Ice out - By Bob Beane

It begins around late March.

The surface is still, a miles long, flat, brilliant white vision, like a very, very large table cloth.

The anticipation begins, that anxious waiting.

The chat’s between neighbors. When will it be?  When will it be?

Each day, the studied looks out onto the ice.

The dark spots begin to appear like ink stains on a white table cloth.

Everyone, starting to watch, as the dark spots grow larger, with the warming Sun.

The listening for the moans and cracks as the ice begins to shift.

Watching the melting begin along the rocks and the shoreline,

That, oh, so small area, of open water that first appears, then disappears, and then begins to grow larger day by day.

That anticipation of once again of seeing and hearing “moving water” on the lake.

By the second week of April, the anticipation is almost at a fever pitch.

The darks spots are very large with isolated humps of white ice chunks sticking up into the air, like a scene from the Arctic Ocean.

There are a few side bets made, between friends on what the date will be.

And then suddenly a few windy days and the ice begins to move around in very large sheets.

And now a time of anxious concerns. Will it move my way and damage the dock?

And then that morning when you look out the window and see all dark blue water with waves and white caps.

And as you step out of your home you hear the sounds of the waves washing up onto the beach.

The next morning when the water surface is still and is like a miles long mirror, it reflects the colors of the sunrise from the sky.

Ah. Spring is here. Sebago Lake is open water, but you don’t want to go swimming quite yet.