Phone Calls: Business of the day.

So, as mentioned, this morning I found the rolodex I remembered seeing from my dad's security boxes at the bank.  He had a little less than a hundred contacts stored in there.  I promised myself I would take it easy and relax, today, but I broke that promise and went through all of these numbers.

The vast majority of them were disconnected, and I only had a handful of calls that actually connected, and even fewer conversations.  I've listed them below.  I guess I've started getting very detail-oriented when describing my investigations to the internet; let me know if that's good or if I'm just complicating things?

Obviously it would be irresponsible to post the numbers themselves, or any real full names... so don't even try them.

Every conversation began with an awkward introduction which, by the end of all this, was pretty practiced.  "Hello, my name is _____, I'm calling because my father was recently declared dead and I found your number in with his things.  There's a memorial service tomorrow, if you knew him."  Then I...

---Spoke to a woman named Mary, which was a name he'd mentioned in the journal from the year he disappeared.  She said she hadn't heard from my father since college, where they'd been friends.  She also knew my mother and asked me how she was holding up.  She said she might come to the memorial but had to check her schedule.  If she does, I could press her for details about what my dad was like in college, but I could already have gone to my mother for that.

---Spoke to Jonathan, apparently a former employer and friend of my dad's from the years he lived in North Hampton.  He said he owned a construction firm and that my dad was briefly one of his carpenters.  He was reluctant to talk about my dad's work habits, probably because he didn't want to offend me right before my father's memorial service, but he did chance to say that dad had a problem with work attendance but was otherwise a cool guy, and that he used to spend time with him at a local pool hall.  He said he'd swing by the memorial service.

---Spoke to what turned out to be a second cousin of mine and cousin of my father's who lived in CA and hadn't heard about the memorial yet.  She explained that she was pretty distant from the rest of the family but had always liked my father.  She said she maintained a pen-pal kind of relationship with him that tapered off years ago.  I asked her if it wasn't too personal whether she could send me copies of the letters she got from him, and pressed her memory as to when she stopped getting his mail.  She hadn't heard that he'd dropped off the face of the Earth, somehow.  She was really upset to hear it and said she'd drop everything and fly out here if she could manage.  Very sweet lady.

---Was told I had the wrong number or that they didn't know who I was talking 15 times.  Three of these were now businesses (a pizza place and two laundromats).  One of the Laundromats was called Greener Cleaners, and was listed in the rolodex under Lucy Green, but the receptionist said she had no idea who that was.  I was particularly insistent, though, so she advised me to call back during the week when the owner would be there.

---Left 32 Messages (Included among these were two Peters, either of which might possibly have been the Peter from his journal).

---43 were just disconnected numbers, redirecting me to an error message.  This included a third Pete labeled as "Petey."

So I just spent hours on the phone for four (shaky) possible leads.  I'm really hoping some of those folks return my messages.

Brainstorming:  I need to have questions prepared for anyone who shows up at the memorial, because it might be my only chance to talk to some of them.  Suggestions?