Page 24 - TalesoftheParadiseRidge-Fall2020_Neat

English Literature sessions where she’d read a classic out childhood, of simple good values and community good
loud or teach us how to diagram a sentence and conju- will. Not to say we each didn’t have our challenges, of
gate a verb. Swim parties at Nelson’s Bar. Not to mention which stories are told, we did. But growing up in Paradise
the proverbial age-old tales of walking to school, down was a gentler, kinder place of great beauty and solace. It’s
the railroad tracks and through the trees up AND down- refreshing to find we are all still friends, the comradery
hill, with wind and rain, snow and sleet, in the “dark of has held forth, and rebuilding Paradise is more than a
night.” glimmer of hope

Organizers of the All-Class Reunion found replacements
for lost yearbooks and vision boards to represent each
class, a Letter Sweater, a candid picture from days gone
by. Over the years, these reunions have been held out-
doors at the Gold Nugget Museum, which was lost in the
fire. Meeting in a large room at the Lutheran Church, we
were all happy to be indoors, but more than that, each
of us was looking for long-lost, familiar faces to connect
with and catch up. Where do you live now, what do you
do, what happened to our old friends, and where are they
now? Lois Mohr Kidder’s primary education was in Paradise during
the 50s and early 60s, at the Paradise Elementary and Paradise
Junior-Senior High School. Throughout her high school years,
she was an active member of the Spring Concert Chorus con-
ducted by Donnan Coutelenc. Lois went on to study voice and
elocution at the music conservatory in Sacramento and, as a
mezzo-soprano, performed in Master Works Chorales. In 1967,
Lois married Michael Kidder, Editor of the Sacramento Bee, the
Modesto Bee, and the Peninsula Times Tribune in Palo Alto.
She is mother to two children and now a widow.

First learning real estate at a young age by helping in the fam-
ily’s brokerage, Ponderosa Real Estate, in Paradise, California,
Lois is a fourth-generation realtor. Lois is an avid devotee to real
estate, but when time allows, she is also an author/ghost writer.
She has written short stories and two biographies for friends, and
Alumni from classes as far back as 1955 returned to this she is currently immersed in a novel. Lois is also a cowgirl, PADI
little town for the All-Class Reunion to come together certified diver and snorkeler, skier, international traveler, jewelry
in peace and love, joy and compassion. It was an idyllic designer, inveterate “foodie,” gardener, and photographer.
22