Lakeview Park New Teen Hangout – August 1970

Driving through Lakeview Park to check out and enjoy the colored light display in the fountain is something many Lorainites remember from growing up in the city.

It’s still a popular thing to do in 2020.

My family used to do it too, until at some point there began to be a lot of young teenage kids hanging out down at the park. It’s not that they really did anything menacing; they just sat or stood around, socializing and staring at the cars cruising by.

But the park didn’t seem so family-friendly any more, and we stayed away after that. We just didn’t feel safe.

Well, here’s the article from the Lorain Journal from precisely that moment in time when all that was going on. It ran in the paper on August 19, 1970.

It’s a very fair-minded article, with a funny story near the end.

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Lorain Scene:
The Young People 
In Lakeview Park

By TOM ONEY
Staff Writer

GARY AND LARRY of Vermilion are two of several hundred young people who flock to Lakeview Park each summer evening.

Like their many friends, they wear their hair shoulder length and dress in mod clothing.

“At first it’s a nice place to meet people. Then, in a little while, you’re just one big happy family,” said Gary, who did not want his last name used.

But many older people feel the youths are “hippies” and are coming to the park in such numbers they create a threat. Many of these residents have decided to stay away.

“I’m scared to death,” said Miriam Snyder, superintendent of Lorain recreation department. Park Board member John German admits he too is “reluctant” to go to the park in the evening.

“IT’S JUST THE ERA of permissiveness we living in,” said German. “The Park Board, the city, the FBI for that matter, can’t do anything. We are just maintaining the parks to the best of our ability and doing the best with what we have,” he said.

But the best, for some people, is not enough.

“Are you kidding?” said Mrs. Sophie Tropio, 121 Jackson St., Amherst, when she was asked if she brought her family to the park in the evening. “We used to come here and watch the fountain – it’s so pretty,” she said. “We stopped here one evening and looked at the convention of kids. That was the last time.

“It’s a shame. The lake is so near and you can’t use it. You’re afraid,” she said.

Rex Brunner, 17, 2201 Adam St., Lorain, has been a lifeguard at Lakeview for two years. He was on duty last year when some kids wouldn’t stop diving in a restricted area. A fight broke out and three youths suffered painful injuries – one had 26 stitches in his back after being cut with a linoleum knife.

THE GUARDS NOW go off duty at 7 instead of 9 p.m. “for their own safety,” according to Mrs. Snyder. “I think it is a good idea,” said Brunner. “Toward the night time, there are more troublemakers around.

“We’re freaks. We just don’t fit in so that’s what we call ourselves,” said blue-eyed Gary, a Vermilion High School graduate last year. “My first name is enough. I don’t live there anymore,” he said and shook his shoulder-length blond hair.

“It’s just a good place to meet,” said Gary, but now he’s not so sure. “Now I don’t even want to come here at night. The rednecks and cops are harassing you all the time,” he said.

‘Rednecks’ are those people, mostly kids from other parts of town, who criticize those who wear their hair long, beads and beards, according to Gary.

“We don’t bother anybody. If there is a good band in the area, this place is almost deserted. When school starts, it’ll be empty again,” he said.

Both Gary and Larry talked of Lakeview Park being “liberated” someday, but neither could give an exact meaning of what it would mean or how it would occur.

“These are all local kids,” said Al Gantose, who operates the concession stand at the park and has done so for 14 years. “They’re not really hippies. I know a lot of their parents. Many of them have jobs and are working,” he said.

But Gantose has noted a decline in the number of families and adults coming to the park.

“I must say, I don’t see some of my friends who used to come here. It’s a lot better (the park) than it was a few years ago,” he said.

MRS. SNYDER, whose job is organizing the recreation for the city’s youth, learned a lesson from a teenage boy the last time she was at the park.

“Last night I was down there and a boy asked me for a dime because he said he was thirsty. When I came back he said, “Hey Mrs. Snyder, how about that dime?”

“I gave him one and he put it in his pocket. I asked him why he didn’t buy something to drink and he said if he had to spend it he would give it back.

“I thought he was being funny so I asked for it back and he pulled out a pocketful of change and flipped me the dime. When I said I thought he was broke, he pulled out a wad of money and said, “Livin’ is easy down here lady.”

“It’s absolutely disgraceful,” she said. “A lot of people won’t go there because of this.”

Police Chief John Malinovsky has put a uniformed officer at the park for the past four weeks to maintain order.

“There’s only so much we can do,” he said. “It’s a problem, I know, but they have their rights too.” The officer is on duty from 7 to 11:30 and will remain there “till this breaks up,” he said.