A Spork in the Road

(Photo Courtesy of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum)

We are preparing to leave St. Michael’s, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore, which is home to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and the Hooper Strait Lighthouse (in the photo at left). This lighthouse was moved from its place out in the middle of Hooper Strait to the museum grounds after lighthouse work became more automated and this lighthouse fell into disrepair.

I love the squat Chesapeake-style lighthouses, not only for their distinct design but also for simple reasons of nostalgia. Climbing the narrow curved staircase of this lighthouse yesterday, I felt like I was seven years old again. I don’t even have a lot of conscious memories of coming to this museum as a kid (although I know we did), but the smells and sensations as I climbed felt deeply, intensely familiar. I stood alone at the top for a few minutes (Lil’s knees were not enthusiastic about the cramped, steep stairs) and watched a guy shimmying up and down a skipjack mast, treating it against mold, and smelled the Chesapeake.