Anne of Green Gables is arguably one of the most iconic fictional characters that has ever come out of Canada. Sure there's Wolverine and arguably Superman, but Anne Shirley won our hearts with her quick wit, charm and unique quirks.
Anyone can go look up information on Anne and the series of Green Gables books that were written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, but I have a rather sentimental attachment to the character for a number of reasons and I've never really written about her before now.
My great-grandmother, one Eileen Birch was born and raised in Prince Edward Island. In fact, most of my family, dating back to I-don't-even-know-when were born and raised on the island. If you've never been to Prince Edward Island before, well, there's nothing quite like it. Everywhere you go, the soil is rusty red, even on the beaches. The water sometimes turns red too when it's choppy. It's a cold and unforgiving place in the winter with ridiculous amounts of snow but in the summer, it's paradise on earth.
You would expect a small island to be relatively flat and quick to get around but what you get instead is a place filled with rolling green hills. There are small 2-lane highways to get you around in a place that is perpetually on island time… meaning you're not going to be getting anywhere anytime quick. I lived there for a time and one of the highlights was an intense police chase in which they were trying to stop a 13-year old teenager from driving down the road in a stolen tractor to visit his girlfriend in the next town over. I kid you not.
This is the kind of place that Prince Edward Island is. A place that you could write stories about.
There are beautiful, lush forests and plentiful acres of farmland. There are bays, rivers and streams that all lead out to the ocean. Unique lighthouses covering the shores. Charming little shops and restaurants and strange, small-town folk that adhere to a lifestyle that so many people left behind ages ago. It's like taking a trip back in time to a land that time forgot.
I used to spend summers out on the island in a house that belonged to my great-grandmother. I would sleep on the couch of the small 2-bedroom cottage in Birch Hill, the county named after my family. The house always smelled of woodsmoke as our woodstove was was the main source of heat and how we cooked our meals. In the mornings, you could look out the kitchen window at the stream in the backyard as the tide would come in. Blue herons stalking their prey elegantly in the water and bald eagles circled overhead. The woods behind the cottage housed an old lifeboat that washed ashore from a shipwreck. I truly believed that magic lived there.
Naturally, when I came to visit, I would prep for my trip by reading Anne of Green Gables. I like to think that if Anne and I had ever met when I was growing up, we would've been kindred spirits.
As you can imagine, Prince Edward Island is a small place and whatever they can do to draw in tourists, they do. With Anne of Green Gables being as big an attraction as it is, there is plenty to do around the island revolving around Anne including taking a tour of Anne's home. You can also tour author Lucy Maud Montgomery's home as well or maybe if you'd prefer, you can head into Charlottetown and catch Anne of Green Gables: The Musical – a production that I've seen numerous times over the years and happen to know all of the words to – whilst treating yourself to a bottle of Anne's Raspberry Cordial.
One year when I was spending a few weeks on the island, my mother decided that I should dye my hair blonde. I used to be really naturally blonde but as I got older, my hair darkened so my mother thought it would be really nice for my hair to be a touch closer to the shade it used to be. She bought some box colour from the store and we headed to the house where she applied to bleach to my hair. After the allotted period of time, we took a look at my hair and alas, it was not the shade of blonde that the box had promised. I was too young to realize at the time that box colour is a lie.
My mom, full of wisdom, decided that we should leave the bleach in even longer than what was recommended. She felt that the dye just hadn't had enough time to seep into my hair. When the dye was finally removed, all that was left was a matted clump of yellow hair attached to my head. The dye had turned my hair into one big dreadlock.
I wish that I could say that was the worst of it. Really, I do but unfortunately my hair woes were only just beginning.
After heading to the hairdressers and getting them to cut out the worst parts of my mangled hair, I headed home with my newly yellowed locks. My mom must've felt guilty because not soon after that, she told me that she would take me to the hairdressers to get my hair professionally dyed back to my natural colour. Of course, what my mom meant by "professionally" was taking me to the cheapest hair salon chain that she could find and having them essentially just do what my mom did in the first place: put box colour on my head.
I shouldn't have been surprised when that all went wrong but I was. My hair turned green. I had never felt closer to my fictional friend, Anne Shirley, than I did right in that moment.
Growing up, many young girls related to Anne and that's what made her such a great character. She doesn't feel like a fictional creation but instead she feels like a friend that you grew up alongside. Anne felt like the kind of person that you wanted to be friends with and the kind of person that you wanted to be like. Smart, funny, passionate and full of life. It's no surprise that out of the many books to come out of Canada by great authors, one of the most iconic ones remains Ms. Shirley. Even now, over 120+ years since it was originally published, it doesn't feel particularly dated. It rather just tells the story of a special girl who grew up in a much simpler time, which is part of the charm.
Share This Article
