Hello Class of 64 from Jean Penrose Sundborg (Miss Penrose of the Home
and Family Life department)

While surfing and Googling tonight (June 21, 2009) I found your class
website.  What a wonderful, thorough and friendly site you have
developed. I loved the before and after photos.

I thought of so many of you during my visit to Loveland in September
2008.  It was my first time back since I left in summer 1964 after you
graduated.  I spent time in the Loveland Library looking at the yearbooks
for my two years.  For some reason I didn't buy my own copy, and I've
regretted it.  My husband and I stayed at one of the oldest, most
run-down motels in "old" Loveland just so I could walk around and
re-orient myself to my life there 45 years ago.  So many of your names
and faces came back to me, as did the memories.  I broke down crying when
we pulled up and parked on the street where I used to park my little
French Renault car and walk the short sidewalk distance to the door into
the basement Foods classroom. 

The tears were for the very strong memories of my FIRST year of
teaching/your senior year.  Every day I had to face those 35 boys in the
"Special Projects" class.  None of my Oregon State University teacher
preparation had prepared me for the difficulties of teaching such a rowdy
and troublesome bunch of boys, many of whom were in their 5th year and
were on final notice of being expelled.  One of my recurring nightmares
in years later were that some of those same boys went to Vietnam after
being kicked out by Ferguson or the Vice Principal/Mayor whose name I
can't remember now, but whose name we saw on a playing field in one of
Loveland's new high schools. 

Oh, but I did love living in Loveland with the skiing at Hidden Valley,
the social group I found of young, single teachers, and the beautiful
Colorado scenery.  I finished my Colorado years in summer 1965 in the Big
T. canyon at Seven Pines Resort where I ran the small snack restaurant
with Marsha ____?? an LHS student/friend.   I quit teaching because I was
diagnosed with an ovarian cyst and needed surgery, so went home to
Oregon where my parents and family lived.  I still have nightmares/dreams
of once again applying to be the Homemaking teacher at LHS, meeting Mr.
Retelsdorf, the Supt., and facing many obstacles.  However, after my
Sept 09 visit, I know that LHS is a middle school and the homemaking
rooms are now Industrial Drawing classrooms.  Once I found the relocated
Homemaking rooms, I was surprised at how many computers they use. 

After leaving Loveland, I worked in a fabric shop for a year, and then moved
to Juneau Alaska to teach homemaking, again.  Another cool and social
place to live, ski and hike.  Met my husband, Pierre Sundborg, there
married, and he joined IBM.  We moved a lot from 1967 to 1994 as his IBM
jobs required.  I never taught full time home economics again, but did teacher
aid work, volunteered in schools, taught teacher workshops, and finished
my working years in a consulting firm that designed and trained teachers
for our King County, Washington, Waste Reduction and Recycling Education.
Along the way, Pierre and I adopted two racially mixed infants here in
Seattle, and their gift and talented souls added joy and sorrow in equal
amounts.  Our lovely daughter died at age 36 from drug/alcohol addiction
and our son (40) has serious anger management problems.  Neither married
(thank goodness) so I have a small family circle.   I often marvel at how
I felt I could stand in front of my LHS students and talk about marriage
and family relations at age 23!!!  Little did I know about either.  I do
give credit to Marcella Sullivan who was married and a mother, so she had
the experience to share.  She and her daughter visited me once when they
came to a conference in one of the many cities where IBM located Pierre.

People had told me how much Loveland had grown.  I had to see it, to
believe it.  Pierre and I ride buses whenever we are in a new city, so
that's the way we saw Loveland.  We rode in all four directions out of
the downtown core.  We came into town over Trail Ridge, stopped at the
former Hidden Valley ski area, and down the Big T canyon.  Went north
through Ft. Collins on our way homeward.

I wish I could be with you on your reunion.  Am wondering if other
faculty will be there with you.  I did read the obits of Ferguson, and
others, so guess there aren't many of us left.  If Sharon Ireland ever
checks in with you, I'd like to have her contact info.  I've wondered
about Tom Bittner.  One of my housemates from our rented house at 1123
Monroe, Nora Lindner, taught at Washington School, and we have kept in touch over
the years.  She married Virgil Lindner of Loveland, so tells me about
some of our friends.

Pierre and I live in Seattle Washington in a condo very near the World's
Fair Space Needle.  I'm an over committed volunteer in my Unitarian
church, our neighborhood, and in addiction recovery groups.  Pierre just
finished 8 years doing all the management of care, medical and housing
for his aging parents.  With their recent deaths, we are again traveling.
At age 70, I do yoga, ride my bike, and XC ski when I can.  Life is
good.

Congratulations on the website, so good to see names and faces I
recognize.  I see Marlene Swanson carried on the home economics career,
though, I don't think she ever took any home economics classes at LHS.

My email is jpensund@juno.com
Sincerely, Miss Penrose (Jean Penrose Sundborg)