Name: Susan Smith Maiden: Baker

Personal narrative! (2004)

I'm married to Chuck Smith, we live in Idaho.  I'm an artist; my medium of choice is acrylics.  Chuck is an engineer with H/P currently working in the printer division.  We have no children of our own so we borrow our friends to join us in our activities.  We have a beautiful cabin in the Idaho central mountains 70 miles north of Boise. We snowmobile and 4-wheel from our door step.  We bird watch, berry pick, mushroom, hike and visit our friends in the summer. In the winter we ride our sleds (snowmobiles) through the mountains and enjoy the beauty of the area. We also go to West Yellowstone, MT for a week of riding and then a week later to the Jackson Hole Snowmobile Hill climb.
We belong to the Cougar Mountain Snowmobile Club and through them have learned a lot about and have been involved with some of our local environmental issues.  We also like to "junk" and go to the Sumter OR. swap meet in the summer. Idaho is a great place to live if you love the outdoors as we do, but Colorado will always be my home.

Personal narrative! (Updated 2009)

It seems that only yesterday that we had our 40th class reunion. Where dose the time go? Since, the last time I submitted a narrative things have changed a great deal for us. My husband has retired from H/P and now subs at the Cascade Id school K-12. We have a home in Cascade that is under construction and my husband is the constructor. The plan is to retire there full time in the very near future. We couldn't be more blessed, the town and it's citizens are the best and the view from our deck is quite lovely. I spend a lot of time sitting out there watching our resident eagle and his buddies riding the up drafts, checking out what's for dinner. Of course dinner is watching out too. The cabin overlooks the Payette river and there is no lacking of wild life, four legged or two. It never ceases to amaze me and the most special treat is sharing it with our friends and family. Cascade is in the central mountains of Idaho on the northern western slope of the Rockies. Our mountains aren't as high as the CO. Rockies but they have their very own beauty. But what truly amazes me, is that we are only at 4500 feet above sea level and we are in the mountains. Loveland is higher than that on the front range. But, we still manage to get lots of snow and rain which is great for the mushrooms and berries. And as for me, I'm still painting and occasionally selling. I am also learning to quilt and if I don't lighten up on collecting stashes of material I going to run out of space to store it all. I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion.

A Loveland memory from 1950/60 era! (2004)
My sister and her friends putting an outhouse on the high school grounds and chaining it to the flag pole. Cruising up College Ave in Fort Collins with my friends. Going to Clancy's and Estes Park beer drinking and dancing. I did this right after graduation, because I was afraid to get into trouble. The one thing about our school, there weren't to many secrets well kept.  This is dumb but, rolling up my skirts because they were to long and mini's were coming into fashion. Oh, the Vaudeville skits we put together every year and how much we worked on them with no adult supervision, but just lots of hope.  And, how so nervous I used to get before going on. I still giggle when the guys from the L club were riding their little ity-bitty trikes to the, I believe, Beach Boys 409.  They were so big and kept falling off of them. Or how grown up I felt when I dressed up in a formal for Rainbow Girls activities and how my feet hurt in high heels.  Let's not mention how I hated the dress code and Mr. Patterson warning us about the rules. But, in spite of all of above memories, I will never forget John Deets dropping a bottle of wine on the floor in front of his locker, because mine was just two or three doors down and the floor was a sticky mess and my shoes stuck to it.  I also sadly remember Arlan Schaffer and Don Conn and Dennis Cressey who were lost in the Vietnam War. Arlon was in my English class with Mr. Wilson and he was always doing something funny.  It really hit hard because both my sister Breese Baker and my brother Joe Baker served to.  They graduated several years ahead of me. I could sit here all day thinking back, but these are just a few memories that come first to mind that I want to share.  There are many others and many people and friends that I think of now and wonder where they are and what they are doing and if their kids know that their parents were the wild child of the 60's and maybe some of them kept their beads.

A Loveland memory from 1950/60 era! (Updated 2009)
A lot of stuff happened during our teen years at LHS. But, I do have to say we sure had some excellent teachers and they made sure that we got it. However, I also loved the Pep club and Fridays sports events. I remember how I used to beg my folks to let me have the family car so I could go crusing with my friends. We sure had some interesting adventures that I told my folks about later. They told me they were glad I didn't, because I would have been so grounded, but it was worth it. (I still have my sweater and pin today) For example, I would tell them that I was going to Wigwam and then went cruising down Collage Ave in Fort Collins looking for fun. But, it was always a challenge to have enough gas money at 25 cents a gal. Boy were those the days. And do you think for a moment, that if I had children today that I would let them do that, no way!!