Contacting kids from grade school

Recently I've been trying to get in contact with people from the olden days.  While I've made some half-hearted tries at this before one new technique has become useful.

Here is a nice bunch of street / telephone directories for Fox Point, WI:

https://content.mpl.org/digital/collection/wfb/search/searchterm/whitefish%20bay%20and%20fox%20point%20directories/field/relati/mode/exact/conn/and

These were compiled / sold by the Whitefish Bay Womens Club and contain a goldmine of info.  They aren't super easy to navigate but just being able to consult year after year of them is quite helpful.  Here is a 2 block chunk of my old street just before the Olsons moved in:

Mr. Noeske was a custodian at Maple Dale School in the 1960s, man drove a big old Rambler

The breakthrough for me was including the parents first names in internet searches.  I knew the kids first names but not always the parents.  Also some of the exact spelling of names is a lot different than they sounded to me as a kid.  Also luck is required, if the kid has a relatively unique name it will be a lot easier to find them.

Then it's just a matter of teasing the current address of the person off the internet.  Then I usually USPS mail a physical greeting card to just say hi and include my email.  If I've got the correct person and they are interested they can get in touch.  Otherwise I'm sure the card goes in the circular file but that's OK - no sense in dealing with an unenthusiastic person.  Truthfully it's only worked about 50 percent of the time so far but I figure that's a pretty good hit rate.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm