Sunday, February 25, 2024
I’m so sorry to hear of Susan’s passing.
My memories of Susan go all the way back to the 70’s and 80’s. My Dad, Art and Susan’s Dad, Ed worked together at United Telephone. Our two families became really close friends.
Many of my most treasured childhood memories are of times spent with, “The Clasemans”especially Susan, Bonnie, Rose and Ed! (Diane and the boys were a bit older and often gone or coming and going back then, but I loved that whole family!
I especially loved getting to spend the night with Susan & Bonnie. I was about 8 years younger than them. The girls shared a bedroom and Susan would always let me sleep with her, and even though I probably drove her crazy, she never once acted like I did. Instead she was always just so nice and so good to me.
I remember getting dressed up and going Trick-or-Treating with Susan & Bonnie a couple of times and I remember Susan taking me to the movies a couple of times too. All good memories.
After my family moved from Colfax to Newton, Susan would occasionally babysit my younger brother and I at our house, but she wouldn’t act like she was baby sitting me, even though she really was. If she was there during the day we’d sometimes walk to Safeway to buy, “Tiger Beat” and “Teen” magazines to go home and oooh & awe over David & Shaun Cassidy, Donny Osmond and Leif Garret etc. I remember at night we’d have some kind of snack with pop and she would pour as much pop into my glass as hers and I thought it was so cool that she did that and didn’t treat me like a little kid.
When we were at her house we’d often walk through the near by Trailer Court to Hy-Vee to buy our favorite magazines. We had a lot of crushes on a lot of cute boys in those magazines.
At her house we would sometimes play down by the crick near the end of her driveway. I’m not sure what we were playing but we messed around in the dirt and water down there a lot and it was always fun. We would walk around out back and play in Rose’s big beautiful flower garden too.
Some of my most favorite memories with Susan were when she would take me swimming at MayTag Pool. She would always get such a pretty suntan every summer. I’m pretty sure I wanted to be just like her in many ways. She had the prettiest smile and prettiest eyes. She was fun to be with and funny too. I remember her also loving school and being very smart!
As the years went by Susan continued going to school and I actually had the privilege of getting to babysit her adorable baby Cory for her! I would watch him at Rose and Ed’s. I remember how sweet she was with her baby boy and how much she loved him.
Sadly, we lost touch after I moved away from Iowa. I hate that part of this story, but it’s how life happened. Luckily good memories from the old days last forever and Susan will always be in SO MANY of my good memories, because of the fun times I had when I was with her and because of the good person that she was.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Bonnie, Diane, Dennis, Gary, David, Cory and your families.
Melanie
