Recently, I came across the web site
which is a directory of high school graduates throughout North America with many millions of entries. It is an interesting site to visit for those who grew up in the area and one can easily spend many hours searching through the listings. There are two levels of membership: Basic and Gold. Basic is free and requires the viewer to register prior to scanning the listings. Gold membership is US$29.50 per year and gives one the ability to post commentary on one's own personal page and, most interestingly to me, to be able to send e-mail notes to other members whose e-mail addresses are not otherwise posted. The site is searchable by high school and year; although it is not searchable by college, college classmates can also be located in some cases (if you know the state or city of the high school).
I am a bachelor in my early forties and it was a long walk down memory lane as I went about looking up names. The lists are different from most on the net as it allows one to search for people by their maiden names, and so I was able to locate a number of women who I dated in college, some of whom I have not seen in over two decades. Most now have their spouse's last name, but not all.
The question I have for the women readers of this board is this. Do you think that a e-mail note from a long ago male friend would be welcome? I really would like to send a few, but I am hesitant for a few reasons:
1) For the married ones, it might seem like an intrusion and that's the last thing that I would want for any of my friends from long ago.
2) Some might wonder why it took me so long to get in touch. (I wonder about this as well.)
3) Some may have only suspected that I was a fool, but a note at this stage could remove all doubt.
There is a religious angle here. The one person who I most want to contact is a rather special woman (who has since gotten a new last name) who I dated on and off for three years in college. When I first met her, I was only a few years out of the JW experience and wanted absolutely nothing to do with religion. She was a regular churchgoer in a Protestant college evangelist group. To my great regret, there were times that I ridiculed her beliefs; I myself did not become a Christian until sixteen years after I last saw her. If nothing else, I wanted to write to her and tell her that the little seed she planted in my mind eventually did flower, although it was rather slow growing. Also, I wanted to apologize for my insensitive comments to her on Christianity; she is really sweet and understanding so I think I have a good chance that she would realize I'm being sincere.
Although this question is addressed to those women on the board who are close to my age, I have a brief comment to the younger women graduating high school or who are in college: Of all the women I've dated in my early days, it is the ones who held out the longest or who I never slept with at all whom I still dream about on occasion. Think about it.