The Home Place: Life in Rural Prince Edward Island in the 1920s and 30s

by Jean Halliday MacKay

In The Home Place: Life in Rural Prince Edward Island in the 1920s and 30s, Jean Halliday MacKay paints a vivid picture of life in the early part of the twentieth century. She begins with a brief look at the Halliday family's arrival to Belfast as "Selkirk Settlers" in the early 1800s. There they settled and farmed, becoming part and parcel of the Island's historical landscape. Written especially for her family, this book is primarily about the time of Jean's growing up. These are her stories: her memories of life in the home and on the farm, in the one-room school and in the community.

Praise for The Home Place:

"As a long-time researcher and teacher involved with the study of food and culture and how families manage the problems of everyday life, I found this to be the type of narrative that today's students find fascinating. It portrays a different model of family life in a different time, when there was less emphasis on the individual and more on the commonality of community life. There is good reason for such warm and unassuming storytelling — stories that bolster our 'sense of belonging, rootedness, and continuity.' We can meet the future with more confidence as, in retrospect, we realize the human capacity for resourcefulness in living everyday life . . ."

J. Estelle Reddin
Retired Professor of Home Economics
University of Prince Edward Island