Donna and I visited Highland Light in Truro Saturday. The lighthouse was built around 1800. Back then the house was 500 feet from the edge, the point at which the ocean met the land. By 1996, the lighthouse was 100 feet from the edge of the cliff.
Four hundred feet lost in 196 years. Forty feet alone was lost in 1990. A bad year for storms.
Donna and I hadn't been out to Highland Light in years. Decades. How much land has been lost since the last time we were out there? We know that. It's been recorded. As Casey Stengle said, " Ya could look it up. "
How much land land had we lost? How had our territory changed? There were some tourists there. A nice family, they spoke with an accent. Russian? Serbs?
One of them asked me if I'd take their picture. I inquired as to how the camera she handed me worked. Which button should I push?
I took their picture. I took a picture of this Russian family, these Serbs. As I was snapping the shot, I asked:
" Where ya from? "
The oldest person in the group, a man, said, " We're from New Hampshire. "
This is an American story.
3 comments:
Sorry about your seashore. We seem to lose somepart of L.A. every year because of erosion. As far as trying to I.D. somebodies country. I remember in London was the first time I heard a black man talk like Winston Churchill. What did the English people call them? I think Wogs was the word. Fred
So will there come a time when the Cape lighthouses (Chatham, Nauset, et al) are moved so far back that they shine not only eastward into the Atlantic but over the Bay as well?
Fred, your comment reminds me of a made for TV flick I saw back in 2004. I think it was called " 9.2. " About an earthquake that ate the coast of California. By the end of the movie, Barstow residents had beachfront property.
And Jennifer, I was saying to Donna as we left Highland Light, " How do they move these big things?! "
Then thought: Easy. They're
LIGHT houses.
( A hook hauls the blogger off the stage. A shot rings out... )
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