Wind at My Back

- Season 3

(1999)

The Baileys are in dire straits. They learn Hugo has no intention of keeping the mine open if and when he buys it - in his own words, buy what others want. May plans on selling some of her land holdings not to reopen the mine if it goes into receivership but solely for her and Grace to live (Grace can no longer provide any income to the household as Callie, not wanting to deal with a Bailey, fires her from the radio station), however the property at Bass Lake is one with which May will not part. It is that property however that Luc and Hugo want to purchase to develop...

Three couples evaluate their relationships. Grace and Del have been dating but Grace feels that they are still incompatible as a couple. She thinks she has scientific evidence to this fact when she takes a magazine romance quiz and fails. However she doesn't bother to tell Del why she's been so standoffish of late. Honey and Max look at their life following Zach's birth. Honey receives some devastating news: due to the complications from the birth, she can probably no longer have any more children. She feels that she has lost one manifestation of her love for Max and ...

Following her separation from Bob, Toppy is back in New Bedford living in May's house. She is feeling self-conscious of her new separated status and the probable talk around town behind her back. Meanwhile, fourteen year old Hub is growing up and getting to the stage in life where he is testing his own mettle. Honey and Max are asking more of him around the house. And the adults around town see him as a good boy. However, what he sees as his goody-goody status does not sit well with him as he feels it is too constricting on his life. He rebels by hanging out with the ...

Max and Honey have decided to give Hub a little more leeway in his life, something difficult for Honey to do as she still does not agree with many of the choices he is making. Doris is coming back to New Bedford to visit with her mother. Along with Doris are her two snobbish friends, sisters Frankie and Clarice Bloore, to whom Doris has told fanciful stories of her mother's glamorous but tragic life, the stories seemingly straight out of a romance novel. Upon their arrival, the Bloore sisters see in New Bedford and its residents a backward rural town and backward ...

Many in town are getting into new business ventures. With the demise of the North Bridge bus, Alden and Callie want to start their own bus line both to keep the viability and need for the hotel by bringing people to town, and to make money. They talk Del into being a 25% partner, Del who is solely to provide mechanical support and the driving. Del regrets getting into this venture when he first sees the bus Alden purchases and second when the Cramps take total control of the decision making. Max gets into a business venture of his own with the Cramps when he needs ...

Penniless recluse Orvy Potter has just passed away. In his will, he has bequeathed a Mexican crystal skull to May. Orvy states in a note to May that the skull has psychic powers, but also contains a curse that will be unleashed to anyone who disposes of it unwisely. Despite not having any emotional ties, Orvy's bequest to May was because he figured she of everyone he knew would know what to do with it. May thinks that claims of the skull's powers are nonsense, but Grace, Toppy, Fat and Maisey are intrigued. Grace and Toppy decide to test Orvy's claim regarding the ...

Crime is on the minds of New Bedford residents. Baby Face Nelson has been pulling his bank robberies in the States, and locally a band of robbers known as the Burlesque Bandits have been holding up unsuspecting victims. The Bandits have not yet arrived in New Bedford but the Cramps have been stirring up fear through what May considers sensationalistic journalism by glamorizing these acts of crime both in the Chronicle and on CRNB radio. At the same time, the mysterious stranger just arrived in town has caught at least Maisey's attention. The stranger, Eddy Jackson, ...

With silver prices down and nickel prices up, May thinks it's a good time to move mining operations out to the Bass Lake property. To do so, the company will need to have their line of credit reinstated, which should only be a formality. For added insurance, May asks her old friend, Senator Carlisle Woodman who is now a board member with the Royal Dominion Bank, to use whatever influence he has to ensure the line of credit is approved. The senator is in town to help his son Maurice campaign, Maurice the Tory candidate running in the local federal by-election. Despite ...

The birth of the Dionne Quintuplets is all the talk in New Bedford. Grace in particular is fascinated by the story, she who is keeping a scrapbook on the babies. May is concerned that the Dionne Quintuplets and the scrapbook are replacements for Del, who has left town and Grace. Other town news is the permanent nervous leave taken by teacher, Mr. Bedoes. The reason for his leave brings to the forefront the on-going disagreement between Mrs. Whitney and Max on administering the strap on students, Mrs. Whitney being pro-strap, Max against the strap. In Mr. Bedoes' place...

Star struck Grace is trying to fulfill her fantasies of a starlet's life. She starts a business as advertised at the back of Tinsel Times magazine, not so much for the income but because she thought it would bring her one step closer to being like a star. The venture is an utter failure. Just then, Nathan Sparks arrives in town. A director with Associated Screen Productions - a production company that specializes in newsreels - he is only passing through on his way to do a newsreel on the Dionne Quintuplets. Sparks' dream as a filmmaker is to make important feature ...

It's the Christmas season, 1934, and a time for reflection for many New Bedford residents. On pragmatic matters, May is quickly called away to Cape Breton to take care of Cousin Jessie, who has taken a fall and requires care. Doris is spending the holidays in New York with her friends, which gets both Grace and Toppy thinking about their own lives and dreams. Grace laments never having accomplished anything she's ever wanted to do, such as travel, and laments the suitors that have gone from her life. And Toppy laments her new separated status - at least with Grace, ...

Left to their own devices, Fat, Maisey and Violet get into a animal care/cooking mishap. This incident is only the latest which gets Honey into a old feud with May regarding what Honey sees as May's criticisms of her both as a mother and a human being. Honey has of late been assisting Iris Barlow in the women's mission, specifically in halting the spread of influenza that has not quite yet reached New Bedford, and providing services for and supplies to those on relief. What she feels is her small contribution, Honey provides free hairdressing service to those on ...

The mood in the Sutton household is somber as Honey is still in the hospital in Toronto, with little news making it back to New Bedford about her condition. But the family is trying to continue with life. Max in particular is exhausted and is asking more from the boys to keep the household functioning. Fat, with Maisey and Pritchard, have a new fascination with Buck Rogers. Jim fuels this fascination with theories of life on Mars. Hub is still thinking about Alice, now that she is again speaking to him. But Mrs. MacFarlane knows that nothing can ever come of a union ...