Life in Balmy Beach

A touching and nostalgic look at a childhood
in Toronto's Beach District...

The world of young people growing up in Toronto in the 1950's and 60's was certainly different
from the world we live in today.

In this memoir, a companion to his book, Toronto Island Summers, lifelong Toronto resident Jim Sanderson takes readers through the adventures and discoveries of a boy growing up in Toronto's east end. Some of his experiences were simple: shinny hockey on the Glen Manor rink, a lunch of fish and chips on Queen Street, smelt fishing on the Nursewood pier. Other life lessons were more complex: the effects of World War Two and The Korean War on the families of neighbours and friends, the realization of a close friend that he was gay while still in grade school, trips to the United States to encounter racial unrest, and the turbulence of the Vietnam war.

With photos that illustrate the unique nature of life in Toronto's east end in the 1950s and 60's, Life in Balmy Beach transports readers back to a simpler time, before the arrival of Personal Computers, the Internet, Cell-phones, and Social Media, when family, friends, and adventure reigned supreme.