Five Plus Five Makes Fifteen

While big families were commonplace a few decades ago, not many can boast of having five sets of twins and five single births. However, the Burge family from Pierceland, Saskatchewan could. In Five Plus Five Makes Fifteen, Barbara Gonie, the fourth child in the family, shares how her farming family managed to survive in a two-bedroom house without running water, electricity, or indoor plumbing. With honesty and humour, she describes the trials and tribulations of having to share a bed with several siblings, eating tinned Spork “meat”, and never worrying about having a playmate.

In addition to providing details about life in the Prairies in the forties and fifties, Barbara offers insight into how growing up in a loving, hardworking family can shape an individual to make good life choices and pass on strong values to the next generation. A consummate storyteller, she takes her readers from the days when clothing was sometimes made from flour bags and a dozen children might share the same bathwater to modern times when her grandchildren want for nothing and she is able to soak in a hot tub and reflect on the fact that what is important in life really hasn’t changed – love, family, and doing for others.