2nd Foodcrawl with Bert - Lemon Grove

We headed back out to the 94. Look at these freeway signs. Reminds me of what Burma Shave used to do - spread out their messages on separate billboards. These were promoting Barona Casino.

A few more miles down is the city of Lemon Grove:

I think we took the College Ave exit. Check out this old office building.  Looks like the font hasn't changed in at least 40 years.

This is what we came to see...

Yes, it's the giant Lemon in Lemon Grove. It's right next to a bus stop and the trolley. As I was taking photos, I felt so conspicuous because there was a damn red light. But then again, there's probably other people who come by and take photos of this thing. It's even listed in the Roadside Attractions site!

Lemon Grove was once home to many citrus groves in the early 1900's.

There is a narrow median of grass and lemon trees protected by a fence. There was a professional photographer taking pictures behind the giant lemon that day.

I also wanted to see the site of Lemon Grove Middle School...there was some history behind this visit.

Lemon Grove was the site of the infamous "Lemon Grove Incident" (info below in blue taken from wikipedia's entry). It was the first successful case of school desegration, predating Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, except in the Lemon Grove Incident, school was desegrated for Mexican children.

"The Lemon Grove Incident was an incident that occurred in 1930 and 1931 in Lemon Grove, California, where the local school board attempted to build a separate school for children of Mexican origin.

On July 23, 1930, the all-Anglo Lemon Grove school board decided to build a separate school for children of Mexican heritage without giving notice to their parents.On January 5, 1931, Lemon Grove Grammar School principal Jerome Green, acting under instructions from school trustees, turned away Mexican children at the schoolhouse door, directing them to the new school, which came to be known within the local Mexican American community as la caballeriza, meaning "the stable".

However, the parents had instructed their children to return home if this were to happen, and the children obeyed. The parents refused to send their children to the new school, and since they were not allowed back at the main schoolhouse, this resulted in a boycott. The parents sought the assistance of the Mexican consul in San Diego, Enrique Ferreira. He put them in touch with two attorneys.

The landmark lawsuit resulting from the "Lemon Grove Incident" became the first successful school desegregation court decision in the history of the United States. On March 9, 2007, the Lemon Grove School District recognized Roberto Alvarez, the schoolboy who was the lead plaintiff in the case. The auditorium at the Lemon Grove Middle School, which is on the site of the former grammar school, was dedicated in his honor.

In the decision, the judge ruled that children of Mexican origin could not be segregated under the laws of the state of California, because they were "of the Caucasian race", and laws allowing the segregation of "Oriental", "Negro", and "Indian" children therefore did not apply."

We weren't done yet...