LITTLE PEGGY: my crush on GUS PIKE!


every sunday afternoon, the family would sit around the kitchen and stuff our faces (with the delights that my snack-aholic father no doubtedly purchased the night before), because the smell of the roast, that was a traditional sunday night dinner, would make us ravenously hungry.

then, once kicked out of the kitchen by a mother whose biggest fear, in that moment, was that we ruin our appetite (fat chance, oh cooker of delicious meats), we would make our way to the TV.

if we, meaning the children, could get to the TV before our father, then we would have a really good chance of avoiding watching golf all afternoon. so it was important that one of us abandon our post at the refrigerator and claim rights to the television.

sunday afternoon/evening television is no different today than it was back then... nothing to watch. well that is, until one day, somewhere around 199o, this show premiered on the disney channel and my sunday afternoons were never the same again.

ROAD TO AVONLEA, from the creators of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, was a spin-off, essentially, of said show. including some characters from the actual AGG and located in the same town.

the show, that ran for 7 seasons, gave a us a peek inside the world of the small town, turn of the century, avonlea. which is located on prince edward island, canada.

from the small-town gossip to the kind of trouble that by today's standards make it look like babies were up to, avonlea was a (at risk of making it sound like a breakfast cereal) wholesome, family show that got the thumbs up in the deming household.

honestly speaking, i may have gotten bored of this show, were it not for the promise that GUS PIKE could possibly be in the episode that night.













oh yes, in all of my 11 year old fancies, i crushed on this fiddle-playing, pipe-smoking, hooligan-sailor turned student by the town teacher. he was kind and thoughtful and crushed on the town brat, felicity. (who could ever forget when he kissed her that first time!)

no gus, she was not as good to you as i would have been!




for years i watched as gus and felicity fell further and deeper into love. i was saddened when she chose to go to medical college rather than marry him, was heart-broken when he left to go to sea, cheered when, for one episode, he came back and actually cried real tears when felicity got the message that gus' ship had been wrecked in a storm of the coast of north carolina. no survivors were found. how could they do that to my GUS!!

then, like a miracle from the gods, just as felicity was about to marry another man, she got a mysterious phone call which led her on a chase to america to see if gus was still alive. HE WAS! yet he didn't survive that shipwreck unscathed... he was blinded by the explosion on the ship and left a bitter and hardened man. after convincing him to come home, gus and felicity were finally married! i was so happy that my silly thoughts of a love like theirs was spoon fed honest to goodness romantic schmoo!




for those seven years, i was devoted to him. in the fields where i grew up, i would imagine that we was out there, waiting for me. that he would tell me that he loved no other! hahaha!

oh gus, you and i were meant to be together in another life. sigh.
thank goodness for YOUTUBE that allows me to relive my childhood crush all over again!