Its a California Thing... You wouldn't understand.

If you were born here in California after WWII then you know what this is all about.

Article here sent a wave of nostalgia through us as it recounts what has been a long-standing tradition in California’s public schools and that is the 4th grade project to build a scale replica of one of the 21 Spanish missions from San Francisco Solano in the north to San Diego de Alcala in the south.


Article points out that this project has become so engrained in California culture, it even has its own Wiki-page (you know you’ve arrived, when…). And indeed, while doing a web-search for the same, we saw numerous sites devoted to mission project ideas and “how-to” instructional guidance for constructing the missions.


Of course, article starts delving into what many see as perhaps an overemphasis on these missions that formed the cultural, religious and logistical backbone of the Spanish colonial period in California during the 18th and early 19th century and whom are also critical of the school curriculum that tends to overlook the forced conversions to Catholicism and enslavement of the California natives.


But hey... nothing was going to ruin our way-back buzz. Just look at the smiles on these kids’ faces…. Doesn’t it make it all worth it?