Paul has indicated periodically/mildly/infrequently over the years that he thinks of me as a complainer, and I’m not going to try to tell you he’s wrong, considering I have been building the case against myself for nearly a dozen years now on this very blog. BUT, I would like to say in my defense that I have the matching attribute from the other end of the spectrum: I may notice lots of little things to complain about, but I also notice lots of little things to feel happy and satisfied about.
For example, it has been over seventeen years since we moved into this house, and I am still FREQUENTLY happy about (1) having our own, unshared driveway, (2) walking/hopping/exercising/etc. without having to worry that our footsteps are too loud for the downstairs neighbors, and (3) having our very own non-coin-operated washer and dryer right within our own living area. FREQUENTLY. Yesterday I mentioned appreciating the non-shared-driveway thing to Paul, and he said yeah as if he agreed, but then said actually he never thinks about that anymore and had forgotten all about it.
…All this was supposed to be setting things up for me to make a little list of current complaints: like, “Look, I ate my vegetables by appreciating the driveway, so now I can have my complainy dessert.” But in the time it took me to write those two paragraphs I have forgotten what I was feeling complainy about. Let’s call that another positive thing about my personality.
Paul recently read Anne of Green Gables to the younger kids, and they liked it, and so next he found a version of it we could watch on TV during dinner. I know there are a whole bunch of different movies and TV series of that book, and so I was pleased to find that the version he got was the same one I remember from childhood. And what is interesting to me, and possibly to me alone, is that I didn’t particularly recognize Anne herself, or Matthew Cuthbert, or Green Gables—but when I saw MARILLA, I knew.
I am aware that when there are multiple versions of things, people tend to like the version they saw first, and it is difficult to argue with that kind of loyalty. And I am sure the Marilla in YOUR favorite version is good TOO. But Colleen Dewhurst is, in my opinion as someone who may have seen only one version, The Best Marilla. I don’t know why we didn’t name our daughter Marilla. If I’d re-watched this show while pregnant, we likely would have. Seeing Colleen Dewhurst playing Marilla taps into the same region of my brain that makes me get a little choked up every time I see Mr. Rogers.
I just saw news today that there is a book coming out this fall called Marilla of Green Gables! I have to say that I am hesitant to trust it. I too love the Colleen Dewhurst Marilla, and I’m not certain how I feel about seeing her as a young girl. Perhaps I will try it, perhaps I will decide not to; I have until October to decide.
I think that being able to see, and consciously be grateful for, small things is a very good attribute to have. I try to cultivate it myself, which is why I was on the couch this morning, not looking at the snow, muttering, “I’m so glad to have power, I’m so glad to have power, I’m so glad to have power.”
About 10 years ago, our local NPR station would do a reading of Anne of Green Gables each night from 6:30-7:00. I found it very soothing.
Also, I noticed that you mentioned Mr. Rogers. Did you see the PBS documentary on him? It aired here (Iowa) on Tuesday. I see it is going to be replayed Saturday. I am not kidding that I sobbed through most of it. I appreciate him much more now that it seems like the world is so messed up.
I haven’t seen it, but it certainly sounds like the sort of thing I’d want to watch while weeping!
You’re completely right about Marilla.
Wow, just this very morning I showed a scene from that version of Anne to my lit. class: the scene where she recites and reenacts “The Lady of Shalott” until the boat springs a leak. (We’re studying the Tennyson poem.) Small world, great movie.
She is indeed the One True Marilla. I loved that show as a kid and I adored the books. I think I should read them to my kids, perhaps starting tonight.
I clicked that link HOPING that it would go to the AoGG that I saw and loved, and it IS and I am wondering if four-and-a-half is too young for my daughter to start watching it with me. I can picture so many Anne expressions so clearly! Oh hell maybe I will watch it myself and then rewatch it with my kid in a few years.
And that emphatic IS should have been an emphatic DID. Or maybe DOES. I am tired.
I had Marilla on my list of girl names both times I was pregnant, 100% because of Colleen Dewhurst. And the best thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life (besides marrying my husband and birthing children and all that jazz) was walking past Mr. Rogers on a quiet sidewalk in Colorado Springs one lovely afternoon (circa 1997/8). He smiled, gave a quick nod, and said “Good day”. I proceeded to walk to my lunch destination in a daze, and promptly bawled tears of joy once I sat down.
This is amazing. :)
YES. Colleen Dewhurst is the One Real Marilla. Also, Jonathan Crombie was the One Real Gilbert Blythe and I cried real tears when he died. There are very few actors I can say that about, but he was young and it felt like my first crush dying. Super upsetting.
If we ever have an unshared driveway, I will appreciate it for the rest of my life because we are engaged in a ridiculous legal dispute with the next door neighbors about our shared driveway. I won’t bore you with the details except they are wrong and petty and we are right and aggrieved.
She IS Marilla. I don’t even believe Colleen Dewhust existed.
I’m flying alone this week, and I never fail to WILDLY APPRECIATE that, even though my daughter is now nearly 12 years old and an excellent traveler.
I feel EXACTLY the same way about Mr. Rogers. I get weepy thinking about his kindness. And Paul did well picking the right Anne adaptation. It’s the best, hands down.
Run, don’t walk, right on past the new Netflix adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. The casting and setting are lovely but the plot goes right off the rails. Anne panhandling. No.
I’ve been uneasily looking at it on Netflix, wondering if I should watch it even though I love the old one so much. Thanks for watching it so I don’t have to!
For what it’s worth, I loved it. I haven’t seen any other film adaptations, but I LOVE the books and have read them many times. There were definitely some changes made in Anne-With-An-E, but I thought they were well thought out.
I have watched the ‘old’ ones hundreds of times. They are my FAVORITE. And I was really hesitant to watch the new Netflix adaptation because of the way I adore the ‘old’ ones with Megan Follows. I couldn’t imagine any other Anne! But, a friend said she enjoyed the Netflix one… so I very carefully watched the first one, fully expecting to hate it. And I didn’t. I actually enjoyed it! No, it does not replace the ‘old’ ones, and I certainly will show my own children those first, but I’m looking forward to the next Season of Anne on Netflix. Granted it has been decades since I read the books, and I’m generally pretty forgiving when the story doesn’t match the book exactly.
That movie version of Anne of Green Gables is the Only Version in my mind. That first movie is 100% absolute perfection. (The following two in that trilogy are less perfect, but nothing takes away from the first.) I don’t ever want to watch any other version of Anne of Green Gables.
I finished re-reading Rilla of Ingleside about ten minutes ago, after having gone through all the other books first too of course. You have impeccable timing.
Oh, my, I probably haven’t seen the movie in a decade and a half, but I got choked up just THINKING of The One True Marilla! We used to watch the movie fairly often when I was a kid, and I remember my mom, with wistful humor, would say–spoiler alert–“Maybe THIS time Matthew won’t die.”
100% agree about Marilla!
I love that movie so much I know it by heart, I watched it so many times. The characters are all perfect and I really don’t think it’s a coincidence that I ended up with a husband with dark hair and lively brown eyes. Gilbert was my first crush.
Oh yeah! I ended up with a brown-eyed husband too :)
Anne: But what would you have done, Marilla, if you had been dared to walk a ridgepole?
Marilla: I’d have stayed on good firm ground and let them dare away!
I compare myself occasionally in conversation to Marilla by using this quote that was perfectly delivered by Colleen Dewhurst! It is the best way to highlight the fact that I am not an adrenaline seeker, don’t feel the need to impress anyone who hasn’t earned my respect, and don’t see why anyone would do anything but the practical thing. Such a good book, and such a wonderfully-acted adaptation!
A+, 100, to this entire post and comments.
YES. Marilla is the archetypal matriarch, even though she is not a biological mom. Tough, plain spoken, not over concerned about frippery.
I wish I knew why I never got into AoGG as a child – I seem to be exactly the right type, I spent hours upon hours re-reading the Little House on the Prairie books and seemingly every other book of that ilk. I am now sad that I don’t have this nostalgic attachment to the series!
I absolutely agree. I feel that I understand Marilla more now, with 6 kids of my own, than I did as a kid, even though I was drawn to her when I first watched Anne of Green Gables as a 8/9/10 year old. I feel like she is my “kindred spirit.” I named my son Gilbert after Gilbert Blythe, and I wish I had named one of my daughters Marilla.
When I was a kid Matthew’s death got me in ALL the feels. I wept so hard. But re-reading the series with my 9 year old daughter, Marilla is my jam. And when she softens to Anne? SOB
That version of Anne of Green Gables is the closest to perfection that tv will ever be. Megan Follows is Anne. No one else will ever be. I was gutted a few years ago when Jonathan Crombie died. You should watch the second miniseries of the set. It is worth it to see the scene on the bridge at the end. Avoid the third one – i don’t know what Kevin Sullivan was thinking.
My mom and I still quote “Twenty. pounds. of. brown. sugar” to each other.
I knew I’d found Mr. Right when I found out he owned like two movies…and Anne of Green Gables was one of them!
She is the only Marilla and HE is the only Matthew and SHE is the only Anne, it is the perfect, most wonderful version. I am almost mad at my kids for not being old enough to appreciate it yet! If they don’t I don’t know what I’ll do.
Also – if your kids like the dvd, they should try Road to Avonlea.