MINDING THE ROOTS AT TAVERN CREEK---13
The little 14 foot plywood run-about was a fine ship. But not large enough to make all the trips on the Chesapeake that I would, as a sixteen year old, have liked. Sure it was enough of a craft to manage the Tavern or the Swan and even the mighty Chester. But to make meaningful trips south past the Bay Bridge at Annapolis or north up to the Susquehanna Flats at Havre de Grace.....not so much. Each year she had to have vast numbers of brass screws replaced in her hull before she was put in the water so the wood could swell and seal the small cracks that the annual paint job didn't fill.
I just finished reading Bill O'Reilly's new book "Killing Lincoln", and in it he talks about some of the people who took part in the killing conspiracy as having been held in a prison on Point Lookout in Maryland. You know O'rielly, he's the one that is always right and nobody wants to admit it. It brought back a number of memories. I did some copy work for an art collector in Chestertown a few years back and he allowed me to keep a copy of the old fort down there.
That would be the Chesapeake Bay on the right and the Potomac on the left. Today the road runs through the middle of the point and the whole place is supposed to be haunted, including the lighthouse.
Now you can say all you want about believing in ghosts, but that's alot of people to die in one place and ..... just sayin.....what are the odds? Huh? Got to be a couple of aberrations walking through corn fields with muskets over their shoulders. Then they vanish....true story, don't know it's true though. And then there's the lighthouse.
The building is empty and fenced in. The only ones who can get in are the park rangers and they don't give out passes willy nilly to just anybody. When we made the first poster "Lighthouses of Maryland" back in '90, this was the way she looked. Place was empty. Look carefully in the upstairs window, second from the right. See anything? Somebody or something seems to be looking out to sea. Oh well, maybe. But I believe...hell I believed in the Mets when they won the world series too. Sigh.
I had occasion to photograph the old light once again in November of '02, after they painted it the original colors.
On this trip, the ranger did allow me to enter the grounds and the building. As he works there every day, I had to ask the question. "OK, is it or isn't it" He chuckled and said he could not tell for sure.........but.
They do have a ghost walk once a year and he was in charge of turning one particular light in the house off an on as the people walked past. He said that no sooner had he turned the light off, than it would go on again all by itself and then in a few seconds off again. All by itself. He said that it was a little disconcerting. I know that the hair on the back of my neck stood up when I toured the place, and it was just the two of us.
And while they were painting the new colors and doing some renovations inside, a local lumber company was called on to deliver some 2x4s and plywood. The driver was reportedly suspect of superstitions of a number of kinds, having lived in the area all his life. The gate was left open for him and the rest of the people working on the place had not yet arrived, so the place was void of people. Not the way the driver explains it! He got out of the truck and was loosening the straps that held the wood when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He swears it was a hand, firm, gripping and steady. Of course when he turned to look.........there was no one there. Honest story. Honest truth? Story has it the lumber never did get delivered that day.
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