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Sunday, May 13, 2001 Light tower reignites childhood memoriesBy JIM TILLER | News-Journal Photojournalist There are two lighthouses for which I have a personal attachment. One is the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse that will be featured at a future date. The other, probably the most recognized lighthouse on the Florida east coast, is the St. Augustine Lighthouse. When I was a child, my mother would leave me and my cousin, Roland, at the lighthouse while she did laundry, bought supplies and shopped for groceries. "I'll be back in a few hours," she would tell us. "Now don't get into trouble." Her parting instructions faded faster than the dry summer dust that chased her car down the sandy shell road as she left the lighthouse property. We quickly armed ourselves with weapons of sticks and palm fronds taken from the thick underbrush that surrounded the lighthouse grounds. Then we battled to take the high ground and save the lighthouse from Spanish invaders, Seminole Indians or those pesky pirates. We ran untethered over the lighthouse grounds that, unlike today, were unkempt and void of tourists clenching bags of pricey souvenirs while gawking skyward at the view. Finally, exhaustion from repelling Spanish counterattacks would overtake us, and we would collapse on our backs at the base of the dramatic tower that rose 165 feet into the sky. Its black and white spiraling stripes led our gaze up to its great lantern room, which teased the clouds while our boyish imaginations conjured up fleets of clipper ships and daring rescues at sea. Whatever the future held for us back then, it did not come to light during those summer days in the shadow of the St. Augustine Lighthouse. Finally, boyhood fantasies gave way to a familiar car horn that signaled another cease-fire, and we would race each other to be first to pile into the back seat between bags of groceries. Then we watched the lighthouse slowly vanish from view as the smell of freshly washed clothes filled the air. The lighthouse would have to fend for itself until supplies ran low and we could once again return to rescue the great tower from marauding evildoers. My career would bring me back to St. Augustine Lighthouse on several occasions. In the early '80s, as a rookie photojournalist for The News-Journal, I was assigned to document the final day of work for the last keeper of the lighthouse. Arriving back at the grounds, which years before I had defended with my young life, the photojournalist in me gave way to the inner child. I spent most of the day at the keeper's heels firing not cameras but question after unanswered question from my youth. What's that for? Why do you do that? How many steps to the top? How far can you see the light? Since that day, I have returned to the lighthouse many times. I never became rich or famous as I imagined, but as age slowly fine-tunes one's wisdom, you realize you can make and spend fortunes over a lifetime but you can never spend your memories. Happy Mother's Day. The restoration of the entire site over the past 20 years by the St. Augustine Junior League has returned the lighthouse and its grounds to exceptionally fine condition. |
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