It was the kind of event that students daydream about while they watch the drifts pile up outside the schoolhouse windows an end of the year celebration, a school picnic alongside one of the area's many beautiful lakes. The students from four of Lubec's 13 schools planned to gather at Gardner Lake in nearby East Machias for a day of fun and frolic at the beginning of summer in 1936. That was the era when schools were small, often a single room, scattered about the town within walking distance of homes, with scant opportunity to get together and when West Lubec and North Lubec were considered different communities.
     It became even more exciting when they heard that an area man volunteered to bring along his boat to take the classmates out on the lake for short trips, adding to their fun and helping to create memories of friendship and games on the sands and waves on the beach. It was a beautiful day and had been eagerly awaited. Picnic lunches were spread out and game challenges issued; there was nothing but fun on the schedule, and the boat ride was a special treat.
     That is, until disaster struck. Nobody noticed that the wind had picked up a bit, and as the enthusiasm grew so did the exuberance. Students clamored for their boat ride, elbowing each other aside for one of the coveted seats, making sure that each was filled. When a sudden gust overtook the overcrowded boat, 15 students tumbled into the water, but only three came back up.
     Word was slow to get out, but when it did, the horror-struck townspeople rushed to the scene. By the time they got there it was not for rescue, it was for recovery. In the space of just a few seconds, the festive event had become a nightmare; the shrieks of joy replaced by a terrifying silence. People gathered on the beach, but there was little they could do beyond the dismal accounting and consoling of the survivors and the bereaved.
     Fate was not yet done, though. Three weeks later, in an unrelated incident at a different location, two more of the town's children drowned. People wondered what was happening.
     On June 19 -- precisely 85 years since that terrible day at the lake -- a crowd of approximately 80 people gathered on the grounds of the Lubec Historical Society to commemorate the event by the unveiling of a bronze plaque overlooking Johnson Bay. The plaque is installed on the society grounds, adjacent to its museum in the former Columbian Packing Company store, likely where many of the family members worked, and opposite the Bayview Cemetery.
     Speakers included author and former resident Vicki Reynolds Schad, historical society President Barbara Sellitto and Pastor Rob Green. Green spoke of how awful events are sometimes suppressed, not spoken of, by observing, "If you hide something in your heart, it will continue to hurt. The longer you hide it, the more it will hurt." When Schad asked for a show of hands from those whose families had been affected, about a dozen hands went up. Many in the audience spoke of the silence Green had described and how they had heard of that reluctance to speak. The program ended with a reading of the names, each announced by the ringing of a bell.
     Schad, in her exhaustively researched 2006 book, Remember The Children, recounted the horrific story in heartbreaking detail, chronicling the final days of each of those lost. Eleven are buried in the Split Hill Cemetery in West Lubec, very close to the site of one of the town's schools. Locating their graves is not difficult -- they all bear the same date of death: June 19, 1936. Most lie in the bosom of family clusters surrounded by parents and cousins; many bear family names that are commonly heard in town today. They ranged in age from eight to 17.
     In her book, Schad provided the roster of the lost. From the Split Hill School were Roland "Buddy" Dinsmore, Roland Eaton, Jerome Kinney, Raymah Knowles, Christine Sleight and Doris Small. From the Straight Bay School were siblings Evelyn Mahar and Aaron Mahar, and from the Ridge School were Merrill Lewis, Glen Morey and Frank Reynolds Jr. From the McCurdy School was Daniel "Buddy" McCurdy, and from the North Lubec School were Henrietta "Sally" Avery and Juanita Towers, who were lost in the subsequent incident. Charles Mason, now of Houlton, recalls the day. "I was there," he says. "I was five. I had one foot in the boat, but my mother drew me back. I think it was divine providence." Family issues pulled Mason from the Ridge School, located across from the grange, to Searsport, where he served 40 years as an ordained pastor, but he never lost his memory of that day.
     Local resident Joan L. Case -- formerly Kinney and not to be confused with the younger Joanne H. Case -- has spoken of the loss of her brother, Jerome, recounting the effect it had on their mother, who forbade her to learn to swim in the hope of keeping her far from the water.
     The number of residents today who could have direct knowledge of the accident is dwindling rapidly, but the town's memories persist. Many in the crowd recounted how earlier discussions were whispered behind closed doors, and how it was many years before the losses were openly discussed.
     Schad - the force behind the creation of the memorial -- was asked in an interview about her motivation to write Remember The Children. "At first, I wasn't going to do it," she said, but then her mother started talking about the event. "I got curious, and did some research." The more she found, the more she wanted to find, and then it just hit her: "It was like a divine inspiration. I was driven, just had to do it." She turned away for a moment, then added, "Believe me, it was not easy reliving that story."
     Schad's book is available for purchase at the Lubec Historical Society.