This is my Kindergarten class. Guess which one is me? It was the first full year of operation for Guadalupe Elementary School in San Jose. We were the Trojans then. At some point they changed the name to the Grizzlies.

I look at this picture a lot and wonder what happened to some of the kids in that picture. Google is a wonderful tool as long as the friends have names like Danny and Donny Sunseri (the twins bookending the second tier step). Not so helpful if you are named Debbie Greer (next to Mrs. Long on the first step) or Susan Clark (top row, right).

My best friend that year was Maria LaCorte, in the blue dress, front row, far right. We sat together the first day of school. I tried to find her, but the closest I came was her sister on Facebook, who never answered my query about Maria. I last saw her when I was 15. David Gardner, the blonde on the top row, was my boyfriend. We held hands and sat next to each other at story time. That said, I named my dog, Jiminy, after the boy in front with the mod shirt, Jimmy. I wanted to call the dog Jimmy, but my mom wouldn’t let me.

My next-door neighbor, Jeff Jenkins, is top middle. He was always the tallest in the class. We walked to school together. I lived next to him for 11 years and then moved over the hill to Santa Cruz. Mid-junior year, I was called to the office of my high school, and there stood Jeff. He was moving to Santa Cruz, too, and would be attending my school. I have a keen eye for the symbolic, and since Jeff and I walked to our first day of school together, I thought it would be cool to walk together at our high school graduation. But he had already asked his girlfriend to walk with him. Pity. It would have made for a great story arc, right?

The only girl on the second step, Jacqui Robinson, was a cool kid with English parents. Her sister was a friend of my brother. I lost track of her for decades after she moved when we were still quite young — second grade maybe. Allan found the sister on Facebook and we reconnected. She just got married. And aside from the cat-eye blue glasses? She looks the same. Mary Friedman, top right, was in my Kindergarten class, but I don’t remember her after that. She was eventually in a class a year behind me and her brother Chris — a sweet kid — was in my year. The eldest Friedman brother used to beat up my brother.

Somewhere I have the pressed paper cover for the picture that has my scrawls with each child’s name. I don’t know where it is now, and there are names I don’t recall. Sometimes I remember the first name but not the last — The kid in the cute blazer on the second step next to Danny/Donny? I think he was named Gil.

Mrs. Long became Mrs. Hendricks a few years later.

It’s been almost 45 years since that picture was taken. I wonder most what happened to the girls. I think we were among the first group to enter school with no constraints on what we could become. For the most part, our mothers didn’t push us towards teaching or nursing. Our teachers certainly didn’t. I don’t think I’m unusual in my experience: college and a career were things that I expected for myself and were expected of me.

I look for people from way back when sometimes. I want to test my theory. So I know that my friend Shereen C. is a lawyer (I would have pegged her for a writer). Susan Clark is a singer and actress — a choice I can believe. Laura G. worked for Apple. Paula L. runs her husband’s business. Pam O. works in Hollywood. A surprising number never married or had children.

The guys are of interest, too: Kenny Chow, top row to Jeff’s right (Jeff is a chiropractor, by the way) is a Facebook friend and a successful businessman who likes to golf and has adorable kids. Kerry B., whose dad made big headlines by being exposed as a bank robber, ended up in the penitentiary himself — not  surprising to those of us who considered him a bully even in Kindergarten.

My curiosity about these people never dims. Debbie Greer always wore clothes that looked too big and seemed old fashioned. She was very quiet. In later years, I remember seeing her toting her baby brother around. She had startling blue eyes. I don’t remember her after about fifth grade. What happened to her?

I have a list in my head of people like that I wonder about. I also wonder: Am I abnormal in my wonder?

What happened to your Kindergarten classmates? Do you keep up with what they did? Were there any surprises among the choices that some of the kids made? And take a guess: where am I?