In view of the rough weather of late, a few words are in order from Lon Haynes, who served in the Coast Guard from 1953 to 1957 and spent 20 months at Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, where the waves often reached the top of the rock, 96 feet above sea level, and the light room, 126 feet high.

“For those who comment on how scary the waves crashing over the lighthouse must have been: Actually it was a comforting sound, much like the foghorn. When the wave hit the base of the rock there was a muffled ‘whump’ sound, followed by a two second pause before the water fell onto the double roof. The main rooftop was over a 5-foot attic, which housed thousands of magazines from pre-World War II to the mid- 1950s.

“… Everyone was well aware of the danger of being washed off the rock when (the waves) stared breaking that close to the flat of the rock top. We would pee off the sides of the rock top until someone would return after peeing and their feet were wet, soaking wet.

By the way, everyone was aware if you got washed off the rock, you would not land in water. The bottom of the rock flared out at all points but one.

“… This picture (of the lighthouse roof, at 115 feet, shown) was taken by me one afternoon while we were just sitting in the day room and someone said, ‘I wonder what that looks like from outside?’ Al grabbed his camera, shoved it into my hand and said, ‘go find out!’

“I waited for the next ‘whump’ sound of a wave hitting the base of the rock, counted 2 seconds, ran out the door, held the camera up, snapped the picture and got one foot inside the door as the wave crashed over me, to roaring laughter of all inside. Then we had to wait three weeks to get the film developed.”