Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | summer 2010

SUMMER 2010
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Cover Story:
Rock the Runway

Feature Story:
Clearing the hurdles

Feature Story:
Hard beauty

Feature Story:
The man behind the monsters

Departments:
Getting Started
>>Letters
Around Campus
Newsmakers
Association News
Sports

LETTERS

What I want to be
when I grow up
Toby Klauenberg (“Funny money,” spring 2010) grew up with our three boys. It was great to read such an article about him. He does a great job as a clown. We are proud of him.

Ed and Karin Jones
Baxter, Iowa

“Do little girls really want to
grow up to become firefighters?” 
(“The heat is on”) In my house, the answer is definitely YES. (Although, to be clear, my 4-year-old Katie wants to grow up to become a fire chief.) I was very happy to be able to share with her a picture of a female firefighter. Thanks for a great issue! 

Traci Kerlin*
’97 biosystems engineering
Frankfort, Ill.

Pammel Court memories
My husband, Dean McClatchy, and I were probably the first couple to move into Pammel Court on Jan. 1, 1946. Boy, was it cold! Dean was a vet returning to school, complete with his khaki clothes and a wife. Our first home in Pammel was a trailer, complete with the kerosene stove, small icebox, and “bathroom” several yards down the cinder path. I remember the train going through in the early hours.

In October 1946 our first child was born. We were fortunate to move into a quonset just before I delivered. That seemed like a palace. We furnished it with hand-me-downs, orange crates, and feed-sack curtains. We had a coal-fired pot-bellied stove in the “living room.” Incidentally, our heat was only $19.38 a month.

We never thought we had it tough. We had it great! New friends, a new home, and a new baby – no car, but we didn’t need one. We had a baby buggy to push on the cinder path. We knew this was only temporary, since when our husbands got their degrees it was going to be OK. And it was.

We visited Iowa State on Dean’s 50th anniversary.
We noted all the changes and found a few traces of what was Pammel Court. We had nothing but good memories of our first three years in our “first” home.
Dean passed away Feb. 26, 2010, of heart failure. I am missing my dear husband of 66 years and wish he were here to help me write down these memories. 

Maxine McClatchey*
Charlotte, N.C.

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