09/02/2026
👧 From the Pages of Sleepy Eye History — Little Kathleen’s Big Adventure
In December of 1949, the family of Sleepy Eye Mayor Joe Piehl had quite a scare during a shopping trip to downtown St. Paul.
Joe and Mrs. Piehl were visiting a department store with their children — Barbara, 12; Frances, 10; Kathleen, 3; and Jerry, 5. With the store crowded for the Christmas season, the family became separated for a few minutes.
When Mrs. Piehl caught up with her husband, she asked the question no parent ever wants to hear:
“Where’s Kathleen?”
Joe thought the three-year-old was with his wife. She thought Kathleen was with him.
Suddenly, their shopping trip turned into a frantic search.
The Piehls began asking store clerks if anyone had seen a little girl matching Kathleen’s description. No one had. Then someone suggested they contact the police.
That turned out to be the right idea.
There was little Kathleen — perfectly safe — sitting on the knee of a big St. Paul police officer.
Her mother had tears in her eyes, but Kathleen apparently had a completely different opinion of what had happened. While everyone else had been worried sick, she had been having what she considered a wonderful adventure.
Trying to explain her experience riding an escalator, Kathleen proudly told her family:
“I had a lot of fun. I had a ride on the ‘alligator.’”
What a wonderful ending to what must have been a terrifying few minutes for her parents.
You can almost picture three-year-old Kathleen wandering through that busy St. Paul department store during the Christmas season, fascinated by the lights, people and that mysterious moving staircase she called an “alligator.”
Nearly 77 years later, this little newspaper story still brings a smile.
Sometimes the best pieces of history aren’t about wars, fires, crimes or major events. Sometimes they are simply about a little girl from Sleepy Eye who got lost in a department store — and ended up having the adventure of her young life.
Does anyone remember Kathleen Piehl or the Piehl family?
Another wonderful memory from the pages of the Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch, December 8, 1949.
