I haven't signed up. I signed up for the Boy Scouts and the Marine Corps but when I visited that site I left just left my name and some other info from more than 40 years ago.

There were some nibbles and Classmates let me get in touch with one person that graduated with me in 1965 from Hempstead High School. Steve Edelman went to the Air Force Academy while I went to the University of Parris Island. We were buddies and I was the only Irish Catholic hired to work bus boy at the affairs at Temple Beth Israel on Front Street.

Steve was the fellow that came to my house in 1964 with something most people couldn't have until weeks later - it was the Beatles' first album. I had a record player and we listened but the best listening then was Dan Ingram on WABC. Steve lived on President Street and I lived on Booth Street then. Nobody thought a thing then about walking almost a mile to go to a friend's house.

As a senior in high school Steve was trusted to drive his father's '56 plymouth. Jeez, everybody got laid in that car except Steve.

The question from me is: Should I toss a few bucks into Classmates.com to see some old friends?

I sent in the dough and now I'm sending personal messages to some girls I knew 45 years ago. And a few guys I was in the Marines with.

Two girls have already responded. They want to see me again but I have to forward a thousand dollars or maybe fifteen hundred.

I'm just hoping the guy with the hook finds me so I can get off the stage.

Classmates is not that good. Only a select group is active on there. If you want to reconnect with people from the past facebook is the tool and it is free to join and use.

I agree with Samyn about Facebook. Almost everyone who wants to be connected with will be there. In addition, I was successful in finding many of my schoomates and former neighbors by joining some of the FB groups that were for people who grew up in my home town.

I received an e-mail this morning from a classmate, Arthur L. He was a nice fellow but never a ballplayer or "in" with the crowd that had fun while doing well in school. I didn't hang out with Art but always knew he was very intelligent and I never let anybody bother him. I befriended him.

Arthur is out in California now and has been an Episcopalian priest since 1976.

Harry Hughes got arrested two or three times for burglary before going into the Marine Corps as a rifleman. He's got three degrees now, is on his third marriage, and is teaching college in Colorado. Harry and I were teammates and buddies in grammar school and high school. I knew that he got out of Vietnam in one piece but I wasn't thrilled to read that he's still chasing poontang thats 25 years younger than he is but Harry always lived on the edge as a young man.

I'm starting to think I screwed up by shooting $15.95 to Classmates. Curiosity is a wonderful thing but the past is gone, cannot be recovered, and I'm thinking my gal Valerie doesn't have a 36-inch rack any more over the 24-inch waist after 45 years. On the flipside I don't have the energy, hair, or teeth any more either.

One thing is for sure. Nobody is around Hempstead after the "diversity" rolled in to take it down hard and I shouldn't give a cold dry fook about what happened to anybody.

It's pretty cool that QP was able to reconnect with friends of his when he was a young buck. Facebook is another option. A few of my parents ( who are 64) friends around their age are my friends on Facebook. My parents are some what computer literate but they have not set up Facebook profiles.

I just conected with a girl I liked in HS and never talked to. She was telling me how quiet I was. I told her do not judge a book by its cover cause no one thinks I am quiet.