"If you live in Torrance, this is a MUST-read." ☀️🌊🐚😎
💌 The Torrance Tide is a free weekly newsletter celebrating the people, places, events, and little local delights that make this city feel like home. ✔️ Free ✔️ 5-minute read ✔️ Every Thursday ⬇️
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The June Tide ☀️
Published 2 months ago • 4 min read
The June Tide | Issue 010 If The Tide made your week feel a little more connected, forward it to one Torrance friend today. Was this email forwarded to you? You can subscribe here.
Hey, neighbor!
Not everything about the 90s deserves a comeback.
But summer? Summer was pretty great.
Walking into the library on day one of summer reading and getting a fresh reading log. Riding your bike everywhere—and being told to come home when the streetlights turned on. Picking one movie from Blockbuster and hoping your siblings didn't hate it. Burning a summer mix CD (or recording songs off the radio and accidentally capturing the DJ talking over the intro). Capri Suns, Otter Pops, Gushers and whatever was in the giant orange cooler at Little League. Calling your friend's house and having to talk to their parents first. Being bored for approximately 17 minutes before inventing something to do.
And maybe that's what we miss most.
Not Blockbuster. Not Capri Suns. Not even Book It! pizzas.
Just the feeling that summer stretched on forever—and there was always enough time for one more chapter.
It's a feeling we're embracing here right here this summer.
This month: The backpacks emptied. Graduation caps flew. The World Cup kicked off. And all across the city, the annual migration to lawn chairs, beach towels, and farmers’ market produce officially began.
We sent four Tide issues, featuring:
🌊 The woman quietly responsible for many of Torrance's concerts, festivals, public art programs, and cultural traditions
🌊 A World Cup player and Olympian whose summer soccer camp has become a rite of passage for generations of South Bay kids
🌊 The dad who turned a school commute into one of the happiest parts of the week through the North Torrance Bike Bus
🌊 A guide to Torrance's summer of soccer, from AYSO history and watch parties to World Cup celebrations around town
Plus: graduation season, Father's Day ideas, miniature train rides, summer reading programs, outdoor movies, community festivals, beach reads, concert nights, and the launch of The Tide Summer Club.
And perhaps most importantly, a reminder that Torrance does summer really, really well. ☀️
Are you enjoying The Tide? Hit reply and tell us why. You’ll make our week.
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The world's most challenging puzzle?
Some of the best local businesses start with a simple sentence.
For Scramble Squares, it was: "You know that dumb idea you have for a puzzle? Maybe we should do that."
After both losing their corporate jobs, this husband-and-wife team took a chance on an unusual idea: a nine-piece puzzle that looks deceptively easy but has been frustrating, delighting, and humbling puzzle lovers ever since.
Only nine pieces, but you'll be begging for a hint.
More than 30 years later, Scramble Squares has grown from a home-based business into a Made-in-the-USA company with 163 different designs covering everything from sports and cars to sea life, music, geography, gourmet food, and animals.
Teachers use them in classrooms. Hospitals use them to pass the time. Families bring them on road trips. Seniors use them to keep their minds sharp. And apparently, they're especially popular as gifts for relatives who think they know everything.
At $15 each, they're a uniquely South Bay success story—and proof that sometimes the "dumb idea" turns out to be the brilliant one.
🧩 Ages 4–104 🇺🇸 Proudly made in the USA since 1993 🔗 Learn more at ScrambleSquares.com
What we've been enjoying this month.
1 | World Cup fever: We're fully leaning into Torrance's soccer era this summer. Between watch parties, youth clinics, AYSO history exhibits, and World Cup Fridays at PKSA, it's impossible not to get caught up in the excitement. Don’t miss USA vs. Turkey tonight at 7 p.m.! 🇺🇸
2 | Summer Nights: Few things feel more like Torrance than folding chairs on grass, a picnic dinner, and running into half the people you know at a concert in the park. This Saturday, it's Classic Journey at 5 p.m. at the Wilson Park Ampitheatre.
4 | Miniature train rides: The Southern California Live Steamers may be one of Torrance's most delightful hidden gems. Tiny trains. Big nostalgia. No notes. Find public run days here.
☀️ A summer of small delights: The Tide Summer Club officially launched this month, built around a simple idea: that the best summers are often made up of small adventures, local discoveries, and saying yes a little more often.
🌊 Paul Krumpe World Cup player. Olympian. Torrance soccer legend. But perhaps best known for creating a summer camp that generations of South Bay kids now consider part of summer itself.
🌊 Kyle Richardson The creator of the North Torrance Bike Bus, proving that sometimes community starts with one family trying something different and inviting others along.
What's been happening around Torrance lately.
⚽ Torrance Catches World Cup Fever From downtown watch parties and youth clinics to FIFA merchandise at Del Amo and AYSO exhibits at the Historical Society, soccer season has caught on here.
🎓 Graduation Season Comes to a Close Thousands of Torrance students crossed the stage this month, marking the beginning of summer and the end of one chapter for the Class of 2026.
🎶 Summer Event Season Is Underway Concerts in the park, outdoor movies, festivals, theater productions, and community gatherings are filling calendars across the city.
🚲 Community Connection Is Rolling Forward From the Bike Bus to future trail projects, Torrance continues finding new ways to make it easier—and more enjoyable—to get around together.
☀️ Summer Has Officially Begun Which, in Torrance, means farmers' market fruit, beach evenings, lawn chairs at Wilson Park, and constantly asking yourself, "How is it already July?"
Just for fun.
Coming soon in The Tide.
🌊 Meet the newly appointed City Librarian helping reimagine what the Torrance Public Library can be.
🌊 Meet the Torrance author whose nationally acclaimed debut novel begins with a chance encounter at H Mart.
🌊 More locals worth knowing, hidden gems worth wandering into, and tiny reminders that Torrance in summer just hits different.
Until then, here's to bikes in the driveway, sunscreen on your nose, and summer that feels just a little bit slower. ☀️
Pass The Tide Along 🌊
If this issue made you feel a little more connected to Torrance, forward it to one person who’d love it too.
The Tide is growing neighbor by neighbor — and every share genuinely helps. 🫶
"If you live in Torrance, this is a MUST-read." ☀️🌊🐚😎
THERE'S MORE HAPPENING IN TORRANCE THAN YOU THINK. We make sure you don't miss it.
💌 The Torrance Tide is a free weekly newsletter celebrating the people, places, events, and little local delights that make this city feel like home. ✔️ Free ✔️ 5-minute read ✔️ Every Thursday ⬇️
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