Someone You Know: Lionel

Someone You Know, written by Amber Kapiloff, is a new column spotlighting the good people of Franklin County.

CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Lionel Hering has been an adventurer ever since he was young. At 3 years old, he decided it was time to attend school alongside his older sister, not wanting to be left behind. Hering grew up in Morocco, where the school systems were much more flexible and it wasn’t a problem for him to begin schooling at an early age.

His parents, third-generation French-Moroccan farmers, were forced to flee with their children due to political turmoil in 1974. The family packed up their cars in the middle of the night and drove with no headlights to avoid any unwanted attention.

“To me it was an adventure; a family vacation. But my parents were beyond scared,” Hering remembers. They drove to Melilla- a Spanish-owned territory surrounded by Morocco- where they caught a ferry away from the violent unrest of their hometown.

“My dad’s plan was always Canada. It was hard adjusting from the laid back lifestyle of Morocco to the busy, urban life that was France,” Hering says. “He left for a while to tour around Canada but soon came back for a visit. We were living in the Pyrenees and while my dad was home we drove to an ice skating rink. We had never been ice skating; we had never even seen snow. We fell in love with it and, coincidentally, my dad injured his knee while skating which postponed his return to Canada and, in the end, made us decide on France.”

Hering was a bright student. He excelled in class, despite being 2 years younger than his classmates. But as puberty rolled around and the inevitable social pressures, his teachers began to see his young age as an issue. Herring’s father, not wanting him to repeat any unnecessary schooling, decided he should spend some time abroad.

Hering was only 12 years old when he boarded a plane heading for Logan Airport.

“The organization I went through told my host mom to look for a “very French-looking kid” at the airport. So my dad dressed me in a beret and a dress coat and fancy shoes. I had never worn a beret before. But Eleanor found me immediately,” says Hering.

He lived the next year with his host family- most of whom spoke better French than he did. “It was a great streak of luck that I clicked immediately with Edward, who was my age,” Hering says. The summer following his American school year, Edward packed to go to summer camp in Maine- Camp Chewonki- and Herring followed.

“I returned to France after that summer but things were going down the drain. My parents were separating; I got into a bit of a rebellious phase. I had tasted freedom and independence and it was hard returning from that,” Hering said. Not to mention all of his friends had moved on and he didn’t know anyone his age.

That was when another streak of luck occurred. His former ski coach called to say he was taking a group of kids to tour France- skiing, racing and completing their school work on the road. Hering didn’t think twice. He boarded a train, met up with the group and spent the next year getting better and better at skiing on some of the world’s best slopes. But just as he was about to turn 17 his luck changed for the worse and he wound up in the hospital with a broken back. On doctor’s orders he was to quit skiing, and all sports, for at least two years.

“The following years were dark. I moved to Paris to live with my mom. I was going to a huge middle school, over 5,000 kids, and I got involved with some pretty heavy drug stuff. At some point I realized I needed to turn my life around. I began investigating the possibility of enlisting in the army. One night I went into the police station with the intent of enlisting, and I saw a photograph of my buddies (corrected)  up on their bulletin board.” They were wanted for drug-related crimes. Hering remembers the night well. He turned around and walked home. The next night the executive director of Chewonki called him at home and asked him to come work for them. They even offered to pay for his flight.

Hering never moved back to France. After that summer he moved in with his Chewonki family and got his high school diploma at Bath High School. From there he went on to college at the University of Maine at Farmington.

“I remember moving into my dorm room that first day and opening the closet. My roommate had all of his stuff on one half, including a pair of skis,” Hering says. “I remember wondering where on earth he went skiing around here.”

Several times Hering mentions his ‘streaks of luck’ in life- beginning school early which led to his year in the U.S., fleeing Morocco which led to his skiing career in the Pyrenees, his amazing host family which led to his family at Chewonki and, in the end, attending UMF which led him to Kingfield.

“I found my wife, my family and my business here,” he said. “My whole life is here. I’ve lived here longer than I lived in France now,”

Hering is sitting in his clustered ski shop, Happy Tunes. After his 2 years of (corrected) rest he slowly began to rebuild his strength and eventually started to ski again at Sugarloaf. He got into the business side of things by chance which is now what he does full time.

“It’s still about good service. These days people can’t find things fast enough or cheap enough … it’s hard not to get overwhelmed by the consumerism. But it’s still about good customer service. I always tell my employees- it doesn’t matter how well or poorly you did yesterday. It’s today that counts.”