out across the parking lot to all the islands was a priority and I had help from several neighbors. These gardens continue to prosper and the perennials that have been mixed in look like they will make it. The second year will see very hardy plants along with the potential to split some down and get greater yearly coverage. Five of six new rose bushes have shown terrific growth. The sixth still has a chance if I pare off some old growth. The sunflowers along the runway are getting very close to bloom. If I can keep them watered the fall brides will have the back drop I was shooting for when those seeds went in the ground.

Sunday afteroon I was in a kayak 125 yards off shore looking back to the beach. Haley was out there with me chatting up boaters at anchor. As I looked back to the beach I saw a young man running onto the beach from the parking lot. My first instinct was that there was trouble of some sort and I began scanning the beach for what it might be. There are falls on the jetty all the time and there is always the risk of someone diving unaware of the shallows. I then noticed the young man looking up and taking pictures.

It was the flyover arranged by the Legion Post to commemorate the Fourth of July. Amazing, astounding, thrilling, moving, and more than a little frustrating as I routinely bring a camera with me when we go out to paddle. I had left it ashore knowing that the battery needed to be recharged. I was in the perfect position to capture these four fighters as they passed over the Tower. All I could do was join the boaters and the beach goers and offer my applause.

The good news is that the young man I saw running was part of a photographic team that was covering the event for the Ledger. There are photographs and some readers will have seen them this week in the paper. The Legion Post will be offering this image for sale shortly. It will be a must have as who knows when such an opportunity will be afforded again.

In the middle of the week I worked on an ongoing project for the Society. Julie and I began an inventory of the artifacts here at the Lighthouse. The shot included here is a detail from the Bates Family bible.

A catalog is being created for a number of reasons and we get to play our part. The next stop is the GAR Hall and then it is onto the Little Red School House. I will be bringing some of those photographs back to a later posting so check back. There is one image from the School House that I have been dying to post here. It is a shot of the Light from first cliff that predates the building of the small jetty.

On Thursday I had a chance to fufill two wishes, one of some guests and one of my own. My aunt let me know that there was a group of visitors from Kansas who had a tremendous interest in Lighthouses and asked if I could take them through. I met the group and found that tremendous was an understatement. The day before they had taken a cruise out of Newport where they saw ten Lights in two hours. We had a great visit and one of the girls had her yearbook photo taken here. All day long I had lines from the Wizard of Oz going through my head; "We're not in Kansas in anymore..."

Later that afternoon I go to go to the top of Lawson Tower and help wind the clock. Haley came with me and these are her pictures that follow. Trustees Steve Litchfield and Tucker Paterson have been part of the team that winds the clock for several years now and they offered an opportunity I have wanted since I saw the Peter Whitfield production on Lawson Tower three summers ago. I had only been inside Lawson Tower once before, when the late Paul Miles took me up and showed me some of the elements that make it unique. The Society has done a tremendous job creating and developing a landscape project that includes a plaque describing Mr. Miles contributions to maintaining Lawson Tower. There is even a Lawson Rose in the mix. That plaque will be unveiled on July 18th at noon prior to the Society opening the Historic sites generally for the first time this year.

The Difference

2010-07-03T08:01:00.007-04:00

Last Saturday I figured it out.

The Lighthouse cruise took off from the Town Pier loaded with enthusiasts that included Haley and me. There were stops at Minot (more on that down the page), Graves End, Boston Light, and the Nantucket Lightship at anchor in Charlestown.

Graves End was spooky and we witnessed the laws of nature with a seal diving for and munching back a fish for lunch while we took in the Light. There was a brooding quality - the name gets you there - and I had a sense that this was a place you could set a credible mystery and make the setting a player in the story.

The Nantucket Lightship was just plain cool. In my childhood I had a post card of it framed and hung in my bedroom. I can't tell you why I thought this was fitting. I just know I liked it then and like it now. The imagination can put you on that ship in a storm. The tinging of the hull, the bounce side to side, sailors holding on, maybe lightning. It is good to see the ship getting some attention and not being lost to time.

Boston Light is placed on the most amazing colored stone. Our guide for the day, true expert Doug Bingham, shared that this light sits on a geological fault line. It is hard to believe anything could move that beautiful stone. For forty to forty five weeks a year the Keeper there, Sally Snowman, lives cut off from shore, her groceries delivered by boat along with everything else she needs to work and to live. This is a quiet place, stolid; it must be brutal in January and February.

Though I am getting to it last in this post, it was Minot's Light that really fired me up when we visited. The captain was able to get us amazingly close to the Light and I found it incredibly exciting. The Historical Society has shown interest in the Light since the Federal Government put it up for sale. Part of that process was supposed to include an inspection of the inside. Some images of the inside have been shared and Minot is a granite silo separated by levels with grate platforms. I want very much to be in the group that gets to inspect it further but safety concerns make that unlikely. We were so close the other day that the ladder was calling to me like a Siren. I was ready to jump right out and swim over.

I found out that very few of my fellow cruisers wanted to make that trip with me. To them the ladder looked treacherous and the idea of being alone inside terrifying. I would have gone up there in a second and posed like King Kong on the Empire State building. (I love Photoshop) Maybe someday.

On the ride back to Scituate I figured something out. These other lights gave off an air of mystery and of danger. My light, Old Scituate Light doesn't. While across time there were surely dangers here, Scituate Light is not off putting; it is welcoming, encouraging, beckoning, a far more powerful Siren to far more people than Minot was to me. The number of visitors daily and weekly and monthly are beyond counting.

In any given hour there might be someone sitting on the wall in front of the Light. Last Sunday as I got up to get ready for the Open House there was a father and child walking up the walkway at 5:00 am. I know I had heard voices at 2:30 am when I got up to to check windows and doors and lights. (Insomnia is a blessing for all the things you can get done) People are there now and will be there tonight at midnight and that is only part of what sets this Light apart.

You can get here, you can learn the history of the place, you can talk to Jules or to Haley, you can walk your dog, check out the flowers, (Thanks to Erin for watering by the way), maybe see a news crew checking out rumors of a shark, (Haley had an exchange with a very witty man that had them speculating about the stories they could fabricate for the news; Haley got it to the point where the shark had come up on the beach and eaten a dog), we had three neighbors helping another with a flat tire last night, car shows, parades, photographers, videographers and wedding parties, (same sex and mixed), there was a man dressed as a woman taking pictures last week and saying that they would be shared on the Internet. We have swimmers, fisherman, kayakers, bikers, joggers, the romantic and the reflective and the party hardy.

I know none of the other lights have this bustle, this traffic, this life. That is the difference, the special nature of Old Scituate Light.

2010-07-03T08:00:00.001-04:00

The first Open House of the year was last Sunday and we were as pleased as can be to once again have Donna Elias and her husband Les join us. Many people visited and enjoyed Donna's work and many will be hanging new pictures or receiving new pictures as gifts. We got a waste basket, a tooth brush holder and a shower curtain as our upgrade. For those of you who might have missed Donna and her work check out the link on the right side of the blog. We hope to have she and Les back next summer, hopefully for Heritage Days.

We had a great number of very young kids come through Sunday and it was a blast to interact with them and move them toward an appreciation of the historic. One of the points I try to make regularly when we have the tours is that with technology what it was it is something of a miracle that any of our old places have survived. Placing coals under a straw bed to stay warm at night is a risky business and that I am able to sit at this desk when night after night that was done here by all the different residents until relatively recently is pretty amazing.

I was also made a gift of a CD by the recording artist Greg Cherone - The Songs of Scituate - I did not get a chance to thank him properly but I was thrilled to get it. Greg has a song about our Army of Two and about the Old Oaken Bucket. All the profit from sales of these CDs goes the the Scituate Historical Society.

Let me use this space to thank my cousin Susan for stopping by and bringing her wonderful friend Eleanor. The tried and true Peter and Barbara Whitfield helped out and Peter put in overtime for which he will receive no pay. Maureen Upton took her post selling raffle tickets for her legendary quilt and helped us sell some T Shirts, books and postcards. They all have our most heartfelt thanks for making the day fly by and getting the stories told.

Won't You Let Me Take You ...

2010-06-25T21:39:00.006-04:00

On a Sea Cruise.

The Scituate Historical Society Lighthouse cruise is in the morning - a perfect kick off to the summer here at Cedar Point. More than 200 will board from the pier at 10:00 and visit surrounding lights in the course of a three hour cruise. Haley and I will be aboard taking pictures and video clips to post later. Come on back to check them out.

Lots of gardening and lots of reading here at the Keeper's Cottage. Haley has a series going and I am all over the literary map now that correcting has been laid down for the summer. One thing I have learned in my reading about the first Keeper Simeon Bates, and through the donations made by his descendants, there were always books here. Keeper Bates had wealth enough to provide his family with books and the steady voice evident in the affidavits left by Abigail and Rebecca give further reason to believe the family was well read. Between watering and weeding there is time for digging into mysteries and histories. If we could just find a cure for the rabbit that is cutting down every other hosta and all the brussel sprouts we would have it all covered.

Our first open house of the season is Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00. As I have posted before, the artist Donna Elias will return to Old Scituate Light. Donna has generously forwarded some new T Shirts which will be on sale at the open house along with her wide variety of Lighthouse masterworks from the Lights around the country. You can also take a chance on the annual Historical Society Quilt raffle when you come by.

Late last week we had guests on the beach enjoying a rare hobby. George and his son David were visting family here in Scituate while on vacation from Northern California and came down to the beach to sail, by remote, this neat boat. Julie got this shot on the perfect day. A day earlier they had braved rougher waters and darker skies. The boat had taken on some damage and they had had to manage some repairs. Call it another kind of sea cruise or some nice folks doing cool stuff in front of the Old Light.

Catching Up

2010-05-27T17:55:00.003-04:00

Dribs and Drabs to share from Cedar Point.

Several groups have visited the Lighthouse since the last post.

A group of teachers working on Professional Development Points came by on a Sunday afternoon and took a brief tour of the grounds and the Tower led by local historian John Galluzo. They seemed to get a big kick out of the Jug in the Chimney house.

Third graders from Cushing School came by on a Monday morning and got all the stories from Julie and Dave Ball. The question of the day to Julie was, "How much did it cost to buy the Lighthouse?"

Maddy and Shannon had eleven questions each when they visited preparing to recreate the Rebecca and Abigail Bates story for their classmates at Cushing. I had a blast with both and hope that I get to see a video of their recreation some day soon.

Julie met a couple named Gail and John when she was shipping something out from the UPS store and as it turned out Gail has a job as a guide at the Yaquina Light on the Oregon Coast. They set up a visit and no 90 minutes has ever passed as fast. Haley had visited that light last year when she went to Oregon and we got to swap notes on the coasts.

My colleague Chris Galvin and his intended Kim arrived one afternoon and we loved having them in to drink in the ambiance and the history.

I am still waiting for a chance to paint the bottom levels of granite damaged by all the stone over the winter. It is has been very windy though and that won't do. One of these days I will beat mother nature back and get it done.

The gardens are prospering though one plant set by the mail box is being eaten by an unknown creature perhaps nesting under the utility room. I had to move the Hosta and the Seedum I replaced it with looks like it is being nibbled too. This week the Cedar Point Association does its annual clean up and planting. I just finished opening up a new garden next to the memorial stone for Mr. Downton. I am hoping to put in a beach rock path so that people can approach the sign with the Army of Two story and pose by it.

The Lighthouse cruise is less than a month away and the first open house follows the next day, June 27, 2010 from 1:00 to 4:00. Donna Elias is returning to show her masterpieces and Maureen Upton will be here offering chances for the annual quilt drawing. Mark your calendars.

Our friend Jack Foley has sent me an photograph taken last summer that will be included in a story to appear in South Shore Living's August issue. I have rarely looked so good. Julie is insisting that Jack had to spend a good deal of time with PhotoShop to get this image. I can't wait to see the spread and have contributed a brief essay of my own to the article.

A student of mine named Amanda Merrill gave me a remarkable photograph of the Lighthouse Park from the air. Taken last July it shows off the Cottage and the Tower and the whole of the place beautifully. This weekend I hope to pin it into the message board. Come on by and check it out.

What I did on my Spring Vacation

2010-04-29T20:42:00.008-04:00

I don't like to have time on my hands.

Last week was the April School vacation and I worked with the surrounding stones to remodel the bench area dedicated to long time Cedar Point resident Joan Francis. Weeds and hard pan had replaced a purple stone surrounding the bench and I dug it out over the course of four days, replacing it with beach stone and pieces of granite thrown up into the yard over the winter. Two pictures below tell the story.

A chorus of thanks was sent out last week to the Scituate Fire Department who came over on Wednesday and resolved my ongoing battle with the line on the Tower Flag pole. Using their ladder truck the SFD took a new line up and Julie got this amazing shot as the fireman worked his magic. Yes, that is a slice of the moon over his left shoulder. Haley shot some video on this but I need to edit it before posting. Check back soon for that link.

Two new gardens were installed as the week came to a close. Using a kit from Home Depot I assembled a four by four square in the small courtyard on the ocean side of the kitchen. Julie and Haley picked out some annuals and we added some color to the side of the house that was punished most by the rocks and sea all winter. I also spruced up the perennials on that side with some coreopsis, some hosta, some seedum, and purple sage. On Saturday my sister Lee arrived with a black compost that we used to dress up that perennial garden, the vegetable garden and at the same time creating new bed along side the runway on the harbor side in which I will be trying to grow some sunflowers.

I have this image in my mind of the buoys mixing with these sunflowers to create a new backdrop for our many brides. Seeds for some foxglove, some lupine, and a border sea grass went into the bed under the kitchen window. A climbing rose bush was installed next to the yard arm holding the blue and white Lighthouse sign.

The last chore of the week was to paint the message board. Time and weather had combined to wash out the white border and had yellowed the back to the color of a sorry pumpkin. The trim and the back got a coat of gray stain. The board looks cared for again and is ready to help us tell the story out here. I am researching some lighthouse poems and songs to share and the possibility of a digital photo frame to hold the many images the Society has that capture the evolution of this nearly two hundred year old landmark.

All in all a full and productive week. I lost about 7 pounds, still managed to correct a bunch of papers, watch the Celtics and Red Sox, and never threw out my old back. Our friends Marianne Bullock and Sean McLaughlin visited. I cut the lawn twice. The next vacation is August.

Upgrade

2010-04-12T20:22:00.002-04:00

Now you can pin it up!

Thanks are owed to Marshfield teachers Tom Greland and Patti Ryan along with several Marshfield High School students who took an idea of mine and improved upon it tenfold. The idea was to add two cork bulletin boards alongside the glassed in presentation board added last spring. I approached Tom and Patti asking if a cork board could be cut cleanly in their shop; they took the idea and wrapped the beautiful frames you see around the boards. Students chipped in with the stain and sealant coats. John Coscia (faithful brother in law) gave me a hand installing them and we were good to go. John is also going to help out with a rotted board along side a runway window. He is the Master of the Measuring Tape and the Sultan of the Sawsall.

The End of the Stone Age

2010-04-03T20:46:00.007-04:00

Whoooh - the sound of relief at last.

The rocks are back on the beach - the stone age is over and families are strolling around the Tower again at ease. Pete Spencer was the low bidder on the job of removing the stone and returning them to the ocean side beach and his crew did an amazing job. They also reset the big pieces of granite that guard the walk way. It is an impressive sight to see. Last Monday Dave Ball and I sat before the Conservation Commission and we given the permissions needed to do the work. With the weather as rainy as it has been until yesterday Pete must have been happy to work someplace that wasn't bogged down in mud. Stone was also pulled away from the runway revealing the foundation for the first time in anyone's memory. There is a small amount of rot revealed as well but nothing that can't be addressed. I am going to use the spot for a garden of some sort - I had hoped to put some flowers over there anyway and now have that much more room and reason to do so. I have this image of a bunch of sun flowers along side the Tower. Another job for April Vacation I guess.

Julie was in a conversation with some neighbors and they shared that their friend, and a regular long distance reader of this blog, has just published a book on hang gliding. Mrs. Doris Tilden was a long time Greenfield Road resident and has transplanted to Hawaii and one of the pleasure of sitting down to write here is that I have heard from her so often. I will be requesting this book on my Kindle and will post the link to it when I find it. And here it is.

I make mistakes here all the time and I have a big one to confess. The line for the flag on the Tower broke in January and I have recounted how I hooked it down and secured it. Yesterday, attempting to run a new rope up, I let go of the splice I had made and bit by bit the rope crept up the Tower. I ran. Taking stairs two at a time I attempted to get to the line from the Lantern room before it ran up to the top. I am sorry to report I did not make it up there in time. Julie reported that as she saw the flag coming down she thought, "Oh that poor man." The Fire Department will have to be called in with their ladder truck to rerope the Tower. I believe I have given this problem more thought than I ever should have. Its like a virus when I get hooked on one of these projects. Success is the only aspirin.

Gardens are beginning and the perennials are peeking through. Seedum, Hydrangea, Hosta, Sage, all are showing some color. I need to check on a gift of some Black Eyed Susans that I placed on the ocean side by the kitchen. I have seeds for Fox Glove and Lupine to put in over there as well. For Julie's vegetable garden I am promised a bunch of tomatoes my sister has started and I got seeds for beans, eggplant, squash, and cucumbers. I turned that spot over yesterday and it is looking very good. At a yard sale today I picked up a pitch fork to help meet the challenge. I do love to get out and watch stuff grow.

We have yet another media blitz to share - this week it is the family newspaper called Kidding Around that will feature our cheery mugs. We were visited by Karen Doyle who could not have been more gracious and I have seen the pictures by the great Jack Foley. You will want to go looking for this article just to see my happy kid.

In a final note before I add in one last picture, the blue and white Lighthouse sign has been restored to its place. It has been a brutal winter for it in the winds of Cedar Point and it carries a few scars as a result. The last storm knocked all four finials off it and carved a stripe in one long board from the chains used to hang it. With the help and guidance of the wonderful gentlemen who man Satuit Hardware I have placed two long bolts in the top with connecting nuts two inches down into the sign. Using turnbuckles I have connected those bolts with the eye hooks in the yard arm and so far so good. I can't fly the flag just now, but the sign is up.

Bikers from Boston

2010-03-21T20:10:00.004-04:00

Fun weekend on Cedar Point.

Great weather brought out a ton of people and I got to chat to a great number of them. There was an affable couple from Worcester who told me that they saw the Light on Channel Four all the time in bad weather and decided to take a ride down to see for themselves. There were families asking for Haley and wondering about when the rocks were going to be removed. There was one very nice guy who wanted to help move them and asked for a bucket. He is one of the many who come out here two or three times a week with his wife and kids. He told me he had amazing photographs of the Mount Rushmore Flag being flown in the parking lot that he took from offshore that incredible day. He didn't look old enough to have been in high school when that happened but he claims he has the pictures. We had another proposal here too. A young man with the initials JFK stepped up to the fence and called me over to ask if he could go up and propose to his girlfriend Chelsea. All went well and Julie got photos to email to them. My brother in law was here just then and both he and Julie remarked how Chelsea was blushing all through her face and neck.

These two pictures are from today. Christopher Annear from Boston University had made the ride down with his group from Boston to enjoy the wind and the salt and the views. I was correcting when I noticed them lounging by the wall and I called to Julie to grab the first shot. She went out; met them and swapped stories. A few minutes later this became a different story when en mass they began to shovel stone over the wall and onto the beach. I went running this time, got Julie to count to three, and hit the shutter. We are now celebrating with the stones here on Cedar Point. Thanks to all!

What a weekend!

2010-03-15T17:50:00.005-04:00

Lots of news to share in this installment of the Light Keeper's Journal.

On Friday The Board of Selectman voted the sum of $4000.00 to remove the stone that remains surrounding the Tower. There will be a few more steps in the process, including a review by the Conservation Commission but before long we hope the have the rocks back on the beach and the larger blocks of granite restored to a protective position. The wall holding back ocean by the parking lot continues to give up large boulders with the high tides. Lets hope that this work mitigates that loss.

This weekend saw intense winds routinely gusting to 60 miles per hour. With a hard rain on Saturday night combined with that wind, there was little sleep on the night we turn the clocks ahead. The gusts would hit the cottage and seem to accelerate. While we did not get the shaking of a few weeks back it was a long, long night. If ever there was a day when another hour would have helped it was Sunday.

The usual chores - dump, school plans, pick a room to clean - were done and I had just turned on the Sox from Spring Training. Haley brought the phone to me and our State Rep, Jim Cantwell was on the line. He told me he had Governor Deval Patrick with him and that he would like to bring the Governor by the house to allow us a chance to discuss the deteriorating condition of the seawall that guards the entrance to the Point. I made a call to Dave Ball who has been the point person on this issue for some time. He arrived with Kevin Cafferty of the DPW who has an extensive background as a contractor and engineer with seawalls.

Around 3:30 I met the Governor's group as they were dropped off by the marker that tells the story of the Army of Two. The Governor and I chatted briefly as I led him to the house and I did my best to impress on him just how much and how quickly this coast is changing right before my eyes. In the cottage we made some introductions and then some pictures were taken. Scituate Selectman Rick Murray and Marshfield Selectman Trish Reilly (once a Scituate girl herself) were also part of the group.
The conversation turned quickly to the background concerning the seawall, the legal controversies surrounding its maintenance, the current status of a state awarded grant of $50,000, and what the Governor's office might do going forward for this project and for others like it up and down the coast. We had a brief chance to discuss the history of the house and of the artifacts in the office and it was time for the party to move on to a visit at the wall itself.

Governor Patrick could not have been more gracious and Haley especially enjoyed the company of the State Policeman who accompanied him. She was made a gift of a State Police pin and immediately put the word out to her friends of the visit. I was told today with some certainty that Governor Patrick was the first Massachusetts Governor to ever visit Old Scituate Light and spend time in the cottage. We are very grateful for Mr. Patrick's attention and to the work of Representative Cantwell in making this meeting possible.

Today finds a newspaper profile of our first year here appear in the Patriot Ledger. Our thanks to Caitlin Keane and Gary Higgins for their accuracy and their images.

Tidying Up

2010-03-11T17:54:00.016-05:00

A quick update on the rocks and a victory for the forces of good.

Last Sunday morning I went out to the yard and cleaned up as best I could. I attended to walkway until I reached a point where I thought it best to stop. I also cleaned up the small plot that is home to the memorial plinth for George Downton. The discovery of the day was the plumbing for a former water fountain, tucked in among the sea roses. The tide and winds have been a blessing this week and no great tide is expected before the 26th. I will be working on pulling the rocks away from the runway this weekend as a few of the floor boards have noticeable rot from the manner in which the stone sits against the building not allowing the moisture to wick away. The photos are below.

Before:

After:

The victory involves a little story. A few weeks ago I noticed that the line that runs up to the flag pole on the Tower had broken and that the cut was about a foot from the top of the pole. Asking if this had happened in the past, I was told that in fact it had, and that the fire department came out with a ladder truck to fix the line. That image gave me the willies. I hated the idea of a fireman out over the rocks on a ladder with a wind coming up because I had had this line break on me. I decided I had to develop an alternative plan.

Last Sunday it came to me. I would take a length of pipe and tape a hook to it. I would push that length of pipe up along the flag pole until I reached the foot of rope and I would snag it. With the wind down around 4:30 last Sunday I took to the job and got it on the first try. I pulled down the line and tied it off to a metal band rigged to the pole near the railing. I was extremely proud of myself until Tuesday when I noted that the line and metal band were now, once again, a foot from the top of the pole. UUUUUGGGGHHHHH!

Today I fixed it with able help from Haley. The photos aren't the best as we had the weather working against us, but it is fixed without the fire department hanging out there over those rocks. I am very pleased. Three more pictures below.

A sweet victory for the forces of good. Very sweet.

Got One Now

2010-03-02T21:08:00.004-05:00

The update today in a several pictures and a word of thanks.

This set of photographs shows what the walkway up to the Light normally looks like and what the tide and wind has done in just the past few days.

I have watched scores of people navigate these rocks since last Thursday, including a bride in the rain on Saturday, and with each tide my worry has grown. The walkway is impassable and the spot where I stood as a kid and looked out through an old school binocular is filled to the height of that binocular. I am worried that the runway to the Tower and the fence along the harbor side are going buckle under the pressure of the stone and took the step you see in the picture below - nailing in some planks at the footings in the runway to the Tower - so I could sleep last night and not be up to check the tide. I have already set aside some planks to cover a breech in the runway should it happen.

I met a couple today walking around the point who asked me when the Town would be coming by to help the clean up. I had to tell them I didn't think they were coming. The Better Half asked me who she had to call. I told her I didn't know and that I hoped someone would recognize that a penny of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I am grateful to have had several of the Selectmen come out today and look over the deterioration of the breakwater and the over pouring of rock. One went so far as to investigate the broken storm drain and cured it at the cost of getting himself soaked. He asked not to be named and I won't, but this was service beyond the cause.

I honest to God did and will try to pull this rock away from the house, but I honest to God cannot clean up this runway. I did it in earlier storms only because I couldn't in good conscience sit at this desk and watch any one of the many seniors who enjoy this spot as my mom once did, turn an ankle or worse. The stone needs to be put back on the beach and the granite restored to a position it once was protecting the north edge of the Tower.

I am not worried about the Cottage or that we are in any danger staying here. I have had a couple of worried calls from people but that is not really the issue. I signed on to be the eyes and ears down here to avoid having problems develop. We got one now.

Eeeekkk!

2010-03-01T15:57:00.011-05:00

Not what I wanted to come home to today.

High tide today took a bad situation and made it worse. Many more rocks were deposited up against the outer runway wall and the building is wetter than at any time in the year we have been here. The entire floor of the shed is soaked and most of the runway floor is too. Haley and I had gone out yesterday to move some of the stone away from the building. I thought we had made a good dent in it and would be able to come back to it and whittle away some more. Mine was a misguided optimism. The pressure of the stones at the point where the runway meets the Tower must be immense.

The Tower is completely wrapped in beach stones to a height of two feet in most places and higher in some. Of greatest concern to me is the appearance that one of the granite blocks which creates the shield for the Tower has shifted down into the sand. Four hours after high tide the parking lot remains impassable and that water has reached a greater level than in my experience. The pictures below highlight the areas of concern.

The large piece of granite in the center of the first photo seems to have shifted back toward the beach, exposing the Tower to more stone and water. The stones that are jammed against the bulkhead door were not there yesterday at all - it was possible to walk from the point where the Bates family plaque is set to a point two feet beyond the bulkhead door without a misstep.

Postscript: I have just finished shoring up the beams in the runway with planks to protect against a cave in. Could it happen? I don't know. I just needed to do it in order to sleep tonight.

Rocks

2010-02-28T19:06:00.007-05:00

In the last post I told you the house was rocking on Thursday night.

Here are a few pictures that cover the Friday morning high tide and its aftermath.

How cool is that wave in this shot?

Help!!!

Seasick

2010-02-26T17:12:00.002-05:00

The Keeper's Cottage was rocking last night.

Gusts of 60 miles per hour shook this old place last night for nearly two hours. I was settled in to watch the second half of the Celtics game when I noticed the back and forth and up and down you might associate with being on board ship. I checked with Haley and she had noticed the same. Heading downstairs to be sure everything was tight I found Julie looking outside to the parking lot. The wind was pushing the waves out in straight lines as they hit the ocean side seawall like a horizontal rain. The parking lot was filling up fast and there was already a hint of the rocks I would find this morning. My rehung blue and white sign had busted free of the yardarm on the side lawn as well.

This morning I gathered the sign and checked out the road and decided that the wrong way up Lighthouse was the better way to go. In the year we have been here I have never had to do that before. Returning this afternoon I found the walkway up and around the Lighthouse more full of rocks than ever. I scooped out what I could but will have to enlist the Town for a small mover to get the rest. These are not the small beach stones I can shovel, but rather are the makings of a serious wall. These stones are heavy and were moved in the morning tide; the first of several 11 foot tides we will see this week.

The wind has died down considerably from last night so I don't expect any big problems with the tide tonight. Tomorrow morning though there is another flood tide due and there are already advisories posted. Its a new year here and there are new lessons. One I could do without: the queasy feeling of sea sickness while laying in my own bed.

La Fonda Spice

2010-02-19T20:13:00.002-05:00

A full year now - 52 posts

Out of school for the February break marked the end of year 1 here at Old Scituate Light. 365 days ago Monday, I woke up to an amazing sunrise and the beginning of a hands on class called Light Keeper 101. Anyone who has followed along week to week knows I have had a blast and filled up the notebook as the course has progressed. I have learned so much and what this year has done for Haley can barely be described.

There is a list of names in the kitchen. It is each and every guest Haley has had here over the year. Most of them "Rock." Some are "Awesome." To watch her share this place with her friends, and with my guests, has been a dream come true. She has become a bit jaded with a crowd around, but not at when an individual needs an answer. She has got the history down. She knocked me out with a direct quotation from one of the panels in the runway this week.

The main project for the break was to remake the bathroom. It was the only room left untouched a year ago and I had grown to hate it. The sink was in an awkward place and left me standing in the kitchen to shave. The lights bugged me too. Step by step, I disassembled it, and with help I will have it in a shape that will last a good long while. The new color is the title of this post - kinds sounds like someone who might get paid to show up at a bachelor party doesn't it?

Pictures will follow when the job is complete.

Guests Arrive

2010-01-30T19:17:00.004-05:00

Haley and her friends named them Phil and Donald.

The brutal cold has once again created an ice pack in the bay in front of the cottage and shortly after noon a seal found his way into the middle of it. He was quickly christened Donald when Haley and her friends noticed him up on the ice and we got out the cameras for the shots we share above and below. A couple who joined us noticed the second one up on the jetty. He became Phil.

The faces are amazingly expressive. I had heard such a visitation was a possibility when we moved in a year ago but I had never seen a seal in my years of kicking around the coast. They are roughly four and a half feet long, mostly white with a bleed to black in spots. There is no indication that either was ill, though at the end of the day Donald did not seem to be moving much. We will see what may have happened as the tide returns tonight around midnight. Phil will either have to move or get floated off like a log from his perch on the jetty. Neither made a sound though there was some flapping of the fins.

Cold Day, Cool Happenings.

Post 50

2010-01-21T20:58:00.007-05:00

I have been holding off as this is something of a milestone.

This is the fiftieth post on this blog. Who knew? The year has flown by and I have dutifully found a way to convince myself that anyone might be interested in how its going out here on the Point. I have loved the feedback and the chance for some creativity.

The New Year has had me looking around at the cottage for holes to plug and ways to tighten up the joints. With a west wind the house gets cold. It blows right through the dryer vent and takes the utility room down to "can see your breath ..." I am figuring it out and should we track down the storm windows that have been proposed I think next winter will see the house become cozy all the time. We have rearranged the furniture in the aftermath of Christmas and that has boosted the comfort and the utility of all the rooms. I have inventoried all the books too, so I can lay my hands on anything I am looking for when I am looking for it. Good tasks for the stormy days.

There has been some excitement as the weather continues to entertain. Every time I clean off the walkway to the Tower wind and waves toss a new pile of stones back my way. I am sharing a few pictures though to lend a peak at the big jetty with some frosting and another that I am calling "Coming and Going." The bottom one is a neat view of the ice pack from the top of the Tower. I was taking down the wreath and had to grab a camera to get this unusual shot.

I am also adding a couple of pictures sent to me from my friend Dave Sacchitella. He and I took in the disaster that was the January 10 Patriots Game and, beyond his company and the laughs, this was the reward. Turns out Mr. Kraft has a lighthouse too. We might have to invite him over to share notes.

Just as a reminder - This Saturday night veteran journalist William Ketter is the featured speaker at the Historical Society Winter Dinner Meeting at the Methodist Church on First Parish Road. Call the Little Red Schoolhouse for details.

A Different Day

2010-01-02T12:58:00.007-05:00

Yesterday saw our swimmers arrive - high sun and a quick dip and they were on their way. Today brings a different set of circumstances.

Rubble and flood in the parking lot. A massive log that has sat for months where the jetties come together dancing all over the beach landing as the tide turns some 35 to 40 yards from where it sat a mere half hour before high tide. As before the pictures can tell the story.

I will try to put together an image that shows how far this log has moved. It is a massive trunk that five people together could not have moved a foot. All summer long people have posed for pictures on it and used it as a bench for picnics. At 11:45 it was solidly in place as it has been through each of the earlier storms we have had here.At 12:10 it had moved twenty yards and even as the tide began to turn and settle back it kept tossing this massive piece of wood like it was a Lincoln log. It was amazing to watch. It certainly is a different day.

New Years 2010

2010-01-01T21:18:00.006-05:00

Another photo entry as the pictures tell the story.
Noon, January 1, 2010.

The only downside was all the swearing going in and coming out.