Living On The Edge: Coming of Age During Difficult Times

Living on the Edge - Coming of Age during difficult times is a poignant true-life account of the author and his family as they attempt to make a living on their family farm in Southern Manitoba. Together, the family battles an extremely primitive lifestyle which includes droughts, floods, tornadoes, predators, torrid heat and frigid cold, the scourge of locusts and hunger in an attempt to make their farm a success. In the end, it is all for naught; they are forced to concede to the elements and abandon their farm. All that is left are the lingering doubts, memories and the conviction that what they have suffered together, at least, served to make them stronger. Had they made the right decision? This is the dilemma that the author tries to grapple with as he recounts his life growing up on the farm. The author's primary purpose was not merely to chronicle the life of one family - his own - but rather present a socio-historical expose on the lives of the inhabitants living in the post-Depression era in the Canadian West. The author felt that such stories needed to be told before being lost to history forever. It is his express wish that others will also come forward with their own unique stories thus enriching our collective knowledge and understanding of our past.