The Quintland Sisters(57)
Fred took some very funny photos with the girls today. The Star sent us a turkey, of all things, a live one! I was worried about this great fat bird and what he might do to the girls, but this one was very tame and harmless. Indeed, the girls were more afraid of him than he was of the girls. It took considerable urging by Fred before Annette, émilie, and Marie could be persuaded to stand anywhere close to the turkey—Cécile and Yvonne were having none of it. émilie was the bravest, reaching out to stroke the funny thing, then shrieking with laughter as he jolted away on her.
“Shoh-shoh!” she proclaimed before he clucked off across the yard, flapping his wings. I’m sure they must have thought they’d received a very strange pet—yet another thing that will be here today and gone tomorrow. I certainly won’t be the one to explain to them what they are eating for Thanksgiving supper!
October 24, 1937
DR. BLATZ’S Collected Studies on the Dionne Quintuplets is finally being published. Dr. Dafoe, Miss Beaulieu, and of course Dr. Blatz, who will arrive this weekend, are crowing from the rooftops about this groundbreaking publication. I’ll have to read this great oeuvre to understand all the commotion. We’ve slavishly stuck to his silly schedules for Nourishment and Toilet Time while the girls have submitted patiently to all the prodding and poking, the countless photographs and measurements, and the endless prints of their hands and feet. My deepest wish is that they could now be allowed to simply be themselves.
Not just yet, however. We’ve heard that several hundred scientists will be descending on us Sunday. A year ago we could rely on the Dionnes to kick up a fuss about this kind of thing, but Oliva Dionne is no doubt rubbing his hands together in glee at the idea of hundreds of deep-pocketed doctors and university professors visiting his souvenir stand.
The girls are blissfully oblivious, preoccupied today with mastering their tricycles, building their sand castles, and hooting over the costumes they were given for their Halloween photo shoot.
November 1, 1937 (Toronto Star)
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300 SCIENTISTS ON EDGE ON MEETING QUINTUPLETS; TAKE STORK-STONES
CALLANDER, Ontario—Yvonne is the most motherly of the Dionne quintuplets, Marie is the most sympathetic, émilie is the most independent, Cécile the most unpredictable, and Annette the most aggressive.
So Dr. William E. Blatz, University of Toronto psychologist, thinks. Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, their physician, thinks they are “just five smart kids.”
The descriptions were given as 300 child specialists, psychologists, and students concluded a two-day meeting in which they studied the Quints on the basis of reports by Dr. Dafoe and his brother, Dr. W. A. Dafoe, of Toronto, and a group of eight U of Toronto psychologists under Dr. Blatz.
The scientific meeting was divided into two stages, discussion of the reports in Toronto Saturday, and a visit to the children here yesterday. The psychologists travelled to Callander by special train and peered through glass and wire mesh at the youngsters singing and playing. The youngsters seemed even more entertaining than usual. But they forgot their toys when their father, Oliva Dionne, entered their yard. The five rushed to him to be kissed.
After watching the quintuplets in action for about two hours, the scientists left muttering much the same adjectives as the average tourist uses: “A rare treat”; “wonderful children”; “Gosh, they’re great,” and so on.
The Quints, dressed in their Sunday best, took the whole thing in stride, and were less nervous than were the visitors themselves.
Some of the women picked up a few of the famous Callander “maternity pebbles,” reputed to have a magical influence on the stork, before they left.
Used with permission.
November 17, 1937
émilie didn’t have a single accident in her underwear all morning! She’s been the slowest of the girls to make progress with the potty schedule. I’m so proud of her, and I told her so.
November 18, 1937
WINTER HAS COME, with a vengeance, yet the girls are still playing outside in the observation area twice per day. They are enthralled with their new toboggans—our arms are aching from pulling them along through deep snow—and they don’t seem to mind the cold. But I mind. I’m tired of the public show. The snow has slowed the number of visits, but it hasn’t halted them altogether. Lewis has had to plow the road between the train station and Quintland for the last three days.
November 24, 1937 (Toronto Star)
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TOO MUCH TURKEY TALK!
CALLANDER, Ontario—This garrulous old gobbler survived Thanksgiving all right, but talked so much about his clever escape that people began to think of Christmas. Now he realizes his error, but it’s too late, because sturdy émilie Dionne of the famous quintuplets, pictured here, has a good grip on his tail feathers and her foot in his leash, and all he can do is gobble a warning to his heirs against the dangers of bragging. In the few weeks left before Yuletide he will have time to meditate upon the fruits of his indiscretion.
Used with permission.
December 1, 1937
Another year, another nurse—now it is Nurse Dubois who has packed up her bags and flounced out of our lives and, more to the point, out of the lives of our little girls. They are bereft once again, asking me where she has gone and when she’ll be back. They really loved Sylvie—her booming laugh and endless energy for games and capers. She was larger than life, even more so in their strange and shrunken world.