Before the Internet
I noticed something kind of jarring yesterday when I tried to research something that happened in 1985 or so back in Kirkwood, MO. One of my middle school science teachers killed another teacher in the same school and then himself, although this was after I had left. Now, you’d think that this would be something on which something had been written, especially in light of the recent killings at City Hall there. Papers often publish little lists of murders after a big tragedy like the most recent one, and even more so when the town in question is a “typical American suburb.”
So I did my best Google-fu and found nothing. Not one mention that could find. Not surprising, when I thought about it. After all, it was a long time ago, and teachers killing other teachers isn’t the kind of story that places like to have covered over much.
That left me with a strange feeling of disconnectedness. If I can’t find it on the Internet, then did it really happen? I found a profound existential chasm there that I hadn’t previously expected. What does it say about me and my reliance on the Internet for information? I take for granted the fact that most everything that I want to know is available within minutes of opening a web browser, and when I can’t find something that I think of as relatively big, well, that threw me for quite a loop.
I have to add that I probably could find something with a Lexis-Nexis search, but that is a layer deeper than I felt I should have to go. If it isn’t instant…