Blasts From the Past

Further proof that the Internet exists to drag all parts of your life into the present: I got an e-mail today on my MySpace account from Stacey, the girl who lived two houses down from me when I was in 4th grade. She saw one of the books in the bookstore and wondered if the author could possibly be the same person. Surprise! It was. A MySpace search later, reconnected. Ah, MySpace. Is there nothing you can’t do?

I’m especially tickled about this because, not to put too fine a point on it, I’m usually the one who is tracking down people, not the other way around. And as it happened, I was idly wondering what happened to Stacey not too long ago, and was hampered by the fact that I couldn’t remember her last name (hey, it’s been a quarter century. What can you do). So she did me a favor by tracking me down instead. So, thanks, Stacey. You rock.

Now, if only I could find my girlfriend from first grade, I could die happy. Deena Fasone, who went to Ellington Elementary, where are you now?

32 Comments on “Blasts From the Past”

  1. In December I was tracked down by two ex-boyfriends from high school, a quarter century on.

    Both, I’m rather tickled to say, were “booty calls.”

    It was quite satisfying to remind both of them that I’m an old married chick these days.

  2. Wow John, that’s pretty cool. I knew her as well
    back in the day, high school, though. Hope all is well with her. One of the things I remember
    about her– she always wanted to ‘practice’ doing
    hairstyles on me (I had some really long hair back
    then…). I think I agreed once but nothing ever came of it.

    Anyway John, if you don’t mind, may I say here
    a big Hello to Stacey?

    Blasting from the Past, Myself—
    B ZEMAN.

  3. Heh. Surprisingly, I have gotten only one “blast from the past” email, despite the fact that I live on the Internet. I can’t say I was too thrilled to get it though, as I would have preferred to forget that the person who left me a message on my MySpace ever existed…

  4. I’ve gotten many blast from the past e-mails. Unfortunately, none of them were for me. With a last name like Wood, there are far too many people out there with identical names for them to find one particular person.

    I did look up my HS boyfriend at one point. I found him easily enough, but never worked up the nerve to contact him – mostly because the internet page I found his name on was the crew that made the movie Vampire Lesbian Kickboxers. I wish I could say I was surprised.

  5. It may have been twenty-five years, John, but I went back into the files and dug out that restraining order, and you know what? There isn’t an expiration date on it.

    Any further communications can be sent via my legal representatives: Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe. Don’t worry, their address will be all over the package they’ll FedEx to you on Tuesday.

  6. Man, is there nothing the Internet can’t do?

    Also, I was kinda kidding. But hey, might as well find out if it is her.

    This poor woman. I hope I don’t freak her out too badly.

  7. Now, now, Jude. Let’s not be mean. Krissy used to work in real estate, so Ms. Mader’s gig is not too far off from Krissy’s professional experience.

  8. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with realtors. Of course, Krissy’s way cooler now since she started running guns to South American rebels.

  9. You Americans and your capacity for confusing me – what age is first grade?

    Here, kids start school at aged 5 in “Reception”, closely followed by Years 1,2,3 etc.

    John, are you trying to trace a girlfriend from when you were 6?

    My kids have reached years 5 and 3 and have pretty much *dated* (obviously not in a serious way – more a precocious *love you one day/hate you the next* way). If they plan looking them all up when they’re older it’ll be very hard work. Or then again maybe it’ll be real easy if our 100% surveillance society experiment works out.

  10. poop – should have read:

    “and have pretty much *dated* everyone suitable in their year” …

  11. If I could find the red haired girl from 1st grade that would be a trip. Man.

    I have a pretty good ability to remember faces even of people I meet only once. And I meet people all the time from my high school. It helps in my business where I’ve met 1,500 new people in the last year and they love that I remember most of them.

  12. Chang, if you can remember all their names, I am duly impressed. I find I can remember people’s faces, how they walk/move/talk, even details of their lives, but their names have always escaped me. I work very hard to remember the names, the rest comes easily.

    My best friend from grade school found me a few years ago. It was a very pleasant experience.

  13. Steve Buccheit: You know, I remember most of them. LAtely, we have become sooo busy and soo tired and sooo stressed out that I hardly remember what I ate yesterday. And I eat so much, too. Ahem. I’ve had some people after I say to them, “is this your first class with me?” say “No, it’s my third.” Ah, well…

  14. Chang, I hear ya brother. Too busy, too tired, too stressed lately. I used to be good with names, and then I tried to lose weight by drinking diet soda (instead of regular). I can’t handle it, nutrisweet makes me loopy (more than normal). So after that 4 month experiment, I find that names no longer stick. It was easier before that.

    We do business cards for many clients. I find, now, that I remember the names of people we’ve done specialty cards for and can find them easily in our offlien files. Strange that. I put that up there with handling jobs by numbers (series of 6 digits). At first it may seem confusing, after a bit you get used to refering to the jobs by the numbers in casual conversation.

  15. John,

    What does your wife say about this. My fiance gets extremely jelous when I talk to girls I grew up with no less from someone who tracked me down from years back. Basically that would suicide me.

  16. Sam:

    On the list of things my wife is concerned about, someone I knew from the 4th grade saying hello to me on the Internet is really way, way down near the bottom. It may actually be the bottom. I don’t know. I don’t look far enough down the list to see.

  17. your lucky you don’t have a suspicious wife…mine would have been calling the FBI on her wanting to know her motives, no matter how far back I knew her. Like I said mine is very posessive.

  18. grhm — In America we use the German word, Kindergarten for age 5, then we go to 1st Grade through 12th grade, and then on to college. Some kids go to a ‘preschool’ before age 5, but not all.

    I do recall a girl from the first grade who my parents claim I came home from school one day and proclaimed I wanted to marry her. They asked me how I thought I would support her. I was pretty confident I could do it on my allowance. Somehow they convinced me too wait, which was probably a good thing. I have looked her up, though I haven’t contacted her yet; she seems to be doing well, though she still has her last name, so she might be single…

  19. I had my ten year reunion last summer, and I was weirded out by the sheer number of people who apparently read my journal but don’t comment ever. (There were about four or five people who copped to this at the reunion.) It was kinda flattering in a weird way.

  20. Ah, MySpace. Is there nothing you can’t do?

    Not make my eyes bleed from bad formating? Avoid teen drama?

    Sam

    your lucky you don’t have a suspicious wife…mine would have been calling the FBI on her wanting to know her motives, no matter how far back I knew her. Like I said mine is very posessive.

    Sam, John goes to science fiction conventions. He’s a talented well known author, he’s well spoken, and probably bathes regularly. I just got back from Arisia. That is *not* a place you can go without getting whiplash for eyecandy on the prowl. If you are someone like John, and seek to hook up, it’s not difficult.

    If his wife was an insane jealous sort, he’d have died after Old Man’s War.

  21. Oh my–first love. Mine was Beverly Cooper who at age 5 showed me hers and I chicken and wouldn’t show her mine. She gave me a smooch anyway. After we moved away to another town, my heart was shattered. (My father never understood true love.)

    I met her in college years later and we became close friends. That old connection between us had somehow bore the fruit of friendship many years later. I haven’t talked to her in years and should look her up–a sweet friend and if I sat down with her right now, it would be easy the way it’s easy with those who really know you.

    As for the internet, it’s brought back so many friends from the dead and enabled me to meet so many others.

    My long-time friend Dan is dying. Dan’s a old rock and roll dog from way back and been influential in my music and so much more. I drove to Lexington today to see him. He doesn’t have long left, but he’s ready. God bless good friends, old and new. When they pass, our world gets a little smaller.

  22. Is Stacey’s mother all that you want? After all, it could be argued that you’ve waited for so long. :)

    (Hey, someone beat me to the part of the lyrics that I was going to use . . . )

  23. Thanks again for the clarification.
    Why the systems don’t start with 1st Grade or Year 1 escapes me. It’s the first year in the system, why give it another name.
    Anyway, my first love, hmmm, nothing so precocious, girls were horrid creatures that I was completely uninterested in until my hormones kicked in. After that I discovered that girls weren’t interested in spotty old me!
    Truly, now I know what love really is, my wife is my first love.

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