Lorraine Gastineau:
CLASS OF 1976
Del Norte High SchoolClass of 1976
Crescent city, CA
Lorraine's Story
Well..I'm back in CC again. It's good to be back.
I left in 1976 to go to California State University at Long Beach. I had way too much fun and came home after two years to work in one of the local Flower Shops and Restraints on the weekend in CC.
I got married in 1980 and divorced in 1984. It seems like a bad movie I saw long ago.
I ended up in Central California working in a flower shop and eventually took a job in a flower shop in Santa Barbara in 1987. It was then I decided to go back to school to study electronics and computer support of all things and I loved it. I was working the late shift and taking 8:00AM classes. I did pretty well in spit of that. I retained enough to get a job on campus and worked there fixing computers and troubleshooting the network. Who knew! It worked into the fun stuff: multi-media, digital video, some web stuff and training people to do it.
I went to Scotland with my Church Group twice, once in 1987 and then in 1988. It was amazing. I got the feeling my favorite fairytale (the castles) or worst nightmare (the spooky cemeteries and tight alley ways) could happen there. The over whelming feeling that there buildings are older than our country couldn't be avoided. We stayed with the local people, who gave us tours of the country side, the castles and the ruins (some fake, some real). They are warm and caring and made us feel right at home. We walked through the Edenburough castle and saw the North Sea from its walls. I missed the train to Inverness so I can¿t tell you if Nessie is there or not;) We went to Perth, the home of the Black Watch then on to Glasgow and over to the west coast and toured the grounds of the Kennedy Castle (President Kennedy stayed there when he was president over the circular ballroom). We went through the maze in the playground and had a sword fight until the kids made us give the swords back.
While in London at the end of the trip we took the tube (the underground subway) and train to Wimblton and stood over center court. Very cool!
I went to the National Gallery. They had x-rayed Rembrandts paintings to see what was underneath to reveal a hand he had painted over. He made mistakes and painted over them so do I. I also ...Expand for more
saw 42nd Street at the London Theater (an American play in London). It was cold and the streets were lined with trees on the main street. Venders (scary Dickens type venders) roasted chestnuts on an open fire for sell on the streets. Do you know they wanted to charge us to site on the benches at Kensington? Yes, a meter maid drove up. We left.
We took a train down to a Church in the south of England and on the way back we became the rude Americans the Europeans talk about, laughing and being loud. The Hard Rock Café was a welcome site. We loved the local food but by this time we needed "American Food!"
I got to go to Mexico in 97. We painted a wall at an orphanage that had graffiti, they have this cool paint that has every color in it so it covers everything in one coat but it looks beige. We did a puppet show, made balloon animals for them and played games with the kids. We had a great time. They were happy to see us.
We went into the neighborhoods that are amassed on our border to offer food to the families there. Most of them live in one room huts made of anything from corrugated cardboard and tin to a few small homes. A water truck delivered water to the barrels outside most homes on miles of dirt roads. They have nothing to loose and everything to gain by coming to the United States.
We had a few teenagers on the trip that were made to go by their parents, so they were not happy to be there! By the end of the trip they shared, "The girls are only 15 to 16 years old and have babies with no hope of going to school let alone college. We have so much and opportunities that they don't have."
I came back to CC in 2003 after being diagnosed with Lupus in 2001. I had just found out before the reunion that year and didn't know how to tell anyone because I was trying to wrap my head around it. They found I had Rheumatoid Arthritis last spring also, but I have a good doctor who knows what he¿s doing. You wouldn¿t believe how rare that is. It hasn't been easy here but it is good to be here in the fresh air and be able to walk on the beach and go fishing in the river.
God has been faithful! Jesus has met me right where I'm at. Otherwise I would not be here. It's a good day to be alive!
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