Mike and Bonnie Eisner

Mike (who says he is The Other Mike so as to avoid confusion with the Michael Eisner of Disney fame) was born in Chicago and was the older of two boys.  His mother worked in escrow and his father was a painting contractor (know in those days as an interior decorator).  The family lived in Chicago until Mike was 15 before moving to North Hollywood in 1956.  His father arrived in California in Feb. on a plane and fell in love with it (after Feb. in Chicago, who can blame him) and went home and moved the family in July).   Mike’s Dad bought an ice cream truck and gave up the painting business.  He eventually bought a second truck and Mike drove that during his high school summers before graduating from North Hollywood High.  Mike was involved in ROTC and Boy Scouts and then joined the Navy.  After four years in the Navy with a wife and son, he went to work at Sears in the day and took accounting classes at night at the local junior college.  He moved to a CPA firm, where he soon realized that accounting tedium was not his forte.
His instructor got him a job at a carpet store as a bookkeeper, which led to assistant controller at a carpet manufacturing plant in El Monte.  He became production manager for the mill and then in 1969 opened a retail carpet store in front of the mill with a couple of partners.  In 1979, he bought the partners out and remained in the business until retiring in 2004.   He sold the business in 2003 and became construction manager for the Penske Auto Group for 18 months, a job he described as a lot of fun and very instructive, helping with redesign and construction of the auto dealerships. He met Bonnie when she took a job as assistant controller for the carpet mill (the same job that Mike had held previously) and they were married in 1981 in Santa Cruz.   Bonnie is a 4th generation native Pasadena gal and has two younger brothers.  Her grandfather owned and raced horses and she spent a lot of time at Del Mar, as a hot walker. Her grandfather also owned a plastering business, where Bonnie’s father was also employed.  Her grandfathers company is responsible for the plaster on most of the major commercial buildings in Pasadena.  Bonnie got her own horse at 15 and went to work at 16 to support the horse and her car. She was on the debate team in high school and was also a lifeguard.  She graduated from Pasadena High and went to work for Sears before working for B of A in their credit dept. for 3 or 4 years.  Her first husband had a diesel repair garage in Temple City for 18-wheelers, so Bonnie left B of A to do the company books. Bonnie says her favorite job was being Governor of Soroptomist and it speaks to her volunteer spirit.  She and Mike are both very involved people.  Mike considers himself an organizer and has been President of various organizations, including Kiwanis, the World Floor Covering Association, the LACE Chapter of the Building Industry Association and Nipomo Incorporation Committee for Education. He is currently Executive Director of a California Workers Compensation group with 600 members and Treasurer for Nipomo Rotary.  Bonnie is active in land use on the SCAC.  In addition, Bonnie loves scrapbooking, stamp collecting, online games, beading, and gardening (a love she and Mike share).   They love to travel and have recently bought an RV and are planning a month long trip in May and June.  And combining their organization and travel skills, they have in the past put together several organized group trips, including a 600 person convention in Hawaii for the flooring business and a 48-person Caribbean cruise.  They have been to Europe and Russia and their favorite destination is Hawaii (Kauai being the favorite with the Big Island second). Between them, they count 5 children (Mike has boys 45 and 36 and a daughter who is 42 and Bonnie has a girl 43 and son 40).  They also have 8 grandchildren and a four-legged child named Sam, who is a 9-year-old black barrel-chested Lab. A couple of friends from their square dancing days in the L.A. area, Leona and Bill Anderson (Leona has been a Blacklake resident) retired and moved to Arroyo Grande and kept trying to convince Mike and Bonnie to visit.  Finally in 1997 they did and soon decided they liked the area, buying a house in May of 1998.  Bonnie and her daughter opened a carpet/craft store in Grover Beach and Mike continued to commute to L.A. for the week to run the business there for the next 6 years.   Bonnie’s daughter decided to get married in the new house, so within 3 weeks of closing escrow, they had new floors laid, moved in the furniture and had an outdoor wedding.  Mike finally got to spend an entire week at the house in 2004 when they remodeled the kitchen, and it was then he decided the commute to L.A. had outlived its appeal.  So he retired and joined Bonnie fulltime in their house here. Mike and Bonnie have very wide and diverse interests and can be found helping out with all sorts of activities in the community.  They no longer square dance (or line dance – something Mike took up while commuting to L.A.) but they find plenty to fill their time.  I can’t wait to see what they wear to our Halloween party after hearing Mike describe some of their square dancing adventures! Welcome new members, Mike and Bonnie Eisner.