Friday, December 21, 2007

Mission Viejo in the 1960s

An anonymous reader submitted the following memory of living in Mission Viejo in the 1960s, and makes mention of Laguna Beach...

Greetings, Steve!

I attended Chapman College in Orange, California in 1960-1961. Upon marrying my husband in 1962, we lived in Orange, California, until we moved to Mission Viejo.

We were the 1,000th customer to sign up for water, and, as a result won a 1,000 lb. steer which was butchered and housed in the butcher shop in the little Plaza in Mission Viejo.

We loved driving through the canyon to Laguna Beach, where we always stopped at "The Pottery Barn", made famous by "The Greeter", who later was paid by the city to welcome guests to their town.

Shortly before coming out onto the Coast Highway, there was a semi-bowl in the canyon where plays and orchestras were presented...great, and nice and cool in the summer.

We now live in Missouri, and those wonderful, halcyon days seem so long ago. We have returned to Mission Viejo in recent years and it is just not the same anymore...smog, building overkill, population explosion, have brought negative changes to the area.

However, we have those wonderful memories as those who first lived in Mission Viejo.
I imagine Mission Viejo in the 1960s was like how Menifee is today, where I now live. Menifee was all wheat farming, and then evolved into an equestrian community, which is now evolving into a master-planned community. It's still pretty spaced out, and still quiet enough to hear the coyotes sing.

I suppose 40 years from now, someone will start a "Menifee Memories" blog, and I'll be sending in my memories.

1 comment:

  1. This is a fun site. I am enjoying all the memories of Orange County. We lived in Mission Viejo from 1977-1985. Right near Los Alisos Jr High and La Tierra. I don't remember much crime, but I was only 6 when we moved there. I do remember me and the neighborhood kids riding our bikes everywhere. The Laguna Hills Mall, Gemco, Albertsons, Playco, the movies, the big sewer canal by my house, the arcades, bike trails and parks. Never had any trouble with bike theft or getting mugged or kidnapped. I'm sure those things still happened in MV, but I never saw them. I still have many fond memories of being a kid and look back on them fondly.
    I also visited MV after a 20 year of being away. Wow! If it wasn't for the street names staying the same, I don't even think I would have recognized it anymore.

    jojo

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