When Mary Ellen Woodhouse first came to Coronado in 1942, it was because of a job at the local school teaching piano. She was in her twenties at the time. Originally from Oklahoma, she graduated from the University of Oklahoma with degrees in piano and music education.
Back then, there was no shortage of things to do on the island. The Amphibious base was huge, and every Friday night, Woodhouse and her friends would go to the enlisted men’s place down on the strand for music and dancing. On Sunday nights, they would dance with the officers in the ballroom at the Hotel Del the same ballroom that is still in use today. She belonged to the saltwater pool at the Hotel Del, where they just refilled the pool directly from the ocean.
“The biggest difference between then and now is the traffic,” she said. During Coronado’s earlier years, there were no electric stoplights. Instead, policemen would stand and use signs to direct traffic. Even then though, the traffic could sometimes back up on Orange, because cars were waiting for the ferry. “The ferry came in to the end of Orange Avenue there was a huge ferry building down there.” You could even drive your car onto the ferry. If you wanted a ride around the island, there was a trolley that ran through Orange Avenue, on what today is the tree-lined median.
Interestingly, there was no golf course at that time. Before the bridge, the bay came up to Glorietta Boulevard. “We had a canoe in the backyard,” Woodhouse says, “and we could walk it down the alley and put it right in the water.” When they got ready to build the bridge in early 1967, they scooped up excess sand and deposited it closer to the island, then built the golf course on top of that.
During the war, blackouts at night were common. “If they could, the churches had their services before dark,” she says, and “there were ration books for meat. We could go to Tijuana to get meat meat was easy to get there.” You couldn’t buy butter, but Woodhouse’s friends back in Oklahoma would send it to her! She also mentioned that she was constantly in fear for her friends, some of whom were out fighting overseas. During that time, there was a huge influx of people who came to Coronado in order to train to be military pilots.
Woodhouse met her first husband, a San Diego native and war veteran, when he came to the school where she was teaching it was called Central School at the time. He was a friend of the musician that had originally held Woodhouse’s job.
Woodhouse and her first husband built the same house that she lives in today. “We were married in June of 1947, we bought the lot with two other families in July, and then we started building in August.” They moved into their new home during the early fall of that same year.
The Woodhouses were married for thirty-three years. After Mr. Woodhouse passed away, Mary Ellen remarried a man from Sacramento and became known as Mary Ellen Munckton, the name she uses today.
Nowadays, Mary Ellen is still enjoying all the benefits that Coronado offers. She says that throughout her time here, the beach has been a constant and fun activity. “The things that I do haven’t changed I’m an opera buff, and I’ve always gone to the theater and that’s what I do now.” All three of her children graduated from Coronado High School, and she maintains that this is a perfect environment to raise kids in. Mary Ellen now has close relationships with the piano students that she taught decades ago. “I have neighbors who are the children of my friends and they’re retired!”
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Sophia Zaller
Online Editorial Intern
eCoronado.com
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