I'd Thank You If I Could Find You
May 18, 2006 8:11 AM Subscribe
How do I find a girl that I knew as a child/teen? All I have is her name (she may have changed it through marriage) and the town where she grew up? She doesn't live there any more.
We both grew up in Bloomington, Indiana and attended Elm Heights Elementary School (doesn't exist anymore) and Binford Middle School (doesn't exist any more). Her name is (was) Kelly Shanks. Her family moved away (I don't know where) just before high school. I don't know the names/occupations of any family members. She's not listed on Classmates.com. I posted about her on Classmates.com's message-boards, but on one knows anything about her. That's all the info I have. Is there any way to find her with so little information? Private detective? How much would that cost? Below is the backstory of why I want to find her, but you can skip it if you want. This paragraph contains all the relevant info for the question.
Backstory: in Middle School (1977-1979), I has the scapegoat. I was short, bookish, unathletic and late going through puberty. I had almost no friends, and the popular kids started picking on me. Soon, the kids who wanted to be popular started picking on me. Then it became sort of a school rule: if you didn't pick on me, you'd be picked on yourself. There were horrible days when, during lunch, I had to hide from the whole school. It's disgusting and unforgivable, but the teachers did nothing (some of them even joined in) and, like many kids, I refused to tell my parents about my social status.
Believe it or not, I wasn't depressed that I was unpopular. I've always had an independent mind, and I disliked the popular kids and had wouldn't have joined their group even if they had invited me. But I didn't want to be constantly mocked, picked on, beaten up, etc. I just wanted to be left alone.
The worst part of all this is that -- to protect myself -- I developed a cynical attitude towards people, especially towards girls, because they taunted me more than the boys did. I started taunting back, and learned how to say just the right things to make girls cry. It took me years to learn to like people again. Eventually, I did grow out of this stage and became a reasonably popular, reasonably well-adjusted adult.
But during the worst period, ONE girl was nice to me. She was popular and had a lot to lose by treating me with kindness instead of disdain. I was so bitter by this point, I would just grunt at her when she smiled and asked me how I was doing. I may have even been mean to her. But she was persistently nice to me. Not intrusive. She would just throw a friendly comment at me when we saw each other.
All these years later, I hardly remember anyone from back then. I've forgotten names, faces, etc. But I remember her. Her actions meant a lot, even though I couldn't acknowledge them at the time. When I came out from under my cynical cloud, it was partly my memory of her that allowed me to believe people were capable of kindness. I've always wanted to thank her, but I have no idea how to find her.
posted by grumblebee to human relations (53 answers total) 40 users marked this as a favorite
regarding finding the girl who smiled at you - google is your friend. failing that, use online phone books. thank goodness there are few phone companies in north america, you could make that search in the matter of a day if you are methodical. however, if her telephone is unlisted or she does not have a phone number to her name, this will not work.
hiring a detective would likely bring results, but keep the costs in mind - at what price a simple thank you?
posted by seawallrunner at 8:21 AM on May 18, 2006