Has anybody seen Wendy Appenzeller?

The other day I received this email:

Subject: Looking for an old friend with the same name!

Hello Jenny,  I know this is odd, but I have lost contact with a dear friend from my youth, named Jenny Weber**.  We knew each other in the late 1960's when we both lived in Las Vegas. Her mom was Goldie*, from England and her dad was Bernard* from Austria. We continued to move over the years, and I lost contact with her in the early 70's. She had moved back to the London area and I visited her in 1971. I'm sure she is married by now. Do you have any ideas on how I could try to find her? I appreciate your time! Thank you, and take care.

It was signed by a nice lady whose identity shall remain a mystery.

Of course I wrote her back! 

I pointed out that thirty-nine years is an awful long time ago to have last seen someone, and asked if she'd tried any of the wide range -- Facebook and Classmates come to mind, for starters -- of social media outlets available today for connecting with people from your past.

And sort of to be funny as I signed off, I asked if she by any chance knew the whereabouts of Wendy Appenzeller**.

I never heard back.

Welcome To My Life

See, Wendy Appenzeller and I used to spend whole afternoons climbing trees together forty-three years ago. She had soft nut-brown hair that hung like a shiny curtain to just past her jawline, and she was tall and graceful … in stark contrast to me, runt-skinny and ungainly, with bristle-brush hair that looked as though it had never caught a break and likely wouldn't.

I'm only poking mild fun at the lady who thought I might know how to find a person who moved to London in 1971, just because that person and I have the same name. 

Photo Jennifer Weber 2010As I told her: Weber is my married name and all those Webers are from Ohio.

But her email got me thinking about people from my past. Where on earth are some of my early boyfriends? What lucky girls ended up walking down the aisle to marry Steve Akers**, or Paul Pridgen**, or Ricky McCutcheon**?

Whatever happened to Holly Haskins* and Necy Matthews** (I hope she got fat) and Denise Couvillon** and WENDY APPENZELLER**?

Then, only today, I saw an ad for yet another website promising to leave no stone unturned in reuniting you with people from your past.

The Internet As Dragnet

My Life. Dot com.

No … not the 5,829-hanky movie made in 1993 and starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman.   

No … not Bill Clinton's 2004 autobiography. 

Oh, wait … that's My Lie.

No … I refer to the website which allows you to not only search for people, but to find out who has been searching for you.

Photo Jennifer Weber 2010(There's even a special field where you can plug in your man's name and determine the identity of all the hussies who've been looking him up! Useful feature, that.)

First they dangle the carrot by urging you to put in your name so you can be reasonably sure how many people -- including their gender and approximate age -- have attempted to blow your cover.

They even supply blurry little squares with blurry little faces inside them, ostensibly of those people who want to talk to you again, and you fall for the tease and squint and grab a magnifying glass because you'll never sleep again until you know who they are, and some of them are just avi-shadow thingies so you don't bother with those, but you only end up frustrated.

The Past Is All A Blur

Blurs, is all. Blurs who could be anybody, even your next-door neighbor who maybe only wants his hedge clippers back, or an old roommate who's still trying to locate that Carpenters eight-track you borrowed circa 1973.

And then you see down at the bottom that the thumbnails are not meant to be accurate representations of those searching high and low for you.

Oh. Guess I could've saved myself the time it took to rummage around for that old magnifying glass, heh heh. I wouldn't even know a picture of my own thumbnail, let alone an old boyfriend's or even that belonging to a tree-climbing buddy of days gone by.

Besides, as a result of the website My Life, my thumbnail is now in the witness protection program. It agreed to be photographed only in silhouette and with its voice electronically altered.

Photo Jennifer Weber 2010You can't be too careful!

Without the help of My Life dot com (because I refuse to pay to learn who's looking for me … my name has been Jenny Weber for thirty-one years and if you Google that, this blog is the first thing to come up … and right there's my picture and of course I haven't changed a bit since sixth grade), I do believe anyone who really wanted to find me, could.

Lead A Holly* ... And A Wendy** ... To Water

After all, I've drawn a bead on Holly Haskins*! I saw her picture on Facebook. But because I don't have an account and don't want one, I can't friend her ... but then, I already did that, back when Barry Goldwater was running for president.

Holly* and I used to talk politics while we rode the bus back and forth to school. When we weren't doing our rather excellent imitation of vivacious, hyperactive banshees.

Photo Jennifer Weber 2010(Forced busing more than twenty miles to an inner-city school, that was ... at the dawn of desegregation. We had lots of time to kill.)

I have resorted to other measures in my efforts to contact Holly*. 

I'll let you know what develops.

No luck so far Googling old boyfriends. Perhaps I should let well enough alone.

But if you just happen to bump into Wendy Appenzeller**? The tall, graceful one with soft, shiny, nut-brown hair? Ask her if she's climbed any good trees lately.

Then tell her where she can find me.

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*Not his/her real name.

**His/her real name.

Comments

[Debbie]

That's very interesting. I've never tried any of those sites. You look different in that year book, but I guess we all do. That is a very long time to find each other again.

However, I have heard of people, couples, who dates when young, going on to marry others, then those spouses die, and in their 70's they get together with their high school sweetheart. It's interesting.

[kev]

Once every five years or so a "I wonder what happened to [girl I took to prom]?" thought pops into my head. This because I'm nostalgic or miss her. It's because she was going to college to become a lawyer. If she succeeded and lived somewhat close by...well, I figure there's a decent chance I could get FREE legal advice if I ever needed it! But alas, I haven't ever found her. My dreams of free lawyer consultations must, sadly, remain dreams.

[Sue O]

Hmmm, I'm actually off to visit a couple of high school friends this weekend. One of them and I were sweethearts when we were 16, but ended up friends when he moved back to the States. I'm driving to their state with another old friend and his wife. I haven't seen any of them for about 35 years. I love reunions, but my high school was unique in several ways. Stay tuned!
If you want to find people, Zaba is a good site. But then, I'm into finding people!

[Jennifer]

Debbie ... I haven't actually tried the sites either. I'm not going to pay! Ridiculous.

Kev ... I would do just about anything (within reason) for free legal advice!

Sue O ... I'm waiting with bated breath to hear about this excursion! My high school reunion three years ago was a total bomb. I'd never do it again.