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| The bridge to find the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery. |
I have had the privilege of visiting the residences of Hemingway, Steinbeck, Wilde, Stoker, Doyle, and so many other writers of renowned fame.
Recently while traveling through Nova Scotia, Laureen, my darling wife, and I had a chance to stand next to JK Rowling’s 290-foot yacht, moored by the boardwalk in Halifax. The rain was pounding our umbrellas but we did not care - the ship was gorgeous and I was hoping Joanie (as I call her) would look out and say, “Johnny, don’t be a silly sod and get your waterlogged behind onboard.”
Turns out that she may or may not have been aboard, but nevertheless, the invitation never came.
Writers can be criticized, and I get my fair share for my columns, but one thing I learned at a young age is if there were no writers, there would be no readers.
That almost sounded profound.
The truth is that I love to read: fiction, historical fiction, non-fiction, somewhat non-fiction, newspapers, magazines, and I truly love real estate magazines.
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| Oh, there are other books out there, just saying. |
So, when we traversed the Confederation Bridge and landed on Prince Edward Island, Laureen looked at me and smiled.
“This is where Lucy Maud Montgomery spent much of her life.”
I drew a blank. “Is that before or after she used to snag the football from beneath Charlie Brown’s foot when he went in for a kick?”
The roll of her eyes almost threw us back across that eight-mile bridge we had just crossed.
“Anne of Green Gables? The books our girls read while growing up,” she said.
I remember reading to our girls all the time. But they were fun books about how body parts made funny noises - usually Laureen was not within earshot for those bedtime readings.
‘What sound does the elephant make before going to sleep?’ And our daughters would roll with laughter as I impersonated a gaseous elephant in the forest. If Laureen happened to come in, the reading topic would suddenly change to something by Niccolo Machiavelli.
I wanted our children to be well-rounded when it came to literature.
It seems on Prince Edward Island, Lucy Maud Montgomery is very important, and rightfully so.
We drove into the town of Cavendish and spent a couple of days looking here and there. What we learned was there was nowhere we looked that the name of Lucy Maud Montgomery wasn’t present.
She put this small village on the map - well, it was actually on the map already but she made it famous.
It is very similar when people mention Riverside, California.
“That’s where John R. Beyer was born, right?”
Cavendish is an old town, founded back in 1790 by three families who had moved from Scotland. It was not a sea town with a large harbor but what it lacked there, it made up with wonderfully rolling green farmlands and the town flourished.
We drove around in the pelting rain, loving every moment of it since we came from the desert and rain is simply something one reads in the history books.
Montgomery was born around November 30th, 1874 (exact dates at this time period were not always exact) and died on April 24, 1942. During that time she was able to write 20 novels, 530 short stories, 500 poems, 30 essays, and knit a full-length replica of the Canadian Red Ensign.
She also was married and had three children. And my kids believe getting up before eight in the morning is a hardship.
Growing up in the idyllic countryside of Prince Edward Island, Montgomery came up with an incredible story of a young orphaned girl, Anne of Green Gables, being taken in by a brother and sister to work their farm. They had wanted a boy to work the land but by mistake, they were sent a girl, Anne Shirley.
This was before Amazon and returns were not easy to accomplish.
As Laureen told me, and I nodded, this fictional brother and sister who got Anne by mistake were meanies but later, due to Anne’s wonderful personal demeanor, loving spirit, goodness, and the fact she could pull a plow across rocky ground without the aid of a horse proved she was a wonderful asset to the community.
The point the author was making was that this young woman, no matter her dire background, succeeded due to her ‘youthful idealism and spirituality.’
The novel, Anne of Green Gables, was an immediate success and the young author gained both national and international fame.
Later in life, Montgomery tried for a new series entitled, Joey of Yellow Gables, but it did not do very well.
We visited a wonderful public park in Cavendish, Montgomery Park, where there are kiosks describing Lucy’s life and what her inspirations were as she spent her life telling tales for her readers.
Bronze benches lined a walkway around the park where the visitor can sit and reflect amidst beautiful green treed lanes. There is a bench dedicated to the writer with a full-size metal sculpture of her gazing into the sky while two black cats saunter nearby.
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| Bronze bench with the author and her cat. |
We wandered the park and then ducked beneath overhanging tree branches as we made our way to the home in which the author grew up. There is a wonderful visitor center and gift shop at the site and docents who explain everything one would want to learn about Montgomery.
“It is sad,” a male docent told us. “Even though she was a famous writer and her books sold well, she never made the same money as her male contemporaries did.”
“Talk about misogyny,” I retorted, in solidarity with women.
He looked at me, “No, she had a bad literary agent. She made good money later on with her writing.”
We walked the grounds despite the gale-force winds and soaking rain and learned that this writer did not grow up in a land of the rich. Simple wood-structured buildings were her home with large rock foundations laid as the floors. A small kitchen, which was refurbished for the museum site, showed a very modest room with rudimentary furnishings.
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| The original kitchen where Lucy grew up. |
“So, is this Green Gables house real?” I asked as Laureen was shaking off her umbrella.
The docent looked at Laureen who only slowly rolled her eyes. “Ask him if he ever heard of the book before this trip.”
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| Foundations of the original home where Lucy grew up. |
Thirty minutes later we found ourselves at another museum in honor of Lucy Maud Montgomery and this one was huge. The entire life story of the author was on display, as well as the actual house that inspired the story of Anne Shirley.
A beautiful two-story, not counting basement, farmhouse-styled structure painted white with green gables.
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| The original 'Green Gables' home |
Tourists, despite the continual rain, were traipsing here and there across the grounds and as we toured the home, the docent reminded us to wipe our feet.
“We need to keep the home as pristine as possible and water tracked in can ruin the period carpets.”
I wanted to mention that this section of Prince Edward Island receives about 600 days of rain each year but kept that to myself.
It is a beautiful home, but the best part was the exterior trail leading to the Haunted Woods.
Once again grabbing our umbrellas, we traipsed through the mud into the thick and dark woods behind the home and looked for ghosts or anything else that would be haunting. There was nothing scary except plants that looked very similar to poison ivy. Then I remembered I was an adult and Montgomery would have written her stories about a young girl entering these dark woods alone.
The narrow tree-clogged trail could easily allow the imagination of a young girl to expect something terrifying to emerge at any moment. When Laureen was turning her head from the trail I jumped up and yelled, “Boogie boogie boo!”
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| Trails to the haunted woods. |
I did not know that the swelling of an eye could last a week even with ice packs.
Anne of Green Gables is still a must-read for young folks, both boys and girls since it is a series that shows the reader diversity in one’s life is no excuse for failure. Anne knew that and with her inspiration and positive attitude achieved wonderful things in her life.
Laureen explained that - but I do know the noises elephants make in the forest.
John can be contacted at: beyersbyways@gmail.com
