So, the other day I was trying to dig up some info on this guy, Jim Bettis, supposed to be from Shenandoah, Iowa. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, let me tell you, it turned into a whole thing.
First off, I started with the usual, just Googling “Jim Bettis Shenandoah Iowa”. Figured I’d get some basic stuff, maybe a news article or something. But nope, nada about a Jim Bettis. I got a bunch of results about obituaries, which was a little morbid, and some stuff about online banking security which was totally random.
Then I found something about a James L. White who passed away in Shenandoah. “Could be him,” I thought, “maybe Bettis is a nickname or middle name?” But no dice, James L. White was 81 years old, and that didn’t sound right.
I stumbled onto some other things. A TV show, Season 3, something about a murder investigation, but it didn’t seem connected.
- I started searching all over the place.
- I tried different spellings.
- I even looked up some actor named James Belushi, but he’s not from Iowa as far as I can tell.
Next, I decided to change the search terms to “Life at Lewis Mountain: Shenandoah in the Jim Crow Era,”. Nope, I just found some info about Shenandoah city, the population was 4. Nothing about my man Jim.
Finally, I realized I’d been looking at this all wrong. This Jim Bettis, if he even existed, might not be online at all. Maybe he’s from a time before everyone had a digital footprint. Or maybe he just doesn’t want to be found. Who knows?
So, after all that, I’m left with more questions than answers. It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack, except the haystack is the entire internet and the needle might not even be there. I guess some mysteries just stay mysteries, huh?
The End.
