Facebook and Old Friends

What I love about Facebook is that I'm communicating with the people that I worked with at Meijer. It's so neat to hear from them. And the kids I went to school with. No, I know that they aren't kids anymore. It's been 49 years since we graduated. But I think of us as kids yet. If I saw any of them on the street, I'd probably walk past them because I wouldn't recognize them. Hmmm, maybe people should wear a button with their senior picture on it. Just in case! Don't you think that would be a cool idea?
Anyway this week alone, I've added three or four friends. What's really funny is this: For the last few years I was thinking of one of my friends and wondered what happened to him. Someone told me that he passed away. But I read the obits all the time for Grand Rapids and wouldn't miss it. So whenever I'd talk to someone from school, I'd ask them if they ever knew what happened to Rich Herringa. We were good friends (anyway, I thought so). He was like a brother to me in jr high. I remember fixing him up with a girl in high school...hmm, I'll have to ask him if he remembered it. I got an invite for a friend, Bob Ingersoll, yesterday. Of course, I responded. And when I was writing something, I noticed that he had Rich as a friend. No way could that be possible. I asked him if could possibly be the same Rich Herringa and he said that it was! So I wrote a note to Rich and he answered me that it is, indeed, him! Wow. Now that's a mystery solved.
I think one of these days I'm going to put the pictures of the kids I went to school with on my facebook that I'm friends with.
There's one more mystery regarding kids I went to school with. I used to sit by a kid in study hall and we'd talk every day. If he's alive, he probably wouldn't remember. I remember everyone that I was somehow connected to in my life. I remember him as not a good looking kid, bad complexion and he wore an ROTC uniform. He wasn't a popular kid. But I enjoyed our talks every day. I have no idea what we talked about. After we were out of school and the Viet Nam war was going on, I remember seeing his picture in the GR Press and it said that he was killed in Viet Nam. I went to the 5 year class reunion and he was on the 'can't find' list. I mentioned that I thought I read that he was killed in Viet Nam. To this day, I've looked for him. I'd ask people but they didn't know or didn't remember him. When I worked at Meijer, if I got a call from a Nowak (his name was Arnold Nowak), I'd ask if they knew him. One year I went to a park here that had the Viet Nam wall on display and they had computers to look someone up. I asked but they didn't find his name. Maybe he wasn't killed after all. So that's a mystery not solved. I think I'll look around in the internet for his name. Maybe I'll find it.
Anyway, I went to the 5 year class reunion and the 15 year class reunion but I've never gone to any more. I think one is coming up next year. Perhaps I'll go.