People who lost touch pre internet.

[CarpetOfStars]

Before the internet why did people who were once so close lose touch ?
There is a column every week in the daily mail
asking for help in tracing people, people who were bridesmaids, best men at weddings, ex neighbours of many years as well as college roommates and cousins and other relatives as well as colleagues of many years especially armed forces where tight bonds were formed.
There were letters , phone calls and transport pre internet so how come people who once meant so much to each other just went off the radar?

This was thirty plus years ago though. I suppose I could have driven down and knocked on doors but I had four very small children (one a very tiny baby when we moved) so I couldn't visit in person. I could have put an ad in the local paper with my new address and asked them to get in touch, but that would have risked every local weirdo sending me god knows what through the mail.

I think I was too busy with the move and too sunk in PND to think through the situation and after I got sorted and recovered a year had passed and it would have felt awkward anyway.