Confidence grew with each set of cards I drew, printed, and sold. Tulare County was too small – look out California, because the Central California artist is heading your way!!
In the 4th grade, we studied the 21 California missions, which were built in the 1700s and 1800s by Franciscan priest, Junipero Serra. Even back then I loved old buildings.
I chose 5 of the 21, with some sort of logic that I can no longer remember. There are 2 missing pictures here – San Juan Bautista, and the one near Oceanside, whose name I have forgotten.
This California mission idea was suggested by a friend, and although my inner cautionary voice told me not to do it, I ignored that intuition, dismissing it as pessimism.
Should have listened.
I printed the largest quantity yet, and went to my regular outlets, which bought them in small cautionary quantities. Next, I hit the road with my best friend to sell these. Alas, none of the 5 missions wanted them because they only cared about their own place. I wasn’t willing to break up the sets, and it was crazy hard to find gift shops in towns where I knew no one. I tried Harris Ranch, a huge tourist place along Interstate 5, smack dab in the middle of the state. It took many phone calls, several appointments, lots of free samples, and finally I realized that this was not profitable, because in addition to the distance, their gift shop buyers quit every few months.
I finally consented to selling the cards individually to some of the missions, had one very nice gift shop in Carmel who wanted the variety pack, and kept selling tiny quantities to the local stores.
Eventually I got real, and gave all the remaining cards to every fourth grade teacher I knew.
The lesson there was to listen to that inner cautionary voice and not dismiss it. Although one might not be able to articulate why something doesn’t feel right, there are usually solid reasons behind the reluctance, even if it is only manifested as hidden sense inside the intuition.
At least Judy and I had a great time on our road trip.
4 Comments
Google (or in my case, because I like my privacy, startpage.com) is your friend!
https://www.sanluisrey.org
Thank you, Sharon! Don’t know why this name wouldn’t stick or why I didn’t save a copy of that card.
It’s been my goal to visit every California mission, and I believe I have managed to do that–at least the ones that are open to the public. The different architecture and interior decorations for each mission are fascinating!
It is the exteriors that fascinate me, and the interiors all seem to blend together in my memory. I wonder if this is a direct result of the study of the missions in 4th grade, when we drew them, built one as a model, and even visited one, a radical thing for 4th graders at Ivanhoe Elementary in the late ’60s.
Comments are closed for this article!