Has the Internet Reconnected You with Someone Unexpected?

[Kryton]

Crazy thing, the Intarweb. About two years back, a girl I dated a good 20 years ago sent a fax (with some embarrassing sexually-explicit info no less) to my job...she'd just been running Google searches on people she used to know and my company's website (at the time) had me listed on it with a photo.

So anyway, she's long-since married (and now in the process of getting divorced) and has several children. In fact, it was that she was pregnant when we met that ended up breaking us up...neither of us knew it at the time, but it had been her ex's child, and, frankly, I wasn't prepared then to deal with being a "sudden father" to someone else's kid.

But we call one another every 6 or 8 weeks or so now, just to BS...perhaps commiserate or something. There's no future of a rekindling of any kind here, but it's fun to communicate with someone who knew you when and all (I just got off the phone with her a minute ago).

So has someone managed to look YOU up via the Internet? Or maybe YOU'RE the stalker ( )! Way back then this info tool didn't exist for public consumption, but now that it does it sure has changed the way people interact and such.

 

[JonathonWally]

People I used to know years back have found me on facebook. Others have contacted me other ways.

I've never bothered to try and find anyone though. I'm not the same person I was back then and don't really have any interest in knowing anyone from back then anymore, besides the few I've chosen to stay in contact with.

 

[Kryton]

I tried to search a few people a few years back...didn't get very far (one long-lost friend has a name that is not only common, his last name is also a common NOUN so he's not easily findable and the exes I might wish to connect with all have different names now).

So I know what you mean...still it was cool to know that I'd been somewhat memorable to someone, if you follow.

 

[Brian]

Yes. From a bare-as-you-can-make-it MySpace page, of all places.

First, about the MySpace page.... A few years ago, when my favorite server at a local steakhouse suddenly moved away, another server told me where I could find her on MySpace. I created a basic page with one pic of me, my first name, and a username like MiamiGuy (e.g., if I lived in Miami). Just so I could send her a note and say good-bye. I left the page up, and it sat there unused for years.

Now the contact.... Eleven years ago while on travel working in Little Rock, I met this couple and hung out with them a bit. I wound up falling in love with their neighbor, who eventually moved to Florida to be with me, and we've been together ever since. We lost touch with the Little Rock couple when they eventually moved and didn't leave a forwarding address. Flash forward ten years to this year, and I'm on travel, working in Oklahoma City. I found out that the True Colors tour (Cyndi Lauper, B-52's, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, among others) was going through there and bought a ticket. The day before the concert, I got a Hotmail saying that a message has been posted to my MySpace. Surprise, surprise, it's one of my Little Rock friends (they're now divorced), who just happened to find my MySpace page. He said he lives in Oklahoma City now (). I took a look at his MySpace page, and at the top it said, "What I am looking forward to: The TRUE COLORS concert!" I emailed him, and we reunited the very next day at the concert.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I've used facebook to find people I hadn't seen in years. Don't talk to them all that often, but it's helpful if I want to send a message to them every so often.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

A lot of people I knew in elementary and high school friended me on Facebook after I signed up. Some of them made my life miserable at the time, but at our high school's 100th anniversary reunion, those who were there apologized for being asses at the time, so I decided, what the hell, I'll accept the friendship requests. I don't really communicate with too many of them except through occasional comments on each other's statuses, though, except for one guy who was one of my few real friends back then. It helps that he's also into science fiction. (I keep trying to get him to come to a con, but life things get in the way.)

The weird thing about having friendships be publicly proclaimed on websites such as Facebook and Livejournal is that you get friended by people you don't even know but with whom you have mutual friends. The weirdest example of this, for me, was the author S.M. Stirling (he used to live in Toronto, but I don't think we ever actually met back then). When I saw him at Worldcon I went up to say hi and introduce myself, and it quickly became clear that he didn't really know who I was - he must have just friended me because I have other authors on my friendslist with whom I'm actually real-life friends. (My suspicion is that it was through Robert J. Sawyer.)

 

[Mr. B]

A friend from middle school recently contacted me on classmates (used a free trial to read msg) and we speak regularly now... hadn't heard from him since i moved away from Colorado 10 years ago.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Only once did I come across an old friend (accidentally) on the Internet; I didn't get in touch, though, deciding to leave the past in the past in that instance.

I've actually searched for three people. When I published my first book, I tried to find two of my High School teachers to send them a copy. Could find neither hide nor hair of either one. And I also tried to track down a girl I knew in 8th Grade (there's an Alternate Universe I think of often); couldn't find her, either, but odds are that she got married and changed her name.

 

[Finn]

^Have you tried calling the school about all three? There are times when calling is more effective. And you might just put those teachers' names to the school's email domain if you know they still work there. I've done it with someone at my alma mater without looking for it. As for the girl from 8th grade, perhaps someone you know can help track her down, like her parents who might still live in town. I lost touch with my old friends, but I still have some of thier parents' address and number.

Oh, and the school's website wouldn't hurt.

 

[Jono]

I went to primary school in a different state and back in 2006, ten years after I moved from that state facebook connected me with a few of my very good friends from back then who I had not seen for a decade.

 

[jamestyler]

A few ex's have contacted me through Bebo & MySpace, one I used to live with and never expected to hear from again. Oddly I recently got in touch with a couple of school mates that I had long forgotten.

It's kind of odd as well as unexpected - when I started training in (and eventually moved to) Glasgow pretty much restarted five and a half years ago. Anything before that seems like another lifetime.

I should probably add my father as well. Although we talk about trivial things since he tacked me down on Bebo it's more than we had before he left, and when he moved to Florida I never expected to see him again.

 

[Gertch]

I found an old friend on LinkedIn last summer. We exchanged a couple of emails and then a phone call. Nothing since.

 

[Mr Awe]

I've had a number of cases of old classmates from high school back to kindergarten contact me. That's always fun. I'll relate the most interesting (at least to me) case.

There's one girl from high school that I hadn't been in touch with for over 20 years. She was the unobtainable girl who everyone wanted that, much to my surprise, became obtainable. Looking back to all the other flings of the time, I can say in retrospect that this was the first girl I truly fell in love with and what we had was amazing. At any rate, it ended badly for various reasons including immaturity on both parts, she had a boyfriend (not at our school which helped us), and other things.

I lost touch for 20 years but always wondered about that "alternate universe" where we stayed together. I looked her up occassionally on the internet but couldn't find her, she'd changed her name of course and I've found since that she's just not on the internet much. Finally, at the 20th high school reunion, she wasn't there but the booklet had her current name and contact info. Bingo! I emailed her with some trepidation, not sure if she'd respond or possibly respond badly. But, all went well and we've been in touch ever since both by email and long phone calls. It's been great.

We're both married with children and no chance of rekindling anything but the great bond is still there and we still have so much in common. It's amazing that we just picked up right where left off, well, minus the bitter ending! I thought there would be some awkwardness at first but there really wasn't. Unfortunately she lives across the country but plans to visit soon.

Over the years I'd wondered if my memory of her and our relationship was idealized but that doesn't seem to be the case. I had damn good taste back then!

Mr Awe

 

[Trippy]

I found (or they did) several high school friends or neighbourhood pals on Facebook.

It's kinda cool keeping in touch

 

[archeryguy1701]

There's been a few people. A few of the suprises were some of the seniors I had made friends with my freshman and sophomore year in cross country. I think my favorite reconnection came just a few days ago. My family has a couple dozen cousins on my mom's side, but there was only one that I had made friends with. At least five years ago, the two families had a little bit of a falling out- my mom wasn't too fond of the aunt any more, and my aunt wasn't exactly digging my mom either. So, the two families stopped talking for the most part, and I hadn't talked to the cousin since then. On a whim the other day, I decided to facebook her just to see if I could find her, and within ours she accepted my friend request and we were talking again. That had me pretty excited.

 

[TheBrew]

Been slowly getting back in touch with my HS classmates. I hadn't talked to anyone since my graduation for 7 years and then they have been finding me through facebook. I am actually sort of looking forward to my reunion in a few years. I wonder if anyone will recognize me.

 

[backstept]

I recently reconnected with my best friend that I'd known since kindergarten but lost touch about six years ago . . . we reconnected on facebook and what-do-you-know he lives just a couple blocks away!

 

[Barbados Slim]

A girl who was a freshman when we were seniors used to tag along with us to keggers and such. She was gorgeous and really down-to-earth. After I graduated and joined the Navy, I'd keep in touch when I came to town. We'd go to lunch and stuff. I moved around a few times and lost touch.

I had just moved to LA in 2000 and I saw she left a message on Classmates' board. I emailed her and it turned out she lived about 5 minutes from me in LA! We've been friends since and occasionally meet up (she lives downtown now and I on the westside).

Another connection was my first true love. We lost touch when I left CO and broke up with her (I didn't want her pining over me while she's still in high school). For years I tried to catch up with her by talking to mutual friends or Googling her, to no avail. Then when I was home in March I found a going away card she hand made for me in my old bedroom and I discovered I had been spelling her name wrong all these years! I googled the correct name and found out she was a school teacher via their website. I sent her a letter and we've been snail mailing letters back and forth for the last few months catching up with each other, year by year, writing the letters like memoirs.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^Have you tried calling the school about all three? There are times when calling is more effective. And you might just put those teachers' names to the school's email domain if you know they still work there. I've done it with someone at my alma mater without looking for it. As for the girl from 8th grade, perhaps someone you know can help track her down, like her parents who might still live in town. I lost touch with my old friends, but I still have some of thier parents' address and number.

Oh, and the school's website wouldn't hurt.

Getting in touch with the school by phone or website is a good idea. I do know that neither one of them is there any more, but they might be willing to give out some kind of info. Thanks.

As for the girl, I never really knew her parents and we had few friends in common. In junior high, I was bused to Central Junior because East Junior had burned down; so we lived on opposite sides of town, more or less. In any case, finding her would probably be somewhat futile; it was just a whim.

 

[Lord Garth]

Earlier this month I got reconnected with a childhood friend who, with the exception of a single run-in 15 years ago, I haven't seen in 20 years.