Isn’t it strange how certain smells and sounds and even songs can conjure up the same memory every time you run into them?  The smell of boxwood plants always reminds me of eating watermelon in the summer at my great uncle’s farmhouse.  I’m seven years old again every time I smell them.

For the past few weeks, I’ve heard this new song on the radio here and there.  Then it appeared on my iPod and the run-ins became more frequent.  Imagine that.  The song in question is by The Band Perry, and it’s called If I Die Young.  It doesn’t sound cheery, I know.  It is really pretty though, and the memory that it brings up is a scene from a favorite childhood book/movie–Anne of Green Gables.

Anne is dramatic, to say the least.  In the scene in question, she’s floating around a lake, pretending to be Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott, who floats down the river to find her love and dies on the way.  The song covers the same subject matter in a different order (death before floating away), and we’ll just say that I’m not doing it justice with this description.  It’s not creepy, I promise.  The beauty of having this current song that reminds me of Anne is that now something I loved back in the day has a 2010 milestone in my brain.

In addition to being an important part of my past and a classic literary figure, Anne is the source of one of my favorite single-girl quotes.  She’s talking about the fact that her best friend’s fiance is just too good.  When asked if she would rather marry a wicked man, Anne responds, “Well, I wouldn’t marry anyone who was really wicked, but I think I’d like it if he could be wicked and wouldn’t.”  Exactly.  So with the help of The Band Perry, it’s nice to add Anne and all of her wisdom to a niche of my grown-up memories.

P.S.  After writing this, I did some research and found out that the music video for If I Die Young directly references The Lady of Shalott.  That made me happy.