A brief write up of who's who on these forums? I was at two events this weekend and wanted to meet a few people from this forum but not everyone had wacko tags and I couldn't pick them out of a line-up if I had to! Maybe just a brief summary and a picture on this topic?

Jim, I was one of the bad ones. I forgot to wear mine. This is a good idea. I will dig up a picture and add a brief summary.

This is me, Eric (Martin). Not to be confused with Eric (Sharp). Presently a board member of (Cape) St. George Lighthouse Association, Godfather of Jones Point River Lighthouse (this means I am trying to help the group), member of FLA,member of Chesapeake Chapter of the USLHS, member USLHS, member ALF, member of a few more local lighthouse groups.

As you may have guessed I am interested in lighthouse restoration, especially those with small resources. I have a small collection of Harbour Lights which is still growing. Love to climb lighthouses and have seen over 120 plus 3 lightships. Plan to see them all.

Day job is at Fairwinds Credit Union granting comsumer loans (would love to have a lighthouse related job).

Are you sorry you asked Jim?

How about your picture and bio?

Well to keep the confusion down, I'm Eric, not to be confused with Ericlighthouse. I also forgot to take my Wacko badge to the Orlando signing today. I am a member of more lighthouse groups than I can remember.

Hey, Eric I know where that picture of you was taken, and I bet I can name who took it since there was only 5 of us up on that catwalk that afternoon. And 2 of them are in the picture.

OK, here's mine from vegas about 18 months ago

You guys are too cool! Okay, I guess the rest of us need to come up with pictures.

Jim cheated - didn't give some background, but I guess we all know that he left the beautiful desert sun to bask in the sun of Florida's wonderful beaches! I am so jealous! One of these days!

Oh, yeah, what happened to the lei, Eric?

Mine's in my profile.

I think it should be posted here so we can scroll through all of the pictures - I'm trying to find a decent one to post.

Maybe we can find one from the Portsmouth cruise, Grace.....

Don't you dare!!!

Yeah Grace, I've got a few of you...

Judy

Grace and Judy,

This could prove to be very interesting.

bobo

Don't encourage, Dave. He can be very malicious! :p And, Judy, you are supposed to be my friend!

Wow, forget about Grace and Judy getting lost together...this could be even more fun!

I am your friend...they are good photos, and you get to choose. My policy is always, NOT to post photos that make friends look bad.

Trust me.

Judy

I'm feeling very paranoid; I'm beginning to think that SOME CF members are out to get me! In fact, I just had a call from a certain person who accused me of being a blond in disguise! He accused me of hanging around with Judy too much! :p Thank you, Judy. I knew you were my true friend.

Okay back to the reason for the thread...

[img]http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5ce10b3127cce94b93f67d6f700000076108AZtWzNu2ZOH[/img]
This is me, Judy (Castleberry) with Shirin Pagels at Ocracoke last October. I'm the blonde.

I'm active in a bunch of lighthouse groups, New England Lighthouse Lovers, Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, and Chicamacomico Historical Society to name a few. I also founded and am the president of a HL Collectors Club called Outer Banks Lighthouse Lovers.

My Harbour Lights collection is not small and also not as big as some, but it seems to be taking over my home space. Besides the fun of collecting the little guys, Harbour Lights has brought me many cherished friends.

I am a fundraiser, having served as a director of fundraising for Habitat for Humanity in a past life. In the past five years, I've poured all those efforts into the preservation of lighthouses. That means I go after the big bucks from corporations, seek grants and also plan the fun type fundraisers like golf tournaments and auctions.

I love to visit lighthouses and the more I see the more I need to see. This fall I'll be re-visiting some and seeing many more for the first time as I do the Maine trip and attend the NELL fall meeting at Avery Point. I expect to be traveling north quite frequently.

In my work life, I'm a real estate broker and sales trainer. I'm also the proud grandmother of a six year-old boy.

Judy

Oh dear Judy, I can't see your picture...
And I think this is such a GOOD idea!
Here we are:

I will admit to being a little more grey these days, but you should be able to recognise us

The picutre is on our webspace and there is a short description as follows:
.........................................
We are married and live in the English West Country together with Mischka our dog.

Stan is a retired production engineer and comes from a long line of lighthouse keepers.

Margret was a Computer Systems Manager; she is German and has lived in England since the early 1980s.

Our Hobbies: Lighthouses, Stamps and Bears
Model railway ( 00 gauge) which we have just started to show on our pages.
In addition we now collect "Madonna and Child" stamps too.

Stan collects stamps and builds model railways
He has an impressive collection of philatelic items and postcards with lighthouses on them, written up as album pages - one (or two or three) for each lighthouse. The stamps are mounted together with a picture and as much information - technical and historic - about the lighthouse as we can find. We have nearly 1400 different lighthouses from all over the world represented in our collection!
And there is a collection of stamps, covers etc. with "British and Commonwealth Navy Ships", which we have just "resurrected"

Margret collects bears and Madonna and Child Stamps

The bear collection, in the beginning, mostly consisted of the cuddly (stuffy) sort. But when they threatened to take over the house the collection moved more towards the little porcelain, resin and plastic figures. And then they also threatened a take over. So now the collection is specializing on bears by Peter Fagan and a few from the Cherished Bears collection.

As for the stamps, we had been thinking for a long time about a topic for Margret to collect. And now we found it. The Stamps are of "Old Masters" paintings of "Madonna and Child". Again, we had to restrict the collection, so that it didn't get too big.
............................................

Who is next?

Here's a photo taken on our trip to Europe. It was taken in front the original House Of Correction in Brighton, England. It's hard to tell but I did have on one of my many lighthouse t-shirts- it is one of the lighthouses of NJ.



This is appropriate as I'm a retired NJ State Prison Guard. I never referred to myself as a Corrections Officer- I didn't correct anybody I guarded them.







I'm a member of a number of Lighthouse organizations- NJ Lighthouse Society, US Lighthouse Society, Long Island Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society, NELL, Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, Delaware River & Bay Lighthouse Foundation among others.



I'm most active in the NJ Lighthouse society and do Outreaches and volunteer for the Lighthouse challenge most years. I've also done some volunteering with the LI Lighthouse Chapter of the USLHS. I try to be involved with NELL but it seems whenever I try something comes up and gets in the way.



We have visited almost 250 lighthouse and lightships since 1999 when we first got interested in lighthouses. (as you all know we managed to add a few this July in Europe)



I do collect Harbour Lights but I have slowed down considerably in the last 2-3 years. I've run out of room to display them and I don't care for the idea of buying things to store them in the basement.



My brother-in-law thinks I got interested in lighthouses because of my job for most of the last 20 years I worked at the Prison- I was in a Guard Tower overlooking the main recreational yard.



Who knows- I always had a thing for houses with turrets long before I got interested in lighthouses.



Dennis

Just add a turret to your house, Dennis, you would have plenty of added display area for more Harbour Lights...

Funny you should mention a turret Paul, I just drove by a house adding (yes) a turret yesterday.

Posted by Grace:

Don't feel bad, Grace. Just think about poor Jim (he started this topic). He didn't find any CF members at the two functions he attended. Nobody told him that they were all hiding in the bushes.

bobo

In the continuing theme of someone out to get Grace, wonder if she has yet realized that Judy is holding off on posting the boat photos until St. Patrick's Day, when they would be much more appropriate. . . . . but then, with her recent blonde tendencies, she has become a little slow on the uptake . . . . .

Wow, I have GOT to start making these events!

I had my Wacko Badge on but not a whole lot of others did at St. Augustine.

Greg,

You better have very thick skin, are wearing a suit of armor, or have access to a bullet-proof vest. I’m sure that BobM has one that he could lend you.

bobo

As you can see I've been working out a little!!!

I liked you better before your work out!!!

It's OK Ruthie. Actually the bodybuider is in front, They were using me as the backdrop!!!

Digger, you're quite a guy! I can almost hear the music playing in the background, "Do you come from the land down under...", as you stroll the stage in your banana hammock.

One question, why did you shave your mustache off?

Bob