A Stroll Down Memory Lane: CHS Class of '62 Celebrates Their 60th Reunion

By Brooke Clifford

Reunion photos by Kel Casey

When the Coronado High School (CHS) Class of 1962 students were walking the halls of CHS and making the most of life on Coronado, the island didn’t yet have the bridge, or traffic lights, and the Silver Strand highway was still fairly new. Sixty years later and Coronado has seen changes to life on the island, but to these longtime Islanders their connection to this place and each other remains as it ever was.

A committee from the Class of ’62 recently organized a special 60th reunion at the Hotel del Coronado, giving their classmates the chance to reconnect and walk down memory lane. “I think we knew how fortunate we were to go to school in Coronado but afterward we really knew,” Cindy Mendoza, one of the organizers of the event, reminisced of growing up on the island. “With no bridge Coronado really was a sleepy little community. We all learned to drive there.”

Bob Buxton, another member of the committee, added, “There was a drive-in called Oscars where we cruised and sat for hours instead of being home doing homework.”

Others mentioned the changes both the school and the community have seen over the years; more housing, traffic lights, the creation of Tidelands Park, more opportunities for girls in sports, the renovated high school campus and addition of programs like the Coronado School of the Arts (CoSA), to name a few. “What hasn’t

changed?” asked Kay Nixon, looking at the island then and now. But despite the ways in which Coronado has morphed and grown, this group of Islanders still sees the character of the place where they grew up and continue to feel a strong attachment to it.

“It was just a special place and still is,” Mendoza summed up.

“It’s a very special place because of the people,” Buxton agreed.

“There is no other place on this earth I’d rather live,” Nixon noted. “I was always envious of classmates who got to go to different areas of the U.S. I guess it was because I was the one who was left behind, but when I got married and left this ‘paradise,’ I couldn’t wait to get back.”

Their 60th reunion dance at the Del gave these classmates a chance to return to the place that still resonates with them and turn back the clock for an evening. “If you had been there and seen the dance floor, you would have thought nothing’s changed,” Mendoza said of the event which featured a live band that played classics from the late 50s and early 60s.

“All our proms were held at the Hotel del Coronado,” Nixon said of her time at CHS, explaining how they were the last class to enjoy that tradition before the high school dances began shifting to other venues as other schools started using the Del. “We probably

took for granted that the proms were held at the Del but I think we appreciated it,” Mendoza added.

Fellow classmate and committee member, Martha Protzman, still recalls details from those proms, such as the dance cards and having to have a date to go. “We all got corsages and wore such fun strapless dresses. We had dance cards numbered one through ten, and one and ten were for your date. The rest were open,” she described.

“I have many memories from our proms but this event for our 60th was the best of all,” Protzman continued. “It’s so much fun when you are older and wiser. People aren’t in clicks now like in high school and everyone enjoys each other.” Mendoza agreed with the sentiment, and joked, “I do like being more mature and not as emotional as I was in high school… We’re older and wiser but the ties are still there and we enjoy one another like we did back in school.”

A little over a hundred people attended the reunion event (held over the Fourth of July weekend) which was also open to the graduating classes around the Class of ’62, given that the pandemic had thrown off plans for some of the other big reunions. “It was terrific,” Buxton said. “The Hotel put a lot of work into it working