Misplaced People

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A while ago, I misplaced a good friend. Michael Leffler. Best friend I ever had, in fact. We used to travel together, on and off, doing Renaissance festivals around the country. We shared survival-level campsites deep in the North Carolina woods, campsite condos in Georgia, and motel rooms throughout the states. We spent endless hours on rainy nights in the Waffle House in Georgia, waiting for our tents to dry out and talking over role-playing games. We gamed together all the time, most notably as part of the crew of a Galaxy-class starship. He gave great, level-headed advice at the most appropriate times imaginable. He saved my ass several times; I saved his.

Last time I heard from him, he was in Lancaster, PA, delivering pizzas. It was more than a year ago. I waited too long to call him back, and the number had been disconnected when I tried it.

I miss having him around.

So, Dopers, here it is. Our own missing persons bureau. Who have you lost track of? Share your stories about misplaced friends and lovers, and we can commiserate together. Or, possibly, with circa 17,000 users on the boards, maybe we can help each other out.

There are some rules to follow here. No personal information like phone numbers, addresses, email, etcetera may be posted on the boards. Please exchange that sort of material through email. If you have any information that you think might be personal, but you’re not sure, send it by email anyhow.

With the world as big as it is these days, people tend to drop off it at an alarming rate. What can we do about it?

2

One of my best friends at Edinburgh University (1993 - 1997), Kate (“don’t call me Katie”) Maclean. We studied philosophy together, I developed a major crush on her, but got over it to keep a good mate. Lost touch once I left to go to Australia, and never met up since. I have no idea where she is now, but she was never one for the internet.

3

One of my best friends. He was like a big brother to me.

Donnie Wilson. We were in the army together from 95-97. Last I heard of him, he was working in nuclear medicine in Washington DC. It’s really hard to search for "Don Wilson"s on the net. :wink:

4

My first boyfriend, Chris Hoffman. We dated all through high school. We went to the movies constantly- he dreamed of becoming a director. Last time I saw him was about 7 years ago, and he was deejaying in Mansfield, Ohio. But he had some kind of falling-out with his roommate, and I have now completely mislaid him.

Wonder what he’s doing?

5

Back in late 1980 or early 1981, my friend Dirk Johnson moved from Albuquerque to San Francisco (or so I heard) while I was living briefly in Los Alamos. He played guitar, was one of the tallest men I’ve ever known, and had a grin that could make the Grinch smile. He worked days as a cook and we’d been working together at a Sambo’s restaurant before I moved.

Mr. Legend and I have tried to find him a few times when we were visiting San Francisco. Gee, there are a lot of "D. Johnson"s in the Bay Area.

6

Brenda, how’s things?

7

I wouldn’t call them missing friends (except one of them), but there are three people, all from the New Orleans area, I’ve always been curious about. Merlin Young, Stephen Murrish, and Natalie Alfano.

8

Howard Dennison. A quiet guy I met in college back in the late 70’s, he had red hair, red beard, and a great sense of humor. I was working as a dispatcher at the campus police station at the time. We hung out with a third guy (whose name I can’t remember, but we nicknamed him Lupo, which he hated).

About the time that Pope John Paul I died, Howard decided we needed a younger pope, so there would be some stability and continuity in the church. So Howard designated the 3 of us as cardinals, and nominated Lupo for pope. The vote was 2-1, and Lupo had the job. I got appointed as the Cardinal of Internal Security (due to that job in the cop shop).

Howard lived in a small Michigan town on the shores of Lake Michigan. I lost touch after I graduated, but I’ve often wondered where he is. Buddy, if you’re out there, drop me a line.

And if you’re looking for someone, a great place to start is at Switchboard.com. I found 28 Michael Lefflers in about 30 seconds. Five are in the south. One is in Kitty Hawk, NC. MrVisible, go have a look.

9

I just had an e-mail reunion with my best friend from high school. We lost touch after I joined the Navy - I left the area and she married an idiot. I saw her 20 years ago at our 10-year reunion, but for some reason, we didn’t exchange phone numbers and addresses. Luckily, we’d both registered on the same high school alumni board and managed to connect.

But, I’d love to know what became of Craig Taborsky. He took me to my 8th grade graduation dance. I never saw him again. I’ve tried to find hom on line - it’s not the most common of names - but no luck. I think I may have found his father… dare I e-mail him and ask??

10

Emily Anderson (you try searching for that name on the Internet…) We were exchange students together in Spain in 1996, corresponded for several years after that, met up in Chicago once for a long weekend of debauchery. A year later I got a phone call from her – she was moving to Edinburgh, sounded really happy and excited for once. (I should mention Spain got to both of us, in ways we couldn’t have imagined at the time, and we were both looking around for ways to leave the U.S. for good. I am still looking.)

OK, so we kept writing letters for about six months after that; she did the illegal-nannying thing for a while, and then managed to get an Irish passport somehow. The last time I heard from her was around Christmas of '99, when she wrote me a letter saying she was engaged, and did I want to come to the wedding. Of course I did. I also had plans to backpack Europe that summer, so I wrote to tell her I might be in town. She never replied.

I did make it to Edinburgh that summer, but I’d never gotten a phone number for her in Scotland and the most recent street address belonged to the family she’d been a nanny for, so there wasn’t much to do except walk around and keep an eye out for familiar faces. No luck.

Anyway, it’s nagged at me a bit – I hope she’s OK and just got caught up in wedding plans or something. She was the only one of us who actually managed to move back to Europe for good, which gave me hope at the time (and still does).

11

Did you try this MrVisible? I found two entries for Michael Leffler in Pennsylvania. Maybe one of them is your guy?

I misplaced my friend Lee from college. He was my best friend and the first gay person I’d known. (I was from a small rural town where being gay would get you beat up. He was, too, so he didn’t admit he was gay until we’d known each other for a while–but I knew anyway.) He moved away, and I looked him up, but never called. Now there is no listing under his name in Tallahasee anymore.

12

I had my best friend and now that I think of it probably only real friend ever in a girl named NAOMI BAIRD. We met when I was 9 or 10.

Our friendship was initiated by her running over to my house after moving in across the street, knocking on the door, and asking me outside to talk. She then told me that I was her new best friend, then she just ran away. Anyway, I thought she was a loon, but she did turn into my best friend ever. We’d stay up all night watching movies and writing. We used to collect cans for money. Our big break came after we discovered a dumpster after a party. There were what seemed like hundreds of beer cans in there.

The strange this is we only actually were living near each other for over a year, then she moved to Georgia. We wrote each other pretty regularly until I was nearly 14, then she moved about fourty minutes away…in the next state. Wisconsin.

I don’t know what happened. She called me to go to church (after she moved to Kenosha), I didn’t want to go, and told her I wouldn’t, but she said she’d just visit me for awhile before she went. So her and her parents spent that morning with us. After that, I never heard from her again, and I knew I wouldn’t, but hoped I was wrong.

Anyway, the bitches I’ve ended up “friends” with since then really made me miss her even more. And I’d really like to know what happened to her.

and if she’s reading this, by some freaky chance…just to clarify who I am without putting my name out here (which is VERY common so I guess I shouldn’t worry)…You read my journal, I became infuriated, I put you in a chokehold until you changed color. You thought it was funny though. We dressed up my little brother in a purple dress and called him “brianna.” We taped his mouth shut once with duct tape because he wouldn’t shut-up. He couldn’t pronounce your name…to him you were Wyoming. And you also whacked him in the head with a baseball bat accidentally when were playing in the street one day.

anyways, any info can be sent to Schizotypal1@yahoo.com