Contacting Old Friends

Contacting Old Friends was Originally Posted on October 24, 2011 by

Decades ago I had a neighbor named Jim and we became pretty good friends and hung out. Soon his family moved further away and I would ride my bike over there to visit. He now lived a few houses away from his cousins but a couple miles from my place.

I don’t remember how I afforded it at the time, however I decide to get him a nice birthday gift, similar to a hobby I had started myself. The gift was a photography developing system for black and white film. Years later he would remind me that this had been the most thoughtful and neatest gift he had ever received. It makes you feel good to hear something like that.

Over the years I went off to private school and lost touch with him and many other friends. That seems to be a common problem when you move as often as we did. I visited him years later once, then lost track again.

As the internet became more popular I would try to track him down. I found the cousins and got a small amount of information about the family but they were not very helpful in helping me find him.

A couple years ago I thought that I had found him. I don’t remember why I did not follow through, but I didn’t.

Now this past week I looked again and only 1 or 2 items showed up about him. The first item confirmed that the address I found for him years ago, was a valid address. That item was, unfortunately, his obituary.

The other item was an entry in the funeral guest book of someone in his town, probably a friend or co-worker. I am considering calling him to see if I can find out a bit more about how jim fared over the decades.

I have to look back and consider that search I did a decade ago. I would have found him, made arrangements to visit, gone over the good old days and met his new family. I think that would have been fun, even though a few years later, he would be gone.

I guess what I am saying is that if you get the chance to look up old friends and think you find them, make the contact. Time and tide wait for no one.