The Gentle Gamblers

The book starts in PEI, Canada, where the Macintosh Family decide to move West, where the pot-o-gold was a stretch of black fertile soil alive with a sea of golden wheat waving before them. This typical family, part of a vibrant group of Canadian dreamers and visionaries braved the dark lean days on the prairies to carve out a new life for themselves. While gambling their lives to fulfill their dreams they meet black blizzards, drought and Influenza but there is comedy as well, much seen through the eyes of the children. There is a cast of memorable characters as the burgeoning family with few possessions face the difficulties of the 1920's, one, the May third blizzard that buried the prairies in three feet of snow while a blizzard blew for three days. These are real people living through real events with often uncommon bravery.