Tracking Down Long Lost Friends

It’s amazing to me how difficult it is to track down my old high school friends compared to my college friends. I’ve been on this kick all weekend, but it’s just amazing how consistently true that statement is. Granted there’s certainly more distance between now and high school verses now and college, but I’d expect to have a least some success finding high school folks.

A simple Google search almost always pulls up something for my college friends that would allow me to track them down, if not their own personal web site or blog near the top of the results. That’s only true for one of my high school friends. Is it possible that not everyone in the world is as plugged in and as Internet-addicted as me and my college friends? Is it possible I’m somehow the techno-geekiest of all my high school friends? Or am I just that bad at searching Google and this is all a fluke? Or is that my college friends all have unique names while my high school friends tend to share names with lacrosse stars, actresses, and race car drivers?

What I find most depressing about this whole search is that every classmates/reunion/high school site I could find that allows alumni to connect charges you to get the most basic info. I realize they have to make a dime, but I can’t believe somehow hasn’t developed a totally free site that manages to subsist of ads. Or perhaps the basic info (e-mail address? hello?) is free and you can pay to get more. What’s with giving me their country, pets, and political leanings? Who cares? I would think some business-minded genius would make a free reunion site and rake in the advertising dough. It might not make as much as a fee-based site, but I have to believe it’d pay for itself and then some.

Sheesh.

On a stranger note, googling my dad brings up pigeon pages (photos of baby pigeons, a pigeon photo from 1975 and pigeon genetics).

2 thoughts on “Tracking Down Long Lost Friends”

  1. Hi Kevin, Just so you know, finding high school alumni can’t be that hard. I have been working on finding all the alumni from our community – two high schools – and have passed finding 90% of everyone – even the cafeteria ladies, janitors, teachers, coaches – for the whole history of our schools (including the known deceased). Yes, I charge for our alumni to access the class directories, but I gotta get the funds from someplace to cover my expenses. This kind of work just can’t be for free.

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