'Down by the Railroad tracks' is a fascinating look at life in Northern Ontario, as seen from the eyes of a child living in abject poverty through the recession-stricken 1930s. Author Cal Smith's gift for captivating story-telling brought him outstanding acclaim for his first book, 'When Devil Fish Come Out To Play' published in 2009. He weaves the same mix of adventure, humor, and historical fact into this unique look at his family's struggle to survive on the outskirts of North Bay, next door to one of Canada's largest hobo jungles, during the 'Great Depression'. In 1929, when Cal's father met his younger brother's bride-to-be, for the first time, only a few hours before the wedding, the two of them fell instantly in love and ran away together, leaving Gordon weeping at the altar. Two years later they fled Tonnawanda with their infant son three hours before two Mafia gunmen came searching for them, and went back to North Bay to face the family music and endure the extreme hardships of the 'Dirty 30s' that would force them into the city's worst slums. The book is an entertaining dog's breakfast of stories about bullying railroad cops, quicksand, shadflies, the Dionne quintuplets, a one-eyed, one legged fisherman and his one-room poker palace, a budding serial killer, and 'honey wagons'. The result is a highly entertaining book, that transports the reader to a time and place that few people living today -- even those who lived there, but on the 'right' side of the tracks -- have ever seen or imagined. __________________________________________ Cal Smith served with the Royal Canadian Air Force for 13 years as an electronics instructor and public relations officer. He qualified as a scuba diver at the Royal Canadian Navy diving school in Naden, B.C. in 1960 and spent four years diving for abalone and sea urchins along the B.C. coast from Victoria to the Alaska panhandle. Cal also conducted professional Bodybuilding contests at the Queen Elizabeth theater in Vancouver, and published a bodybuilding magazine called Looking Good. In 2001, at the age of 71, he placed second in Canada in the over 55 class of a physique contest organized by PVL Nutrition o Burnaby, B.C..