Susanne Kirkland:
CLASS OF 1973
Pacifica High SchoolClass of 1973
Garden grove, CA
Susanne's Story
Here's my story since I left high school. The abridged edition of course...and I'm relying on my memory (which is a dicey proposition). I'm only going to write about the people that relate to the high school experience. I moved to San Clemente when I was 18. Surprisingly, I ran into a few people from Pacifica. Marty Michelson and (I think) Bill McNulty or Mike Meyers were working at McDonald's. I worked at Denny's in the middle of the night and Alpha Beta during the day. I moved to Tucson when I was 20 to go to the U of A. Dave and Peggy Mancini inevitably shopped at whatever Alpha Beta I happened to be working. And I also ran into Bob Kezer. He was graduating from U of A and was moving back to California. I helped him pack and we hung out some. Then I lost touch until about 6 months ago. Recently he moved back to AZ and I've seen him quite a few times. I used to have to go to Chandler for sales meeting every Friday and sometimes Bob and I would meet for dinner. I just recently met his darling wife Kathleen. They drove down from Chandler to have dinner with us here in the Old Pueblo. We had a great time talking about people that he and Kathleen had seen at the earlier reunions and we're all looking forward to the 35th reunion!
When I was 25 I moved back to So Cal for a year. I lived with my folks in Huntington Beach and went to Cal State Fullerton. I ran into 2 other folks some of you may know. I was working at the Alpha Beta at Euclid and La Palma in Anaheim and ran into Tony Fields. He remembered me and I pretended not to remember him because he was always mean to me in elementary school. Now that I look back on it, I guess that was really mean and immature of me, but it felt good at the time. I also ran into Stuart Rogen. He was so cute. And he drove a Porche! We actually went out on a date, but only once. I wasn't really very good at dating.
I was there when my best friend, Diane Purcell married the love of her life, Rod Tippets. We didn't keep in touch very well, and the last time I saw her was ab...Expand for more
out 12 years ago. I wanted her to meet my little pumpkin, Andrea. To this day, Diane is one of the nicest people I've ever met. I'd love to hear from her. And of course, I've seen Vic Nicholson off and on, but not for quite a while. And then there's my brother Bart. He has made quite a nice life for himself and I'm so proud of him. His wife, Linda, is a wonderful person and they have been happily married for a million years. In fact, they're coming to visit next weekend. We're so excited to meet the newest member of their family, Yogi Bear. A beautiful brown chow chow. I love when they come to visit because as Bart says, "We're bringing our bedroom." He's referring to their motor home. The one just like I'd have if I had the cabbage. And he drives it up our dirt road even though he hates the dirt. By-the-way, I love living on a long dirt road because I know that if someone comes to my door, they really had to want to come and see me!
Another person that has come to my door is Cathy Clutchey (Biles). I was really surprised to hear from her about a year ago. She and her husband live in a burb of Phoenix. She has kids and grandkids that live in Tucson. We've had a couple of very nice visits and she has wonderful internet sleuthing abilities. She's looking for lost classmates to get to the next reunion.
And as much as I love the picture of me in my little cowgirl hat (Country Thunder was a blast that year!!) I look a little different now. I'm bald. My cancer came back and the doctor told me that she thought I had maybe a year to live. Well, of course that's ridiculous!! I'd love to hear from anyone out there that has or knows someone who has been around for years after the docs gave them a bad prognosis. It just reinforces what I know to be true. I'm pretty sure that God wants me to be around to raise my girl.
Since vacation time is coming up, if anyone is driving through Tucson this summer, I hope you'll look us up. I'd love to see you!!! Of course, you'll have to make the drive up the dirt road!
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