Travel Back in Time to the 1980’s
By Paloma Ronis von Helms, Coronado High School Junior and CHA Intern
In recent years, the distinctive trends of the 1980’s have made a resurgence in pop culture, inspiring everything from TV shows set during the decade (like Netflix’s Stranger Things) to a revival of particular iconic fashion trends (such as mullets) that keep this period of history alive and influential. While this revival of all things Eighties is a nation-wide phenomenon, it poses the question of what the Eighties were like here in Coronado.
Today, Coronado High School offers around 20 Advanced Placement courses to its students. In the early 80s, the school offered approximately 7 of these AP classes. Like today, CHS students maintained a strong academic tradition, boasting higher average SAT scores than other schools in the nation. Classes would have been smaller, however, as there were only around 650 students enrolled in the high school. Now, the student body is almost double the size.
Students at Coronado High school upheld many exciting traditions in the 1980’s. Every year, the parents of the senior class would spend months planning a large party held at the municipal pool for after graduation. They would hire catering and entertainment services to host an all-night long event for their graduating seniors. The notable tradition of having the graduating class from 50 years prior come to the current graduation ceremony happened to be in jeopardy in the late 1980’s, as no class yearbooks were made during WWII and many alumni could not be located.
Another tradition was the Miss Coronado Pageant held every Spring at the Hotel Del Coronado, where several young women would compete for prizes and scholarship money. The pageant ran for 36 years before coming to an end in 1987.
One lively event that has persisted is the crowning of the Homecoming King and Queen at the Homecoming football game each fall, as pictured below.
CHS students were also involved in many different sports, including lacrosse, basketball, waterpolo, football, and surfing. In fact, in 1980, Mary Ellen Welley became the first girl to play on the Coronado High School football team, on which she was the kicker. She was not the last, as a handful of women to follow have since played on the team. Additionally, the Coronado High School surf team was established in 1988, an extracurricular particularly specific to Coronado’s culture.
The 1980’s had many notable fashion trends, which Coronado teens zealously followed. Perhaps one of the most defining hairstyles of the 1980’s was Big Hair for girls and the mullet (“business in the front, party in the back”) for boys. The typical teen might be seen in high-waisted Ditto’s denim jeans, a denim jacket, a Camp Beverly Hills shirt, Vans shoes, Espadrilles, a mullet, or a side ponytail tied with a colorful scrunchie. One recognizable brand was Esprit, as it was commonplace to see people sporting the tote bag.
After school, kids went to certain hotspots like the Wendy’s (where the Tavern is now) or the arcade at the ferry landing to hang out with each other. They might have listened to the most popular singers of the time, including Madonna, Prince, or Michael Jackson. There was an abundant supply of sitcoms or daytime talk shows to choose from after school, including The Brady Bunch , ALF , Growing Pains , or Full House . Kids might also have watched movies like Back to the Future , The Breakfast Club , The Goonies , or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , and followed stars like Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall.
Life as a teenager today is extremely different from the lives that Coronado kids led in the 1980’s, as modern teens face a constant influx of stressful and overwhelming information from the technology that pervades their everyday life. Thus, society’s nostalgia towards the relaxed and iconic 1980’s is no surprise, and people continue to celebrate this unique period of American culture.
