The highlight of every California student’s fourth grade experience is the Mission project. It gives kids the chance to determine who the best is at carving pieces of styrofoam while discovering why the streets in their towns all have Spanish names. If you went to a public school in California, you will remember staying up late gluing miniature plastic trees on a wooden base, delicately placing colored cellophane in the windows to mimic stained glass, forcing your parents to drive you to the arts and crafts store across town because it was the only place that sold tiny bells that you could mount in the belfry of your scale model of Mission Santa whoever, and bringing it in the next morning only to discover that most of your friends bought their projects at Toys R Us (no assembly required) and would still receive the same grade as you. Ahhh, memories.
The California Mission to which I was assigned, San Rafael Arcangel, was badly destroyed in a fire and mostly neglected afterward, so I was tempted to hand in a pile of sugar cubes as my Mission model project.
Everyone in my class fought over the local mission, San Juan Capistrano. I’m sure kids today are still fighting over it today. For this week’s Scene from OC, I combine the fond memories of fourth grade California history and the remnant themes of this past week’s GOP convention. In the following video, Republican President Abraham Lincoln visits with Union troops stationed at Mission San Juan Capistrano. It is a strange re-enactment, considering the 16th president never stepped foot in California. I’m sure the curators at Mission San Juan made that very clear to all the impressionable youngster in attendance. Lincoln certainly didn’t ride the Amtrak train (which makes him so much less qualified than Joe Biden for anything).
