They Were Five

I'm reading a book featuring a fictional character who is one of the famous Ouellet quintuplets.  I Googled the Ouellet quints wondering if they were real because this author has used real life inspiration in her other books, and found that the author was inspired by actual people - the Dionne Quintuplets of Ontario, Canada, the first quintuplets known to survive their infancy.

I did a little digging and found more photos and information on them and their story is pretty interesting.  The parents were approached by a Chicago World's Fair who wanted to put the girls on display, but the government of Ontario was concerned about their exploitation and took custody of the quints citing the parents unfit.  Then they turned around and created a place called Quintland, where the children were shown off to millions of people as an attraction.  Between 1936 and 1943, almost three million people came to see them, sometimes at a rate of six thousand people per day.

As of May 2013, two of the quints were still alive, but their worldwide notoriety didn't seem to help them much when it came to preparing for old age.  The eventually did get some compensation, which I'd say isn't nearly enough for what they went through, but it's certainly better than nothing.  


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2013:  Wake Of Imagination
2012: Woman With Cat
2011: From Blue Grass To Wine Country
2010: Plump With Fat Quarters
2009: Eddie Out With The Old, In With The New Friday
2008: You Can Get Them At Home Depot??
2007: There Are Never Enough Hours In The Day To Do Anything When You Have A Baby
2006: Tequila Sunrise
2005: Sorry, no post on this day. The blog didn’t start until May 2005!