This book was very enlightening and sad in many respects. I wasn't old enough to remember when the quints were very popular. I saw a movie short on TV recently showing the hundreds of thousands of visitors that came to watch them play in the backyard when they were babies. Stunning. my husband and I stumbled onto this book at a flea market shortly after that so i was intrigued to learn more. a funny passage was the description of their mom explaining the birds and the bees "she sat herself in a rocking chair with a marriage manual open on your lap it was a distressing duty she would not allow herself to shirk. She carefully read to us what the author had to say and that was sum total of instruction. We had as little desire to ask any questions than she would have had to answer them." for a woman who had 12 or more children i think it's rather funny she wouldn't talk about this part of life. times have changed a lot in the last 70 years. The last chapter was very encouraging. You can tell they learned a lot from their experience growing up and had made lives they were fairly comfortable in by the time they had their own children. they can share a lot of wisdom with other families who have had multiple births.