Inattention Bites Us In The Ass

We went out to the First "Annual" Airfest air show at the Goergetown (Texas) Municipal Airport today. The trip was winding down for us and the Zoo was playing in a dry retention pond. Time came to go, and we went to exfiltrate the pond area to go where Mommy was waiting in a nearby hangar. In the time it took to walk 40 feet, #3 -who is two years old- disappeared. I told #1 and #2 to wait with Sister3 (holding #4) and my dad, my Darling Wife, and I started spreading the word to BOLO for a little boy with a red/white striped t-shirt. I had a picture in my camera of him in front of a plane, and showed it to the local military prep. organization cadets and their supervising officer spread them out looking. Nobody remembered seeing him*. If worst came to worst, there was a helicopter giving rides and another on static display that could have been used to search from above, and a couple of thousand people to scatter and look on foot.

Worst didn't come to worst, thank God. 30 seconds into the search I remembered to say a prayer with my Darling Wife, and we split up. An event staffer caught wind of the action and got me to the PA stand. He got as far as "May I have your attention" when a golf cart came up and the passenger cried "We've got him!"

Our best guess is some strangers or somebody in similar-looking clothes got between #3 and us, and he got a little scared and started trying to find us. It turns out 2 is not too young to begin "STAY when you are lost" training, but that came later in the day. So he laid a course in the presumed direction of his family and started sprinting. He headed off to where we had spent the most time: the big blue airplane . . . on the other end of the tarmac. By the time we realized he was missing (we're talking seconds here), he was 100% GONE from visual range. The staff at the end of the tarmac said he was running full-speed, and would have kept on going if they handn't picked him up and put him in a golf cart on a 180º heading from his previous direction of travel. They were headed to the PA stand, and that's where I was. *He had run a total of around 830 feet on legs about a foot and a half long, right past the concessions area including the cadets' station.

Parentage was confirmed when he obeyed "Touch daddy on the head" by feeling my beard. I set him on my shoulders and retraced my steps with him up where everyone who was concerned could see he was found. My Darling Wife grabbed him, hugged him, and made a beeline for the stroller where he was immediately secured in a 5-point harness. She was leaving. They could have been giving out a million dollars in the next five minutes, and it wouldn't have mattered - she was going home. #2 and I stayed with Dad and Sister3, saw some flying demonstrations, looked inside a Georgetown P.D. cruiser, ogled Georgetown F.D.'s brand-new fire truck, got sno-cones, looked at the big blue plane (a B-25) a little more, the P-51 next to it, and called it a day.

All's well that ends well, but oy thank God #3 was caught!