Mary Gifford: Lost, Coronado Island,

I lived on Coronado, that’s an island,
How could you get lost on an island?
You couldn’t. You could always find your way
To something or someplace you knew.
You could walk any place on the North Island
And not get lost. I was born there.
No hospitals, not for us. On the base, maybe,
But not for us. We were born at home.
There used to be a ferry to the island
Now there’s a bridge to get you across.
I don’t see how you could get lost there.

Mary Gifford



I was born on Coronado Island, it was mostly military there. I babysat the kids. My family had a drygoods store so we couldn’t go far from home. Sometimes we went to LA or Mexico—Tiajuana or Ensenada. There was no bridge in those days, you had to take a ferry to the mainland. We had a housekeeper and in the afternoons we’d play cards with my grandfather. I joined the Coast Guard where I was a mail specialist, 1st class any way you spell it. I met my husband in college…I needed a ride to San Diego State. I don’t remember how we met, maybe it was at church function. We commuted a whole year. He studied civil engineering. We graduated and I began to teach north of San Diego. I taught 4th grade and I boarded with a family. We were married in Christ Church Episcopal on Coronado Island in 1950. He was transferred and we moved and moved and moved. My kids were born all over California, we moved a lot because he was a civil engineer working all over California. 

—Mary Gifford

GROUP NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

GROUP NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

If I could make a New Year’s resolution today
It would be not to take unscheduled naps CS
Or to lose weight—I work on it all the time here
Too much good cooking isn’t a good thing MG
I wish for the ones I love should have good health
Always through the year. That’s important FP
I’d like to go bowling once and a while
And hit them all, or at least most of the time JB
I’d like to be able to walk like I used to,
to go dancing, able to walk like I used to
I’d like to have an invention with a good income or
I’d like to win the jackpot we’ll go from there WH
I want to have more joy in one’s life, health,
and to win the lottery, hit the jackpot NON
I want someone to take me down to get the winning ticket.
I think I’d keel over if I got the winning ticket,
I’d have to wake up real fast. CS
I never make New Year’s promises
because I always break ‘em MB
I’m looking forward to a cruise with my family
go down the coast & turn left at the canal
I want to be nice to everybody around me
so they will help others, & treat me nice
and everybody will be happy this way. LK
I wish for this millennium to be less cataclysmic MH
What the world needs now is love
I would like to see more love in the world
I’d start with myself, I’d show my love for others
And maybe they’d show their love for all of us MB

Madeline Bedal, Catherine Schuler, Mary Gifford, Frances Pearlman, Joan Butler, Mabel Weinberg, Mary Wailes, Neil O’Neill, Lee Kwan & Maureen Hurley