Lighthouse Keepers Store

Yesterday we made two trips to the North Head Lighthouse grounds. The first was to celebrate the lighthouse’s 117^th anniversary and, most especially, to clap and cheer for Barbara Christian’s exhibit in the old stable building on the lighthouse keepers’ grounds. The second trip was to take an emergency supply of Ghost Stories of the Long Beach Peninsula to the little gift shop managed by the Keepers of the North Head Lighthouse.

This is the third year that Barbara’s exhibit has been in place. It went up three years ago as a ‘temporary’ summer installation – Barbara’s culminating project as a participant in the Community Historian program and installed in conjunction with the transfer of the North Head Lighthouse property from the Coast Guard to State Parks. It was a huge success and has re-opened each summer with additional photographs, artifacts, and informative display panels telling some of the fascinating stories that have occurred ‘behind the scenes’ at North Head over the years.

On Display

One of the additions this year has been a pair of oyster tongs and a gathering basket (found at a garage sale!) with an information panel about the “Shoalwater Trade” (1850s – 1870s) when oyster schooners regularly plied the waters between San Francisco and Shoalwater Bay. I’m proud to say that some of Barbara’s information and photographs came directly from her current participation in my “Putting the Story back in History” class. Fellow class member Tucker Wachsmuth was able to give her first-hand information about tonging and I happily shared from my own photo archive. Barbara (with her husband Jon’s able assistance!) had done a marvelous job.

My favorite part of the exhibit are the bits and pieces of information about Mary Pesonen, the Light Keeper’s wife who mysteriously fell to her death from the nearby cliff in 1923. Barbara has also kindly included a copy of my Ghost Stories book in her display.  It includes the tale of Mary’s unfortunate end and tells about some of the unexplained phenomena reported by visitors to the Light Keepers’ House.  Seeing the book prompted us to go next door to find out if the gift shop was actually selling it.

(On a whim, Nyel had dropped by last Thursday to see if they might need books for their big celebration. We had been told last year by the LCIC book buyer that “ghost stories don’t sell” and wondered if the book had even been ordered for the little gift shop on the lighthouse keepers’ grounds. The order had apparently been placed [finally!] but had not arrived yet. Nyel sold the nice saleswoman a half dozen that he had in the car.)

Books at the Souvenir Shop

It was about twenty minutes past opening time when we nipped in to see how it was going. The saleswoman said she’d already sold two and, no, the order from the publisher had not yet arrived, and did we have more. We dashed home to get our last dozen and we hope they continue to fly off the shelves!

And, is there such a thing as a whole sentence being an oxymoron? If so, “Ghost stories don’t sell” must be one. I’ll never get rich with book buyers like that around… And, yes, this is sour grapes plus I-told-you-so-I-told-you-so and a goodly dose of see-what-you-could-have-been-selling-since-last-October-up-at-the-interpretive-center??