# Lighthouses on Lawns
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 10, 2024, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388 "2024-02-10T11:56:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/21 "2024-02-10T20:35:23Z")
Maybe it is the “in” thing for lawn decorations at the moment. A few years ago around here it was the 1/2 whiskey barrels tipped over with flowers spilling out. Then before that it was flower beds, an old metal headboard, footboard, side rails with flowers planted inside, a flower bed.
I still would like to, as the ad said, ruin the neighborhood with some pink flamingos in my yard.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/22 "2024-02-10T20:46:12Z")
Two people in my neighborhood have them. I’m in a Chicago suburb but well inland so it’s not really a place for nautical/lake themes. Both are surprisingly elaborate affairs constructed within the last year that I saw go in during a daily walk and involved running buried electric from the house to illuminate them. In fact, both times I thought someone was having utility repairs done until a small lighthouse appeared.
They don’t look bad but, as I said, sort of weirdly out of place.
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### Author:  [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/23 "2024-02-10T21:23:07Z")
Every lawn ornament mentioned so far in this thread is an improvement over the tacky racist lawn jockeys my mother thinks are cute.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/24 "2024-02-10T21:23:50Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> What saw funny to me was how much of the kitsch there was deep sea saltwater crap totally inappropriate to a manmade freshwater lake 700 miles inland.
Yeah, I see river buoys and lighthouses.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/25 "2024-02-10T22:26:20Z")
> [@Biotop](#):
>
> It shows that the owner is well-off enough to bring home the beacon.
Excellent !
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/26 "2024-02-10T22:33:58Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> bathtub madonnas
First time I’ve ever heard of this!
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> decorative outhouses
Now isn’t that just a bit redundant?
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/27 "2024-02-10T22:40:07Z")
Explain them in Arkansas.
They’ve moved from the fat lady butt that looks like the lady is bent over weeding her flower bed, with a pokey dot skirt on. Those were truly disgusting.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/28 "2024-02-10T22:49:32Z")
Truck tire planters are not uncommon in parts of the South. Ingenuity leads to other gardening solutions.
[ ](https://en-fmgdesigns.s3.amazonaws.com/45887.jpg?v=ce7b536aa8702e5e3ccc5d9979aaa6d5)
Once in Texas I drove past a rural dwelling that had about a dozen toilet planters lined up in a row. Most impressive.
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### Author:  [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/29 "2024-02-10T22:53:25Z")
My in-laws have a sasquatch silhouette which I find amusing.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/30 "2024-02-10T22:56:53Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> Once in Texas I drove past a rural dwelling that had about a dozen toilet planters lined up in a row. Most impressive.
Woulda been doubly impressive if they’d kept the tanks attached and used those as planters, too.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/31 "2024-02-10T23:07:10Z")
> [@needscoffee](#):
>
> First time I’ve ever heard of this!
Very common in Wisconsin, and other Midwestern areas with big Catholic populations. They are DIY shrines to the Virgin Mary, which repurpose an old tub as the “background” for the shrine.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/32 "2024-02-10T23:13:40Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> They are DIY shrines to the Virgin Mary, which repurpose an old tub as the “background” for the shrine.
To my eyes, they look one step above having a religious shrine made from a toilet.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/33 "2024-02-10T23:15:21Z")
> [@needscoffee](#):
>
> a religious shrine made from a toilet
Those would be for [St. Bonaventure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaventure), the patron saint for bowel issues.
I shit you not. 😃
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2024, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/34 "2024-02-10T23:18:29Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> I shit you not. 😃
Lol!
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> Those would be for [St. Bonaventure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaventure), the patron saint for bowel issues.
I can’t even…
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/35 "2024-02-11T00:14:50Z")
Nice!
When I was looking for my vintage claw foot tub I wish I had realized where they all were. Color me astounded.
The one I bought was used as a horse trough.
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2024, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/36 "2024-02-11T00:38:31Z")
The area my parents lived in went from white working class to 80%+ Hispanic in the last 40 years. First Mexican but now mostly Central American and Venezuelan.
The bathtub grottoes are EVERYWHERE.
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### Author:  [@DaveUnknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveUnknown)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2024, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/37 "2024-02-11T00:42:03Z")
It might be a religious christian thing-- “jesus is a lighthouse” etc.
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2024, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/38 "2024-02-11T11:45:24Z")
No doubt many of these are hiding wells. Lots of wells have a pipe about 6" or 8" in diameter sticking up out of the lawn 2’ or so. Hollow objects in that size range hide them. The issue changes from “why have a lighthouse on your lawn” to “which lawn decoration are we going to pick”. We have a fiberglass fake boulder; YMMV.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2024, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/39 "2024-02-11T12:04:34Z")
What is a “well” in this context?
All the places I’ve seen these things are ordinary suburban houses with city water and city sewer. Of course that’s because I’ve always lived in such areas. And nobody nearby had struck oil.
The one time I lived where we and all our neighbors had city water but septic systems, the septic access cover was a low dome about 18-24" in diameter; no way any of the lighthouses I saw around there were hiding that.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2024, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighthouses-on-lawns/997388/40 "2024-02-11T13:36:11Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> > [@needscoffee](#):
> >
> > a religious shrine made from a toilet
>
> Those would be for [St. Bonaventure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaventure), the patron saint for bowel issues.
>
> I shit you not. 😃
He _did_ emphasize that emanationism was a core principle of theology. 💩
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