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With its abundance of natural beauty, its easy access to the ocean and the bay, and its no-shoes lifestyle, South Mission Beach was a great place to grow up back in the day. Even if that day was during the early 1940s, when World War II was raging and San Diego was a big part of the wartime action.
Comfort and escape during a scary time. That’s what author Karen Cushman visualized when she thought about the joys of a San Diego childhood. Even if that childhood wasn’t hers.
For 50-plus years, Cushman’s husband, Philip, had been telling her stories about the barefoot joys of growing up in South Mission Beach. About fishing for perch and floating in a rowboat in the middle of the bay with a good book and a perpetual sunburn. Cushman liked the sound of it. All of it.