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Over the years, we meet a lot of people. In Kindergarten, pre-school, and even earlier, we make friends and promise to always be there, and never to change, and all kinds of crazy things like that.

Moving on to the first grade brings some friends along with us to our new classroom and new teacher. But unfortunately, others are placed in other classes; as will happen each year hereafter for the next twelve years. And of course there are plenty of people moving away, as well as an occasional "new kid." I myself being the "new kid," complete with a whole new set of friends on the twelfth iteration of this cycle.

Now, like a dream, I have only vague recollections of bonding, and cannot remember most of my first friends at all. Names without faces, like characters in a story, I know I was there and remember some facts but they're ambiguous disjointed and emotionally detached..

People seem to come and go in our lives and all too sadly, we completely forget some of them. Some we want to forget, others just slip away without us even realizing it until some little bit of nostalgia triggers an old memory -- if you're not already there, just wait until you're over 30 and listen to the oldies station for awhile.

There are only a few from my childhood whom I can call my close friends; it is they who I will always remember while the rest seem to fade away. My first "best friend," I met in the first or second grade at General Mitchell School in Cudahy Wisconsin, whenever it was that he transferred in from England. We did everything together. I went over to his house, he came over to mine. We gorged ourselves on choke cherries which grew wild around our "fort." There were a few other friends we hung around with in school and invited to our birthday parties, but we were really tight ... pals.

Guy's father died when we were in third or fourth grade I think. I really can't be sure of any of the facts since my memory from that time period is extremely cloudy; as close as I can guess, it was 25 years ago. One thing I do remember vividly is he and his mother moved back to the United Kingdom from whence they came, soon after the funeral. We corresponded for a time, but it wasn't long before the letters got further apart and I had at some point completely lost track of him. I have no idea what ever happened to those letters that I had received from him and don't even know for certain how to spell his last name.

I still think about him once in a while. I wonder what ever became of him, and if he remembers our friendship as fondly as I do -- I sure hope he remembers it more clearly than I do. As of late, I've pondered a few times the idea of searching him out on the internet. He was really into science so I reckon he's out here somewhere.

Well, I decided to try out this email directory I just learned of by looking him up. I guessed at the spelling, and it still quite possibly could be incorrect, but I got one and only one match ... and it's in the U.K.! BINGO!!

So go ahead and email him right?

Not so fast! That was a very long time ago. He's not the same kid I knew in grade school, and I'm certainly not the same kid I was then either. I'm not sure I even know what kind of a kid I was. Do I want to open this door?

I couldn't do it.

Do I really want to re-connect with an old memory? What if he remembers everything differently than I do? Would he even want to hear from me? He could have found me just as easily if he wanted to, maybe he just wants it to stay in the past, or maybe he doesn't remember how to spell my last name (grin.)

Strange, I was looking at the entry for him and I just couldn't even imagine how to begin a discourse, or if I really wanted to. This was going to take some thought. I decided to sleep on it.

This is silly. Of course I had to follow this lead. I've always been way too curious to just drop a question. After 24 hours of careful deliberation, now Thursday morning, I sent an email titled "Your past may be catching up to you," containing this simple message:

Signing it with my normal name, email address, and home page, I answered "Y" to the "Send mail?" prompt, and now I have nothing left to do but wait.