Stories shared in the classroom become new book

The Porridge is Up!is a call that echoes through the childhood of Dale McIsaac, and now he is sharing those memories of growing up in a large family in rural P.E.I.

McIsaac grew up in Mermaid, just outside of Charlottetown on a family farm. There were 10 children in all: three girls, then six boys (with Dale the youngest), and one more girl.

The six boys slept in three double bunk beds in one bedroom, and would wake every morning to their father calling up the stairs, "the porridge is up!" and that became the title of the book.

"It meant time to get downstairs get the day started, get your work done, and move on with life," said McIsaac.

A Friday reward

McIsaac grew up to be a teacher, and the book came out of stories he told to his students, starting when he was at East Wiltshire Intermediate School.

"The Grade 8s and I made a deal that if we had a good week I'd tell them a story on Friday," he said.

"It turns out there are a lot of Fridays in the school year so I needed to have a lot of stories."

Fortunately, with nine brothers and sisters, McIsaac had no shortage of stories to share. There are about 15 in the book: a month's worth, his mother commented.

Some of the proceeds from the book will go to support research into Parkinson's, which is a disease his mother suffers from.

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