My ancestors migrated from Europe to North America in the 1600s, settling in the earliest communities of the East Coast. Successful in the American Revolution, they slowly moved westward through the Civil War in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and on to Missouri for the land rush, only to find the real Promised Land in California in the very early 1900s. My dad was born in Los Angeles in 1929 and I often remember him talking of his love for the Pacific Ocean. One of my fondest memories is a picture of him in 1932 with his father on the oceanfront near Huntington Beach in Orange County. You could still drive on the beach at that time and the picture showed dad and granddad in front of their Ford Model A sedan parked against the pounding surf. My grandmother Anna took that picture shortly before passing away at a very early age. He was only 3 years old, yet dad was already intricately attached to the ocean that eventually became so much of his own personal story as a Naval Aviator in the Korean and Vietnam wars, flying off of aircraft carriers in the Pacific much of his own short life. The family traveled from Los Angeles to San Diego before WW2 on occasion and I imagine this is what drew them to Coronado - the lure of the beach town for a family always drawn west. He eventually taught himself to fly and joined the US Navy, one day meeting my mom at a place they called, “Mex-Pac” in Coronado. She had come to San Diego to study art and fell in love with the beach - and the sailors, of course. I was born in Coronado in 1954 and it is indeed an Enchanted Island, the Emerald City - a place I am forever attached to. Thanks mom and dad for starting my journey here and giving me the privilege of calling this place my hometown. This is how my granddad would have planned a trip down the coast to Coronado. Here is a 1929 AAA Guidebook with a map, followed by a 1932 brochure about visiting Coronado and Tent City.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 17:03:43 +0000
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