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.

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Old McDonald's Farm

Joanne Suttile, a new OCThen reader submits the following e-mail about her memories of Orange County, and asks if anyone remembers "Old McDonald's Farm" in Mission Viejo...

Reading your web site has made me feel a little nostalgic...and a lot "old". I used to think of Jim Sleeper's history of Orange County as the history of OC, but now I realize that the recent "history" is actually stuff I and my family lived...Japanese Village, Lion Country Safari…and other places you don't mention like Old McDonald's Farm in Mission Viejo.

I found your web site while on a search for information about a small science museum near Heritage Park in Irvine. It must have been around in the early 80's and my children...30, 32, and 34 ...remember it well. It closed and was supposed to reopen in a bigger and better location. I believe the name of the museum was The Launch Pad. If you or anyone else knows any more about it, I really would like some details. I am not sure if it has any connection to the Launch Pad in Crystal Court and the subsequent Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, but any information would be helpful.

Thanks,
Joanne Suttile
Mission Viejo

If any of you remember Old McDonald's Farm or know anything about the "small science museum" near Heritage Park, click on "Post a Comment" below and let us know.

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