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When a York, Maine newspaper recently published this photo of tourists admiring Cape Neddick’s Nubble Lighthouse Station they had no idea what they were really publishing.

However, what we see is a retired Coast Guardsman and former lighthouse keeper and his wife and one of their daughters still dreaming of the good old days of living and growing up at a lighthouse; polishing the brass, filling the oil tanks for the light, and winding up the weights, all things that disappeared when automation came to the lighthouses.

Paul Baptiste served as a keeper at Bakers Island Lighthouse in Massachusetts from 1946 to 1951 and Monhegan Lighthouse in Maine from 1952 to 1954.