Good writers show up in all age groups.(The Orange County Register)

ORANGE, Calif. _ Their stories of bygone days pour out to classmates in a life story writing class at Santiago Canyon College's older adult continuing education program in Old Towne Orange.

Bob Grundy, 90, of Anaheim writes of his boyhood when his family bundled possessions into a sleigh and set out in a snow storm to begin homesteading.

Mark Carter, 75, who is legally blind, studies Braille but dictates his stories to his wife, Marge, 71. She types and reads them to the class. Their goal is to leave a family history for their offspring.

Some 200 students, ages 40-90, have taken free, eight-week courses since they were first proposed five years ago by Dawn Thurston, 53, of Villa Park. Thurston teaches one three-hour session for beginners, another for advanced writers. They meet in a former elementary school.

"The students write about old times," she said, "when the ice man came, nylon stockings first appeared, and times were hard during the Great Depression and World War II."

Thurston had previously been a free-lance writer with an avid interest in genealogy. In the process of writing a family history about her Scottish grandparents, she was inspired to teach others how to write their family histories.

"I've learned from these wonderful students that you're only as old as you feel," Thurston said.