Yes, you can lose a kid at Lakeside

Lakeside is a safe place for children, maybe too safe, because a parent can become careless in supervision. Last night I decided to take an evening walk about 7 p.m. and headed east along the lake. About half way to the far end, I saw a little boy approaching who appeared to be alone. As he passed me and looked up with big blue eyes, I just on a chance said, "Are you alone?" He said something that was completely unintelligible--either he has a speech impediment or has delayed speech, I thought. So I knelt down, and asked him, "Are you looking for someone?" He told me he was following his mom and asked if I had seen her (at least I think this is what he said). I hadn't seen a woman alone, and I told him, and suggested he might want to go back and wait for her at home. Because I was kneeling, he then knelt too. "Do you stay in a cottage?" I asked. "No." "Do you live in a house?" "Yes." "Do you know your last name?" He told me his last name, and when I repeated it, I had it wrong the first time, and he corrected me. "Do you know what street your house is on?" He told me the name of the street and the color of the house, and then ran off to continue looking for Mom.

So I continued on my way and turned on that street and looked for that color house. The first one I came to that matched those two things had a yard cluttered with toys and bikes for a boy about his size (maybe 4 years old). I knocked on the door--the living room was dark except for the glow of a CRT--and I could see there was as much clutter inside as outside. A gray haired man came to the door. "Are you missing a little boy?" I asked. He looked puzzled, and said he had a little boy who was probably with his mother. So I told him about the boy on the lakefront. He put on his slippers and headed out the door. I turned down Third St. but kept peering through to the lakefront to see if I saw them. I never did. I'm afraid the little boy might have been punished, but that's better than falling on the rocks or into the lake. No child should be alone on the lakefront.