Nice story from the Provincetown, MA Banner about Paul Mendes, the Caretaker at Race Point Lighthouse in Provincetown which is run by the Cape Cod Chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation. Former cop keeps watch on lighthouse
By Kaimi Rose Lum
Provincetown Banner Staff
Retired Provincetown policeman Paul Mendes has a new beat, and it is about as far from the world of crooks and reprobates as you could get. As caretaker of the keeper's house at Race Point Light, Mendes' job is to make sure that visitors to this historic landmark on the dunes of the outer beach are snug and secure - and to be, as he puts it, 'an ambassador of good will.'
'Very seldom do I have to be an enforcer. In this, I'm an enabler,' Mendes declared as he bounced his blue Ford Explorer along the oversand route to the lighthouse one bright afternoon earlier this week. Aside from fixing leaky faucets and making sure the floors are swept for the lighthouse's many guests, Mendes serves as tour guide, unofficial historian and public relations officer for the Cape Cod Chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, which is responsible for preserving and maintaining Race Point Light. The foundation hired Mendes to 'manage' the keeper's house in 2001, at about the same time it was wrapping up a five-year-long restoration project on the building.
Mendes was glad to exchange 'the hard hat and mean face' you have to put on as a law enforcement officer for the friendly disposition of a host. Tourist visits to the lighthouse have quadrupled since the improvements were finished, and temporary 'keepers' are often invited to stay overnight or for a few days. Mendes supervises.
'My wife said it best. She said, you know, with the police, people never call you to say, let's have a cup of coffee, I don't have a problem. They call you because they've got a problem. They've either been victims or there's a problem ongoing, and you have to be a problem-solver. With this, you're like, giving people an awakening. They walk in the door and they say, 'Oh, my God, this is a treasure!' There's a lot of self-satisfaction. So whenever people call me and say, 'Gee, let's go out to the lighthouse,' I say, 'Let's go!''
Mendes, 57, was born and raised in Provincetown. His mother owned and operated a guesthouse on Johnson Street for 55 years (providing Mendes, no doubt, some indispensable background in the hospitality industry). In 1966, he left the Cape to join the Marines and, after finishing his tour of duty in Vietnam, worked for two years in the U.S. on classified assignments for the National Security Agency. When he returned to Provincetown, he was recruited by then-Chief James Meads to work for the Police Dept.
Compared to the alternative - returning to Vietnam - 'It was perfect. I enjoyed working with people and helping people. It was my hometown. I felt like I was a peace-keeper, like I did in the Marines. It was a job I loved.' Of course, it could be difficult. 'Working nights, being away from the family. And a guy cut me. Twenty-three stitches in my wrist,' he said, showing the scar and shaking his head. 'I survive Vietnam and in my hometown I get sliced up!'
By the time he turned 52, Mendes had served 30 years on the police force and was ready to move on. 'It was the same problems over and over, and I said, it's time to make a change.' In the two years after he retired, Mendes recalled, 'I was kind of lost at sea for something to do that I enjoyed, really enjoyed. I worked out at the Transfer Station for two summers, which was OK, but I really wasn't working with people.'
When he saw the ad in the newspaper for a caretaker at Race Point Light, it was as if he had found his true calling. 'It was like it was made to happen.' Mendes was interviewed by four board members from the American Lighthouse Foundation and competed with 25 others for the spot. This past summer marked his second full summer as Race Point Light's official 'house manager.'
His duties include chauffeuring guests in his 4x4 back and forth across three miles of beach between the lighthouse and the Race Point Beach parking lot and monitoring the temporary keepers to make sure that the guests are comfortable. 'In the off-season, I go out once or twice a week, walk through, check the place, make sure everything's OK, there's no weather damage, wind damage, vandalism, anything like that.'
The rewarding part of his job, he said, is helping people 'to actually participate in a historic setting.' As a Provincetown native, Mendes himself is like a character in that setting. 'The fun part is when I get to take people out, to say that I grew up here and this was my playground as a kid, these beaches, and, you know, it was a great place to grow up. And I never tire of repeating the same things over and over again, about the beach, the whales, the lighthouse, the environment.'
One story he tells with relish is of his Uncle John, now 93, who worked for the Coast Guard in Provincetown from 1934 to '50 and who had his own special connection to Race Point Light. 'He used to stop in here and see the Halletts, the husband and wife who were keepers here, and Mrs. Hallett had 30 cats in the house. There's a cistern in this lighthouse, in the keeper's house, and one at Wood End [Light] and one at Long Point, and once a year the Coast Guard would have to clean out the cistern, drain the water and paint the sides. Well, my uncle would say they'd never find any mice or rats at Race Point, 'cause of all the cats.'
He also loves to talk about the regular camping trips he would go on as a boy to the dunes around the lighthouse. 'We'd come out here in the wintertime. The East End kids would be on one end and the West End kids on the other, and then at midnight we'd try to find the other one's camp.' On the return trip from the lighthouse, Mendes pointed out the window to show where he and his friends once found an old house from Helltown poking up in the sand. 'All through here we would hike and explore and find things.'
In a way, Mendes said, it's almost as if his life has been 'programmed.'
'It's full circle. I've come full-circle. I think this job is a gift. I found a very fulfilling and happy career as my second career, and a second home. I couldn't be enjoying myself more.'
All my best,
Paul Conlin
Acting Secretary,
American Lighthouse Foundation
