Tilly, A Lighthouse Renown

(Excerpt. . .) If you know anything about the Pacific Lighthouse history, then you’ve no doubt heard that one story about me, Oswald Allik, keeper of Pacific lighthouses. But please, do call me Ossie, I don’t stand much on formality. Yes, if I recollect right, the story goes something like this:

“There was this upstart Coast Guard assistant who took some sort of offense to the order that I gave him. Don’t remember exactly what I said that made him so piping mad, red faced and that doubled up fist, ready to take a punch at me. Well, I just stared him in the eye and said: ‘If it will make you feel better, you have my permission to strike me.”’

Tis true, for the most part, I suppose. But I’m still here, unfazed and no permanent marks to show for it.

It has also been said of me that I never smiled much. Perhaps that is because inside, I was always beaming.

But you’re not here to find out about me, now are you? No, you want to know about my favorite lighthouse. That solemn sentinel of hope dubbed the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse and later to be come known as “Terrible Tilly.”