Mr. Ledyard Billings Hakes Jr., better known as Bill, has lived in Coronado for all 88 years of his life, except for four years during World War II. There were only 200 students when he was enrolled at Coronado High School. Since there were only about 50 students per class, you practically knew everyone! He says his old school was great looking with ivy growing all over it. He was admitted to UCLA, but never went because he got married to the girl who had lived across the street from him all his life. He was married for 64 years until his wife passed away. He says he misses his wife dearly and that her loss was the saddest thing to happen to him, and that even being in the war “wasn’t as bad”.
Mr. Hakes now has 12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren; they all have attended Coronado schools. He is the owner of multiple apartments and motels in town.
When he was 20, Mr. Hakes went to World War II and worked as a navigator on a B-24 and as a Lieutenant in India. He went on 49 missions and remembers bombing Japanese targets.
One of his dearest and most fun memories of his jobs around town include the National Horse Show, where he worked on the ring crew that set up the horses jump courses. He also worked at the Hotel Del and at the community pool. The Hotel Del job was for a few summers during high school and it paid him 35 cents an hour! At the community pool, he worked as a lifeguard and also did the pool maintenance. He had to empty out the pool once a week, scrub it down, and then fill it up again with salt water pumped from the ocean. He also worked at the ferries when he finished high school.
Mr. Hakes says that the thing he misses the most about the Coronado of the past is riding the ferries and having the streetcar running up and down Orange Avenue. A round-trip ticket for the ferry and streetcar was 20 cents and 10 cents would get you into the movie theater. That’s quite a difference from what we have to pay now a days! He remembers going to the beach everyday in the summer. He had a friend who owned 6 polo ponies and they used to ride them on the beach frequently.
Mr. Hakes talked about Coronado these days and said that his favorite thing about it is the beautiful new golf course and that the Hotel Del is the greatest asset our town has to offer. He thinks Coronado is the safest place in the country to live and raise children in and that the thing about growing up here is that you don’t have to worry about getting into any trouble.
What a treasure to have people like Bill to keep the old memories of our island alive and to give us a perspective on how things have evolved!
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Nadine Monzon
Online Editorial Intern
eCoronado.com
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