Roughin’ It in Kanata, Eh!

Welcome to Volume 2 of a personal memoir by Michael J. Walsh, which takes the reader from his early years in London, England after WWII to his departure in 1956 for a new life in Canada as a young teenager.

Roughin’ in in Kanata, eh! is the down to earth story of a life lived in two countries and the challenges that all outsiders experience. Filled with self-deprecating humour the English schoolboy learns to adapt in the new land.

It is an honest description of the “new boy” in town trying desperately to be accepted in Windsor & London, ON . Follow his teenage journey first at an all- boys school where the mantra, Teach Me Goodness Discipline & Knowledge frequently becomes a lesson at the end of a strap.

Then the liberating experience of a new school surrounded by girls for the first time providing comic relief. A new challenge filled with humorous anecdotes. But always wondering whether he is still an outsider trying too hard at times to be accepted.

It is the truthful, down to earth story of an English schoolboy, who learns that roughing it is its own reward when the outsider lives in the present but never forgets the people, places and experiences that brought him here in 1956.
Postscript:

Volume 1: Roughin’ it in The Bush described the first 12 years of his life in Shepherds Bush. The responses from family, friends, colleagues & strangers reminded me that my story was their story too because it was not just made up to look good by the so-called critics of the established media outlets.

“May the muse be with you” when you read Roughin’ it in Kanata, eh!

Michael J. Walsh is a retired professor from the Faculty of Animation, Arts & Design at Sheridan College in Oakville, ON for over 45 years. At the same time he has been actively involved in the book publishing industry in Canada, the United States and the UK since 1967. He founded Mosaic Press in the early 1970s.
An eclectic mixture of stories and experiences that still prevail in the 21st century.