Standing in community's center

Standing in community's center

02/06/2008

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It's there in the form of the shipyard worker from Kittery who has driven hours in the darkness just to participate in the ice fishing derby on the lake, same as he's done every year for almost a decade now.

It's there in the story of the humpback white perch, measuring more than 15 inches long, that's spread faster than a wildfire across a dry western plain -- despite having more than 200 fishermen gathered for the derby and the impromptu game of "telephone."

It's there in the baked bean cook-off that features everything from traditional beans to spicy, South American ones -- the very cook-off that inspired "controversy" with beans that were "not local" and "from away."

That community was there in myriad other forms, too, from the soapbox sled derby to the snowshoers and cross-country skiers, from the dog named Lady Simone to all the vehicles parked on the lake, more than you would find in a crowded Wal-Mart parking lot on a Saturday afternoon.

The Lake George Regional Park's annual Winter Carnival is a lot more than an ice fishing derby, though that derby stands as the centerpiece event in the carnival. Then there's the centerpiece personality which, without a doubt, is the park's director.

Jeff McCabe may hail from Massachusetts, but he's clearly leapt into the community that surrounds Lake George. In fact, he did so literally on Saturday -- hopping into a survival suit and plunging himself into icy cold water at the comical urging of members of the Skowhegan Fire Department, who were staging a water rescue demonstration at the carnival.

"Well, I couldn't back down then," McCabe says, a wide grin peering through his tussled hair and shaggy goatee.

Not that one got the impression he would have considered passing on an opportunity to try something new. In fact, he insists at virtually every turn that people traveling with him open themselves to new things.

He plunges a steaming cup of baked beans into your hands.

"You've got to try these," he says.

He attends to prior commitments by introducing you to someone new.

"Here, he runs a maple sugar shack. You should talk to him."

He can't make it from Point A to Point B -- from the sledding hill to the derby headquarters on the lake, for example -- without stopping and talking to 112 different people along the way, deftly maneuvering his way through conversations on topics ranging from fish species to cross-country skiing conditions to whose beans were really the best.

"I don't even really know that much about fish," McCabe shrugs, almost apologetically.

"Do you like beer?" he asks.

Uh ... "Go with Jim. He'll get you back to your car."

Who Jim is and what he has to do with beer is the mystery, one you'll figure out later -- after you climb into Jim's truck and find out where you're headed (the local microbrewery, "Oak Pond Brewery"), another piece of the community surrounding Lake George.

Jeff McCabe isn't tagging along on the trip, though. He's on the move. He's got a community waiting on him, a community he eagerly participates in and shares with everyone he can.

It's all quite overwhelming.

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