Road Trip Family

Singing About Red Roads

I was a bit skeptical when I first heard that someone had turned the classic Lucy Maude Montgomery book into a musical production. But, in every tourist publication that I read as we planned our trip to PEI there was always mention of this musical and that it was a must-see event. And after hearing an endorsement from my parents who had seen it a number of years ago, I decided that our family should check it out.

 

The musical is presented every summer at the Confederation Arts Centre in Charlottetown and is labeled the longest-running musical in Canada. We weren’t sure how the younger ones would do with a late night out or with this production, but we decided that this was based on a story that we were immersing ourselves in during our week at PEI so we should all see it. I was able to procure some decent seats pretty close to the stage, which made it feel like we were a part of the action at times. 

For just over 2 hours, we were thoroughly entertained as Anne sang about the red roads in PEI, about trying ice cream for the first time and about her competition to get better grades than Gilbert Blythe. Everyone from My Chandler to Pumpkin were enthralled. My Chandler had never read the story, so for him it gave him a taste of what the story was about. As for the rest of us, we all loved the music, the dances, the acting… and for Sweet Pea, she enjoyed the actor who played Gilbert!

As we were walking out of the theater, we discovered that we could purchase a CD of the music. That CD has turned into the most used souvenir we’ve ever bought. Even now, almost a year later, the girls will ask us to plug the CD in on drives.

Followed quickly by Pumpkin asking if we can listen to track number 13.

Followed by a sing-along with everyone in the car – except My Chandler, who just shakes his head and chuckles!

 

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Mix Tapes

If you were a teenager during the 80s (and early 90s), you probably made or received a mix tape. You know, the collection of songs that mean something important to you or convey a certain message to the recipient.

I was the maker and the recipient of such tapes throughout my teen years. During my college years, it became CDs. Maybe that’s why I like playlists on my iPod. I can create lists to match different moods, different music genres, or just “My Faves.”

My Chandler and I were discussing the other night our cross country that we hope to take before our children leave home. I began to talk about how it would be fun to create a playlist with appropriate songs for each state or even cities. Thus began a quick brainstorming session where we tried to “one up” each other on appropriate songs.

There were some obvious ones like “Oklahoma” from the musical by the same name, “Sweet Home Alabama”, “California Dreaming,” “Georgia” by Ray Charles, Neil Diamond’s “Kentucky Woman,” “Moonlight in Vermont,” “Yellow Rose of Texas,” and “Country Roads” by John Denver that mentions West Virginia.

Can you come up with a song for each state?

Making Music

I never thought I’d ever hear myself say “Back in my day” or “When I was a kid”. But, as my own girls have grown, I’m finding myself saying it more frequently. And what’s even funnier is my girls’ reactions when I tell them something about my childhood. That look of disbelief at some impossible comment. That sympathetic stare wondering how I could have survived back in the olden days without all those creature comforts they have now!

Or maybe that’s just my look mirrored in theirs!

 
We were discussing one day what is an appropriate length for a road trip to warrant getting out the portable DVD players. All three of my girls were trying to convince My Chandler and me that a 45 minute drive was long enough of a trip to take out the DVD players.

 
So, I shared with them that “back in my day” we didn’t have DVD players for trips.

Mouths gaped open. Loud gasps were heard.

And then the question was asked. “Well, then what did you do?”

So, I started to share with them some of the games we played, activities we did in the car. And most importantly, how we would listen to music.

Because there were five of us in the family and five different tastes in music, it was often difficult to find something that we’d all agree on. So, in the act of fairness, it was decided that we’d take turns choosing the music. Certain rules were established in keeping with the act of fairness. If what we chose was a 2-cassette tape piece (yes, cassette tapes and yes, some Broadway numbers really did take 2-cassette tapes), we were only allowed one tape. We could rewind a song and listen to it again only if everyone else wanted to hear it again. We could say swear words if it was part of the lyrics. And it was okay to sing along as long as you didn’t sing so loudly and wake up your brother (who would inevitably fall asleep and whose head would fall on my shoulder which I would then push over to my sister’s shoulder who would push it back until my brother’s head looked like it was in the middle of a tennis match – but that’s another story.).

This certainly opened my eyes to a lot of music, from the Beatles to Anne Murray to Billy Joel to Peter, Paul & Mary. Some songs take me right back to those days in the car.

And for some reason, Mom’s turn always seemed to happen right after lunch. And when it did, she always seemed to choose an hour of silence. Go figure!