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| Vol. 18, No. 13 | Dec. 3, 1998 |
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| Vol. 18, No. 13 | Dec. 3, 1998 |
Norma Gaines Hanks doesn't only collect lighthouses, she visits them during her travels.
When Ptolemy II built a lighthouse on the island of Pharos off Egypt, it was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, until its destruction by an earthquake in 1346.
For Norma Gaines Hanks, individual and family studies, and her husband Dan, lighthouses are still among the wonders of the world. Wherever they go, lighthouses are a part of their travels.
Norma met Dan at UD when she was assistant dean in the then College of Human Resources and he was working on his doctorate in family studies.
"I'd never given lighthouses much thought," Norma recalled, "but they have always interested Dan, even as a child, and he started to research them and seek them out. When we were married a few years ago, I decided to share his hobby with him, and it's been fun and, on occasion, adventurous!
"We take photographs, buy models and souvenirs at the lighthouses we visit so our house is full of pictures, posters, miniature lighthouses and other memorabilia," she said.
The couple enjoys visiting local lighthouses on weekend drives, she said.
"We have books about lighthouses that we read, and Dan looks them up on the Internet and off we go. They aren't always like their pictures. For example, one book has a photograph of a pristine lighthouse at Fenwick Island that looks like it's isolated, in the middle of nowhere. When we got there, we discovered it was surrounded by a trailer camp and badly in need of paint," she said.
When their travels take them farther afield, lighthouses are a top priority. They have looked at lighthouses on Long Island, viewing some from the ferry between Long Island and Connecticut. They made the long drive to Assateague via Virginia and arrived in the pouring rain. They bundled up, saw the lighthouse and thought it so beautiful they returned on a sunny day.
The couple climbed up, up, up- almost 600 steps-to the top of a lighthouse at Hunting Island, S.C.
"The view was beautiful, the setting was almost tropical. I was having a wonderful time until we passed a pond where everyone was looking into the water. We saw an 8-foot alligator, and a baby alligator ran across my foot. I was anxious to leave!" she said.
Vacationing in Barbados, the couple naturally went lighthouse hunting. "The first day we had a driver, who took us through fields of sugar cane on dirt roads to find lighthouses. The second time out we rented a car on our own and had to wing it. The maps were useless; we had to follow the jagged, rocky coast as best we could, driving through a dairy farm, and getting completely lost. Finally, we found the 1700 East Point lighthouse, which we were looking for. A restaurant was nearby and the people there volunteered to watch our car while we tramped over to the lighthouse, and afterward we had a wonderful lunch and managed to find our way back," she recalled.
During Winter Session, Norma and James Davis, education, are taking a group of approximately 20 UD students to South Africa where they will work in schools, social service agencies and hospitals. The group will be in Pretoria and Capetown primarily. Dan is joining Norma at the end of the stay, and they are planning to add a new continent to their lighthouse collection.
-Sue Swyers Moncure
