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| L.M. Montgomery Museum (Photo by author) |
Thirty years ago, my wife and I drove to
Prince Edward Island with our two year old son. We took the Wood
Island Ferry, stayed in a lovely B&B just outside of
Charlottetown and saw very little of the tourist traps that are
everywhere nowadays. I recall driving to Cavendish Beach and
parking very close to the sand, no charge, and a short walk over the
dunes to the ocean. On the way back to the car I lost my pen knife
in the sand. Every time I have heard of someone visiting PEI since
then I’ve suggested that they check out Cavendish to find my knife. Last week my wife and I drove to PEI
again. No ferry this time, we crossed at the Confederation Bridge, a
marvellous 10 minute drive across the Northumberland Strait. We
stayed in a cottage on the Northumberland Strait near Bedeque. Over
a couple of days, we saw every imaginable place that Lucy Maud
Montgomery lived, worked, taught or remembered in her book[s] about
little Anne Shirley. It was a real Green Gables vacation.
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| Red Dirt Road, Lower Bedeque (Photo by author) |
It started at the end of the property
where we stayed. The red dirt road of the Bedeque dairy farm created
a dreamlike environment for us, especially when combined with the
sound of the waves as the tide rolled in and out, and the fresh
cooling breezes. It was the same environment that the eleven year
old orphan found when she arrived at the farm of Matthew &
Marilla Cuthbert in 1876. Further on along that red dirt road, it
becomes a paved road and then joins the highway and there sits a
little one room school house. Lucy Maud Montgomery taught there for
a few months in 1898. It’s not easy separating the fictional world
of Anne from the world of her creator Lucy Maud. The buildings
described in the book come directly from these places which PEI has
carefully restored. Standing in the empty classroom you can envision
Anne sitting in the desk, lifting the slate over her head to crack it
down on Gilbert’s noggin.
From Lower Bedeque it’s not far to
the Kensington Train Station where Matthew went to pick up the little
boy he and his sister had ordered from the orphanage in Nova Scotia.
The station is home to a bunch of chichi shops these days, and a
liquor store, but it’s not hard to imagine Matthew’s surprise on
being greeted instead by a girl on that fateful (though fictional)
night. The house Montgomery used as a model
for Green Gables was the home of her Aunt Annie and Uncle John
Campbell. Their family settled here in 1776 and still live in part
of the house, behind the museum. Out the window are the rolling
hills, the forest, and Anne’s famous Lake of Shining Waters. The
museum is beautifully kept, and filled with mementos of the Lucy Maud
Montgomery age. The enchanted bookcase is in the corner just as it
appears in the story. I asked someone why there were no books in the
bookcase, and they couldn’t tell me. I bought a copy of
Anne of
Green Gables, and began reading it immediately. The bookcase in the
story had no books. It housed Anne’s imaginary friend and a
collection of china and crystal, just like the one in the museum.
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| Avonlea Village Classroom (Photo by author) |
I was captivated by the story Montgomery
told in this, her first book. Her writing is strong, and the story
is eternal. Not unlike Mark Twain’s tales of young boys in
Mississippi, this story of a young girl in Canada has a charm and
depth that can be missed if you see the stories the way they’re
told in movies and TV. While the version of Anne, played by Megan
Follows, stayed fairly close to the intent of the book, the musical
which has been playing for 50 years waters the story down and
compresses, even loses some of the best bits in the book. Much like
Johnny Whitaker’s Tom Sawyer, the Anne Shirley presented in the
stage musical is only a shadow of the fully developed character we
see in the book. Montgomery’s character is a living, breathing
girl, not quite the loud and abrasive post-adolescent on stage. The
nature of a musical, wherein we stop every few minutes for another
song, detracts from the reality that Lucy Maud Montgomery was trying
to portray. The Anne of her book does make the reader laugh at her
outbursts, but one feels the years of hurt behind her outer shell
too.
My wife commented that she couldn’t
believe how much I was enjoying reading
Anne of Green Gables
chuckling aloud, or going quiet in scenes like the one where Matthew
passes. Coming after just finishing Laura Hillenbrand’s
Unbroken
where most of my responses were of shock, or even disgust at the
treatment of the captives, a life-affirming book like Anne was almost
a necessity. Driving further through PEI we came to
the house where Lucy Maud was born. We arrived at the same time as a
bus filled with Japanese tourists. They clamoured for pictures, and,
as the building is tiny we decided to snap a shot of the outside and
drive on. What is it about Anne’s story that speaks so deeply to
the Japanese?
We drove to Avonlea, the most
commercial of the day’s visits. It’s a small version of
Disneyland, made just for fans of the book[s]. Dirt streets and old
refurbished building present an image of 19th century PEI.
Fortunately entry is free after 5pm, because the shows are done, and
the buildings closed…except for the gift shop, of course. You can
buy Anne Shirley dolls, any size; Anne Shirley clothes for the dolls
or for your own children. Make your daughter a 19th century orphan! Straw hats with red pigtails attached are also
available, along with a variety of editions of the book and videos.
In fact you name it, they’ve probably got an Anne version.
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| Green Gable Alpaca Farm (Photo by author) |
The following day we drove a few miles
up the North Cape Coastal Drive on PEI’s western side to Green
Gable Alpaca Farm. Even miles away from Charlottetown Green Gable is
used as a catch phrase. Owner Julie Ogilvie spent an hour with us
telling us her story and how she came to raise alpacas here 25
minutes from Summerside. We arrived just 6 minutes after the birth
of her latest little fuzzy critter. It was fascinating to watch this
gawky youngster stand up, fall down, search for a nipple and finally
succeed. But why Green Gable? Surely Lucy Maud didn’t live here.
She’s like George Washington, sleeping all over the eastern
seaboard. It’s good advertising. Visit this farm, it’s
marvellous, and buy yourself some alpaca socks…the most comfortable
thing you’ll ever put on your feet!
Somewhere between Lucy Maud’s school
and the Charlottetown Theatre, we stopped at an antique shop. There
in the display case I spied it. Amidst all the well-thumbed
paperback books, and beat-up record sleeves, behind the china cups
and meerschaum pipes it sat. It had a $5 price tag, and a note that
said “found on Cavendish Beach.” I reclaimed my knife, a mere
thirty years later. “Oh, sure,” you’ll scoff, “It’s not
the same one!” It doesn’t have to be. In this magical place
where there’s a ceilidh every night, somewhere, and the roads are
made of red dirt, and an eleven year old orphan girl can command such
interest for 150 years…anything is possible.
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