Lynn Ellen Tondro Bisset

lbisset@charter.net

I don’t know how many of you remember me as I left town after our freshman year, however, we did all grow up together. My parents were divorced between 8^th and 9^th grade, and my sister and I went to live with our mother in Las Vegas, Nevada. I graduated from Rancho High School in 1961 and attended the Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where I graduated in 1965 with a major in English and a minor in Spanish. I came back to Orange, California, where my mother and stepfather were living and started teaching school at Mary Meller Jr. High in Pico Rivera. About this time, I met my future husband, Dave Bisset at a drive-in movie and we were married in 1967. He brought a son, Bill, into our new family, and in 1970 Dave and I had a daughter, Heather.

About this time, the Great American Aerospace Layoff of the 1970’s hit and Dave was laid off from North American/Rockwell (later just Rockwell, later Boeing) the day Heather and I came home from the hospital, and there we were…2 kids and no jobs, as I was on leave of absence from teaching. We pulled through then and have done the same a couple of other times, but all has made us stronger and me bossier.

In the mid-seventies, I started back to school to become a clinical psychologist. Although I was on the verge of writing my thesis, the difficulty of working all day, going to school after work and at night and trying to be a parent became overwhelming and I succumbed. I gave up on the degree and concentrated on learning all there was to know about my current profession, the corrugated box business. I have been in the “box business” now for 31 years and I like it and it has been good to my family and me. Heather was married at Christmas in 1993 to a wonderful young marine from Minnesota, Craig, and they have two lovely kids. My granddaughter, Micayla, is just 6, and my grandson, Kevin, is 2. They are the light of my life. In 1999, my husband retired and now devotes himself full-time to our little family business, Country Painting/Country Woodcraft. I paint, on saws, antiques or anything that stands still too long and he builds custom furniture and antique reproductions. We sell these products at art and craft shows in the Los Angeles area and really enjoy it.

Last year, my dad died and that has been very difficult for me. He was my last real tie to El Centro and I really did not expect to see any of you again. I thank Saundi (Buchanan) for helping to get me on this reunion list and giving me a chance to revisit our youth.