It has been typical New England weather, hot enough to require the air conditioner. Then, suddenly, cool enough to get out a sweater and use the lightweight blanket at night. Strangers to New England are puzzled by this changing climate, but we natives are used to it and can accept the changes.

I cannot remember what first prompted my interest in lighthouses. I know my daughter Laurie and I were still collecting postcards, and I was drawn to these tall sentinels of the sea. I always purchased them when I saw them, and the shoebox now has one hundred and more. Friends and family manage to send one when they visit an area where neighboring lighthouses are featured on postcards.

This past week my bookshelf grew by one more book – The Lure of Lighthouses, a gift that Laurie included in her weekly bundle of clippings, letters, and whatever she finds of interest. It’s a great little book, by Alan Ross and published by Walnut Grove Press. Chapters cover the origins of lighthouses, and go from one topic to another – rescues, safety of the sentinels, keepers of the light, and ending with a chapter on “Unforgettable Lighthouses.” The author’s list is highlighted by Portland Head Light, Maine’s oldest light and the most photographed lighthouse in the past of the country.

Poets and painters have been inspired by this famous place, and its history is much enhanced by the fact that George Washington authorized its construction in 1791. Its 80-foot tower is 101 feet above high tide.

Travelers are usually familiar with the lighthouses on Block Island and Nantucket, and around the Great Lakes are a whole different list. Like a giant black and white barber pole, the lighthouse at Cape Hatteras has stood as a sentinel on the Diamond Shoals since 1803. It was threatened by erosion, so in 1999 the National Park Service moved it 2,900 feet inland while the whole country watched its progress with anxiety, as the media followed it closely inland, to safety. It is the tallest lighthouse in the US, 193 feet high.

Block Island residents raised two million dollars a few years ago, when it was realized the lighthouse had to be moved back from the sea, where erosion was taking its toll.

There are many stories about the “keepers of the light.” Lonesome men and women, and often families, lived on the grounds of lighthouses, until it was no longer necessary after automated lights were installed. In some places, maintenance crews are on the premises to tend the property.

Not too many years ago, lovers of the sea and the romance of the fast disappearing lighthouses rallied to save these special parts of hour history. Some are now under the care of local historical societies. There are some “refurbished” lighthouses where guests may tour and even spend a night or two.

As interest has continued to generate generosity, states, the Federal Government, and citizen societies have determined that this part of history will survive. A young person could spend an entire lifetime visiting and studying the lives of the structures and the men and women who faithfully helped protect the ships that sailed the seas and other great waterways.

The quote in last week’s column was by W.C. Fields and is said to be his epitaph.

Who said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration”?