CLIPBOARD

In that highly internalized system of social stratification and status symbols, even the kids are well aware of the score card.

Jaguars are “in”; Ferraris are out. But the new $85,000 Mercedes 560SL, is very, very in. Luckys is out, the new, improved Ralphs with the sushi bar is OK, but Vons Pavilion is “in.”

Oh, and Jordache is out, Guess jeans are “in.”

Or so it goes, according to 19-year-old Michelle Young, a hostess for one of the builders in the Lake Mission Viejo neighborhood. “This is the epitome of Orange County. This is what everyone wants in to,” she explained. “Parents bring you up to be status-conscious. Kids are into who you are, where you live and what your dad does.”

To illustrate how far status-conscious attitudes are carried, Michelle related a story that still amuses her. “It got to be funny. There used to be this four-way stop in the neighborhood, and no matter who got to the intersection first, the Mercedes always had the right of way.”

While acknowledging the materialistic attitudes, her friend Angella Knoll, 20, had another opinion.

“Around here, most people are in the same financial bracket and a lot of times people can afford the same things. It’s just the norm--that’s just what the family buys.”

Still, lamented Angella, “It can be a tough place to grow up if you’re not in the ‘bops’ (the high school social elite of cheerleaders and football players).”

Irrespective of the social cliques, materialistic trappings, and subsequent labels, the neighborhood surrounding Lake Mission Viejo is a postcard picture, a scenic montage of terra cotta homes with tile roofs sprouting out of the rolling hillsides highlighted by a shimmering lake dotted with red-and-white-trimmed sailboats.

It also a neighborhood that is big on athletes (Florence Joyner lives there) and athletics--including the Mission Viejo Little League, the nearly completed football stadium at Trabuco Hills High, plus countless swimming, soccer, baseball, basketball and sports leagues.

In short, the Lake Mission Viejo neighborhood lives up to the slick public relations campaigns touting “The California Promise.”

And there is no shortage of people still looking for that promise.

A prospective resident nonchalantly glided into the office and inquired about the availability of homes in the neighborhood--she’s looking to “move up.” After listening to her needs, Michelle casually told her the homes in which she is interested range from the “high twos to the mid threes and fours” (whole figures are never discussed). When the woman didn’t flinch at the price, they breezily chatted about tax bases, infrastructures and “Mello-Roos”--the local bond measure to finance the new toll road.

After the woman left, Michelle walked to the window and watched as she drove away: “Oh, she drives a Ford; she must be from Irvine.”

But how attainable will that “promise” be for kids who grow up in Lake Mission Viejo?

“Kids are supposed to do better than their parents, but how do we top this?” asked Michelle philosophically. “Do you realize I can’t even afford my own lifestyle?”

Along with the expectation that the younger generation will do at least as well financially as their parents, the teen-agers face incredible pressures to succeed in academics.

Angella and her family moved to Mission Viejo from Colorado when she was 16, and because of her good grades she was placed in International Baccalaureate, a special program for the academically gifted.

“I was pressured into IB by the counselors. They said, ‘Just try it.’ And I did for a while, but I knew I was in way over my head,” she reflected, frustration in her voice.

Michelle, a resident since grade school, said she experienced similar pressures to succeed. Both girls emphasize there is a big difference between positive motivation and pushing too hard.

But Bill Schwartz, 36, a resident for most of his life, views the neighborhood with the grace of time and experience and added a perspective to the notion that it is too materialistic and that the high school students have bonded into tight, exclusive cliques.

“I don’t see the neighborhood as being different from any other place. There are cliques in every high school. And the kids are into the materialism themselves. They all have the Nikes, Air Jordans and the latest roller blades.

“But you can’t stereotype the whole neighborhood as having a lack of values. If there is a lack of values, it’s more a reflection of the deterioration of the American family in general than it is of that neighborhood.” Schwartz, a former high school football star and father of two school-age children who play baseball and soccer, conceded there is undue pressure put on some of the kids in the neighborhood to succeed either in academics or sports, but laughed at the idea that he pressures his own children.

“Why would I do that? Let them become psychotics on their own. If my son strikes out in Little League, he gets another turn at bat. People have to be allowed to make mistakes.” But he added with a twinkle, “I don’t want to pay for college. I’d like to see if they can get good enough to get (an athletic) scholarship.”

In the final analysis, kids will be kids, and adults will always want the best for them. And the neighborhood of the “California Promise” proves that it has as many ups and downs as the rolling hills over which it is sprawled. But what a gorgeous setting to roll with the punches or experience the growing pains of life.

Population Total: (1990 est.) 23,927 1980-90 change: +71.3% Median Age: 31.1

Racial/ethnic mix: White (non-Latino): 80% Latino: 8% Black: 1% Other: 11%

By sex and age: MALES Median age: 32.3 years FEMALES Median age: 30.3 years

Income Per capita: $21,718 Median household: $59,481 Average household: $61,432

Income Distribution: Less than $25,000: 7% $25,000-49,999: 27% $50,000-74,999: 43% $75,000-$99,999: 14% $100,000 and more: 9%