Eric Larson (1975)

I remember being in her class for the 1967-1968 school year.  I remember her then as a very short and older lady.  I never realized that she only taught another year after I was in her class.  Funny I remember the rhyme thing about her, but all I remember was "Mrs. Bissell was a thissel" and nothing more.  I remember our desks being lined up in four rows; two rows on the hallway side of the room and two rows on the window side of the room facing the middle of the room where a small round table was placed with student sized chairs where she always sat when she wasn't standing up teaching or talking to the class.  She never sat at her desk in the back center of the room; I think it was a little too big for her.  She was not my favorite teacher and I was equally not her favorite student that year.  Because I sometimes had talking problems during class, she moved my desk to the back of the classroom and positioned it next to her desk where she never sat anyway, thereby taking away my neighbors to visit with and end the classroom distruptions of me talking to others.  Our family moved to Rochester about 30 minutes north of Detroit area May 1, 1968 so I never finished the school year in her class.  Our family moved back to Okemos settling in Briarwood instead of the Wardcliff neighborhood and I graduated from OHS.

Eric Larson

Class of 1975  

Natasha Beck (1969)

Mrs. Bissell was my 5th grade teacher at Wardcliff for the 61-62 school year,and I recall her as a warm,kind,and effective teacher. Social studies,reading,and language arts were my favorite subjects. I liked going to the library when I finished my work early,and continued my avid reading. I recall reading a number of the Landmark history books,as well as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn,that year.

Natasha (then Nancy) Beck

OHS '69