I thank my lucky stars that my Grandpa BB came to Florida’s Panhandle 65-years ago and made it possible for me to grow up on an oyster shell road, within smelling distance of a rich muddy swamp and in a neighborhood of eccentric Florida crackers. These elements made my poetry and fiction what it is today. They gave me a peerless community to come home to three years ago after I tired of the politics of a university career and the relentless traffic of a mid-Atlantic city.
My Grandpa BB loved his life at the Cape San Blas Lighthouse. He took pleasure in the solitude, the fishing, and the keeping of his tomato, pea, and collard patches. He would have beamed with pride at seeing his picture in a book by Port St. Joe writer, Beverly Mount-Douds. The book, Lighthouse Keepers, published by Dream Catcher Publishing, Inc., tells his story and those of other lighthouse keepers along the Panhandle coast.
Ms. Mount-Douds, who recently won a prestigious and coveted Florida State Genealogical Society award for her work, is an incurably addicted genealogist who knows more local family secrets than all our Panhandle bartenders, barbers, and beauticians together. Her book began as a genealogical project, so it lists the genealogies of several keepers, some of whom stayed in the area to raise up new generations of Forgotten Coast natives. This includes my Grandpa BB.
My Mama, Louise Sorensen, is in the book too. One night during World War II, she was helping keep watch from the lighthouse when a troop-bearing ship on the nearby Gulf was torpedoed by a German submarine. She reported the fiery sight to Grandpa who called the Coast Guard. Partly due to her quick response, a number of American soldiers and sailors were rescued that night. My mother is on page seventy-nine of Ms. Mount-Doud’s book. In the photo Mama is giggling because she liked that Luthy fellow. He was right cute, for his time.
Before boys got interesting, Mama used to play paper-dolls upstairs in the keeper’s cottage shown on the book’s cover (photographed by local artist Debbie Hooper, who sells her beautiful note-cards and postcards in Panhandle gift shops and other stories). The cottages are in better shape today because of a restoration project approved by the U.S. Air Force.
The San Blas cottages and lighthouse are down a short road off C30A where the highway makes a sharp right onto the forearm of Florida’s Cape San Blas peninsula. It’s a special place in a special part of the world. Grandpa BB would want you to see it.
This story appeared in the
Jul/Aug 2012 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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