| Minaki was wonderful, but my heart will always belong to Grand beach with its beautiful sand beach, and very rough water. I learned to swim there when I was about five or six years old. Later, when I was around 10 years old, I joined the YMCA in Winnipeg and became a "TANKER", a very highly respected YMCA swimming club in Winnipeg early 30's and 40's. Because of the friendly Lifeguards that I knew as a boy at Grand Beach | my boyhood ambition was to become a lifeguard. I spent hours on the old pier talking with them. Thus it was only natural that during my "Y" days, that I became a YMCA Senior Life Saver. I also earned the Royal Life Saving Society's Bronze and Silver Medallions, the Royal Life Saving Diploma, and the "Award of Merit". I served as an examiner in life saving at the YMCA for the Royal Life Saving Society and the "Y" for many years. |