"Growing up in a family as large and as close as mine, made it hard to realise that there were many people who lived in loneliness and solitude. However, the realisation of that sad truth also brought me close to a remarkable woman, and sent me on a journey that I was to remember for the rest of my life".
Mrs MacKenzie, an old widowed lady living nearby gets John-Boy to fix her car as she wants to use it to go to the coast, but Dr Vance forbids her to drive it as she has a very weak heart. But it's the anniversary of her wedding and every year on that day she used to journey back to the sea and she wants to do it once more before she dies. Knowing she's too ill to drive she asks John-Boy to take her. He is reluctant at first as that night he's promised to take Marcia Woolery to a dance, but when he realises this will be Mrs Mackenzie's last chance, they go. On the way home she has a heart attack, and later, as she lies dying in bed, thanks John-Boy for giving her the happiest day she's had for over 30 years.
The children bring home a wounded sea-gull. While it recovers it needs food so they have to spend time fishing in the pond.
"Some people are drawn to oceans, and others to the shimmering sands of deserts. Others feel only at home on land that flows beside a river. My people were drawn to mountains, and there on Waltons Mountain we were to share the fun and excitement of growing up together, the boundless love of our mother and father and a daily exploration of many of the wonders that lie in the human heart!"
Erin: Mary Ellen's going to set the house on fire.
Jason: Come on Ben, Mary Ellen's started a fire!
Ben: Coming, Jason.
Erin: She's reading in bed by candlelight.
Elizabeth: Keeping everyone awake.
Olivia: What's going on in there?
Mary Ellen: It's alright Mama I'm reading the Bible.
Ben: She is not, Mama, she's reading Secrets of the Silver Screen.
Mary Ellen: Tattletale! Mama, the boys are over in our room teasing us.
John: Allright everybody, back to your own room and settle down.
Erin: Goodnight, Daddy.
John: Goodnight, Erin, 'night, Mary Ellen.
Mary Ellen: Goodnight Daddy goodnight Mama.
Olivia: Goodnight Mary Ellen, goodnight Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Goodnight Mama, goodnight Jason.
Jason: Goodnight Elizabeth, goodnight everybody.
Note: New (modified) End title sequence.
This episode was nominated for an Emmy for direction. Although he missed winning the Emmy,
Harry Harris, the Director, was awarded the Directors Guild of America Awards for the Best
Direction in a Dramatic Series
Also appearing -
Dr Vance (Victor Izay); Marcia Woolery (Tami Bula); Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Mrs Mackenzie
(Linda Watkins).
"Growing up with my brothers and sisters on Waltons Mountain was a joyful experience, but not always an easy one. Privacy was hard to come by, and as a young man trying to write, it was the one thing I needed which I almost never had. I will always remember that day when I left, a young boy anxious to find some time for himself, and returned a man who had partaken of a miracle".
Fed up with not getting a moment to himself, John-Boy goes up the mountain alone to spend the night in an isolated cabin. On the way he helps an old negro woman Granny Ketchum to get her white mule out of the cabbage patch. When he reaches the old cabin he finds Sarah Jane Simmonds inside and they both shelter from the storm. She has run away from her employment, got married and is pregnant, but is coming down with a fever. John-Boy runs down to Granny Ketchum for help and she gives him a herbal recipe to brew for the fever. The fever breaks but then the baby starts to come, but with no time to get help, John-Boy finds himself delivering it. After taking mother and daughter down the mountain on the mule, his father tells him that Granny Ketchum, who had died that morning, has given him the mule. Sarah's mother softens towards her daughter and the new baby.
Jim Bob grows some tomatoes but they get squashed in the storm, so Grandpa suggests he makes some preserve from them. Although the other children laugh at him, he wins a prize for it in a school competition.
"We were early risers, and thus in my Grandfather's words "we went to bed with the chickens". All the lights in the house would go out, except for the one in my room. There, I would at last find the solitude to record in my journal the events of the day. The wind would flow gently down from the mountain, the night birds would fall still, and the rest of the family would slip quietly towards sleep".
Elizabeth: Mama?
Olivia: Yes, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: How do babies get born?
Olivia: With love, darling.
Elizabeth: Goodnight, Mama.
Olivia: Goodnight!
Note: New main title sequence.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Dr Vance (Victor Izay); Granny Ketchum (Frances E.Williams);
Sarah (Sissy Spacek); Mrs Simmonds (Allyn Anne McLerie).
"Whenever I think back on Waltons Mountain and about my family I remember mostly the feeling of love and the happiness we all shared. But though the mountain never changed, there were times, rare times, when those we thought the closest found themselves at odds. It happens in all families I suppose, and it happened one day in ours".
Unable to pay the bill, the electricity supply is cut off so Grandpa does some work for the Baldwin sisters to raise some money. He then drives them into the town and pays the bill, but when Grandma thinks he's just been visiting them she gets upset. So Grandpa sleeps that night at Ike's store, and lets it be known he's going to wait until Grandma apologises. When she comes to do so she finds he's gone back to the Baldwins and is greatly angered. Actually he's gone there to retrieve a bottle of perfume he'd bought her as a gift. Faced with the stubborness of both of them, Olivia finds that the only way to resolve the situation is to get all the family to go to the barn dance that night. Grandpa and Grandma come together again when their favourite dance tune "My Wild Irish Rose" is played.
"We are all dancers, in each of us there is a need to move to the beat of music, to circle, to tempt, to embrace, and finally to move together in pairs. And when all else of 1934 is forgotten I will still treasure this house, this year, and this night".
Grandma: Zeb!
Grandpa: (snorts).
Grandma: Do you suppose Miss Mamie was offended when you quit dancing with her?
Grandpa: She's an understanding woman.
Grandma: I'm glad.
Grandpa: Goodnight, Esther.
Grandma: Goodnight, Zeb.
Grandpa: Your feet are cold!
Also appearing -
the Baldwin sisters (Mary Jackson & Helen Kleeb); Ike Godsey (Joe Conley).
"Looking back across the span of 40 years the sharp edges of the great Depression have worn away, in memory the period seems a happy time. Yet when we lived them they were trying years, and I remember a time when our family's pride, and our integrity were challenged in a manner that was new and shattering to all of us".
Some valuable silver is missing from the Clayborne house where John has been doing odd jobs to make ends meet. Mrs Claybourne accuses him of stealing but when the Sheriff asks him, he feels he has no need to account for his actions. Faced with growing hostility and suspicion it's not until Mrs Claybourne comes to the house to demand the return of her silver that the truth comes out. Her son Stuart Lee who arrives just then with John-Boy admits that it is he who has sold the silver, as well as other possessions. Since the family's money was gone, he has tried to protect his mother from the hard facts. They both then realise their pride and actions have seriously hurt other people.
"The Depression lingered on, and there were other bad spells, but we lived through them too. And as each year ended it was difficult to recall the hard times we'd come through. Looking back, I realise now that the real bounty placed before us each day was the love we had for each other. It shaped our lives, fed our souls and crowned our happiness".
John: Lights out soon John-Boy, electricity costs money.
John-Boy: Just another minute Daddy.
Mary Ellen: It's not fair John-Boy's getting to staying up later than anybody else.
Jason: Spoiled 'cos he's the oldest.
Grandpa: Did somebody call me?
Grandma: Oh go to sleep.
Grandpa: Huh. Good night Old Woman.....
Grandma: Good night Old Man!
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Sheriff Bridges (John Crawford); Mrs Claybourne (Diana Webster);
Amelia Claybourne (Janit Baldwin); Stuart Lee (Dennis Dugan); Dewey their servant (Davis
Roberts).
"When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain the great Depression cast its shadow over us as it did everyone, but we were more fortunate than most. We were a close knit family and the house that we lived in was as solid and secure as the mountain itself. Because I had always lived in it I took our house for granted, then, one hot summer afternoon I met others less fortunate. Through them I learned the real meaning of - home".
Spending a day helping to pick the peach crop at a nearby orchard the children meet Mr Harley Foster and his son Jody. Mrs Verdie Grant who is also there takes a fancy to Jody and his father and asks John-Boy to help in match-making. Mr Foster is a traveler, seeking jobs here and there and is anxious to be off again. Being an auto-mechanic he fixes the Walton's truck when it breaks down, and Verdie arranges Ike to employ him to repair the Baldwin's car. Verdie invites them both to her home for an evening meal. Jody wants very much to stay and put down roots, but his father still wants to move on. To try and prevent this, Jody steals some money from the store and then puts it in his father's jacket. A difficult situation develops when Ike accuses Harley, but John-Boy guesses what has really happened, and when Jody explains why he did it, his father decides to stay.
"Harley and Jody did put down roots in Waltons Mountain, and the romance that blossomed in a peach orchard was to flower and bear fruit of its own*. Almost four decades have passed but my own roots are still there, in that house where I was born and grew up with my brothers and sisters".
Elizabeth: Mama?
Olivia: Yes, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: Can I sleep tonight without breathing?
Olivia: Why, some special reason?
Elizabeth: Uh huh, Jim Bob and I are going to have a breath-holding contest, and I
thought I'd practice.
Olivia: Well, you can try, dear. Goodnight.
Elizabeth: Goodnight, Mama.
Note: *Their second son Josh is adopted (see The Stray, Season 6).
Also appearing -
Verdie Grant (Lynn Hamilton); Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Harley Foster (Hal Williams); Jody
Foster (Erin Blunt).
"When I look back on Waltons Mountain, I remember that our parents by word and by example took some pains to teach us the practical lessons of life and its virtues. But though I had been well taught there came a time when I doubted my own honesty and questioned its true value".
One evening, delivering some fence-posts to a neighbor, John-Boy is disturbed to witness Yancy Tucker stealing some chickens. Later, Yancy comes to explain that he takes chickens from those who are well off to give to others who are poor. Then Sheriff Ep Bridges says that the chicken farmer, Charlie Potter, had got shot while chasing a chicken thief..... John-Boy tells his father and they both go to see Yancy but eventually find him back at the Waltons, just as the Sheriff calls to arrest him. John-Boy goes to see Mr Potter and helps him with some chores. His father joins him and they realise that Mr Potter was shot by a .22 gun whereas Yancy has a different type of gun. Mr Potter finally admits that what really happened was that in the chase he had tripped and shot himself in the leg....
Ben gets a letter fom Liberty Magazine which says that he's won a poetry competition and his poem is going to be published. But Ben is very embarrassed because he had sent in one of John-Boy's early poems. Ben admits to John-Boy that he stole the poem, but when John-Boy sees it he finds that Ben had really only used the idea and had written a better poem.
Poem - "A Winter Mountain" by Benjamin Walton -
Our mountain in winter is something to see
at times it is just like a person to me.
A giant in white all covered with snow
it changes each day as the heavy winds blow.
And when I'm alone and I go for a walk
it's almost as if that old mountain can talk.
It seems to say Welcome my Winter Friend
I was here at the beginning, I'll be here at the end.
"Outside our mountain the world was in deep depression, but we were sheltered by a common bond. The accomplishment of one was the accomplishment of all. We shared our glories, our defeats, our hopes, our aspirations, but mostly our love".
Elizabeth: Ben?
Ben: Yes, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: Will you write a poem about me?
Jim Bob: Me too.
Erin: Me three.
Mary Ellen: Me four.
Ben: Anybody else want to be in my poem?
John-Boy: Why don't you just put everybody in, Ben.
Elizabeth: Will they print it in Liberty Magazine?
John-Boy: They'd better not it's my turn now.
Everybody: Oh goodnight!
Also appearing -
Sheriff Bridges (John Crawford); Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Yancy Tucker (Robert Donner);
Maude Gormley (Merie Earle); Mr Potter (Richard O'Brien); Mrs Potter (Meg Wylie).
"Sunday afternoon on Waltons Mountain was a time of quiet contemplation. We took it easy or else at a slower pace and enjoyed a brief respite from the cares that beset us during the week. After we came home from church and had dinner we permitted ourselves the luxury of play and relaxation. I remember one such Sunday in August....."
The County Fair was soon to be held, and Olivia is going to enter a home-baked cake, and Ben is to enter the greasy-pig contest. Olivia's cake wins - the icing was flavoured with whisky...., and Ben wins the greasy-pig contest.
Staying with the Baldwin sisters is Oscar Cockrell, a boyhood friend of Olivia, who is campaigning for the legislature. While he is in the district John-Boy finds himself speculating on what the family would have been like had Olivia married Oscar instead of John Walton....
"Many people were to touch our lives, hard times, sickness and survival in a harsh decade were still ahead of us, but we weathered them and we endured them, because the love of my parents for each other and for my brothers and sisters made our family invulnerable. I did not know it then, but they were the best days of our lives".
Mary Ellen: Daddy did you like Brownies when you were a boy?
John: Every little boy likes Brownies.
Olivia: Wish you'd told me that...... you might have popped the question sooner.
John: Time to learn one of the facts of life, Mary Ellen - a boy seldom marries a
girl on account of her Brownies.
Also appearing -
the Baldwin sisters (Mary Jackson & Helen Kleeb); Sheriff Bridges (John Crawford); Dr
Vance (Victor Izay); GW Haines (David Doremus); Oscar Cockrell (Peter Donat).
"There were times on Waltons Mountain so filled with peace and contentment that I might sit in my room writing and never once be reminded that I was part of a large and boisterous family. It was on such a day that Jim Bob took time out to watch the grass grow and Hobie Shank came back into our lives. I wasn't to know much peace or contentment after Hobie's arrival".
The family hardly recognises the little orphan boy they knew four years before. When the Sheriff drives him over he says he's asked a baseball scout to come and see him. As he brags a lot they don't know whether to believe him or not, but the man does come and is very impressed. John Walton negotiates a contract for him for three times the amount offered. Elated at this, Hobie shows off while up in the tree house, but falls out of the tree and breaks his arm. After surgery he finds that the baseball team contract has been canceled. A very depressed Hobie returns to the Waltons and to try and cheer him up they get up a baseball game between Waltons Mountain and the Boys Home where he grew up. Eventually he snaps out of his depressed state, and through his enthusiasm for the orphan boys is given a job at the Home as Athletic Instructor.
"It's late now in Virginia, that ball field which once echoed to the sounds of our games is quiet except for the call of crickets and the ghosts of the children we were. For my brothers and sisters and I are all grown now, and our children play other games in places far from Waltons Mountain. Still, there's something about the fall of night that turns our thoughts homeward".
Jim Bob: Jason?
Jason: Uh hum?
Jim Bob: If you lose an ant one day you reckon you find him the next?
Jason: If you tied a can to his tail maybe.
Jim Bob: Ah Jason.
Ben: You ought to study up on ants, Jim Bob, you're a regular curiosity.
John: What you boys had better study up on is getting some sleep, goodnight.
Ben & Jim Bob: Goodnight, Daddy, goodnight Mama.
Olivia: Goodnight boys, goodnight everybody!
Note: Hobie hasn't appeared before.....
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Sheriff Bridges (John Crawford); Marcia Woolery (Tami Bula);
Hobie (Michael McGreevey); Martha Rose (Cindy Eilbacher); Clyde Harroway [baseball scout]
(Richard X Slattery); Dr Wolfe [hospital doctor] (William Wintersole); Mrs Baker [Boys
Home Matron] (Doreen Lang).br> Note: Michael McGreevey will later (in 1979) write an
episode - The Silver Wings (Season 8). He is the son of John McGreevey who has written
many of these episodes.
"As close-knit and self-sufficient as our family was, still, neighbors were very important in those days when we were growing up on Waltons Mountain. There were families like ourselves, struggling to keep the land we owned, and there were tenant farmers, at the mercy of the weather, crop prices and absentee landlords".
The family had their doubts when John-Boy gets a job as rent collector for a grasping landlord Graham Foster. He finds the mountain tenants don't have the money and need repairs to the houses. Mr Foster is totally unsympathetic and sacks him, refusing even to give him his wages. So he decides on a plan to get what is due from Mr Foster. He and Jason repair a tenant's roof, get the rent and deduct the costs and his wages before giving what's left to Mr Foster.
Erin, disappointed by the negative reaction of her school-friend Harold Beasley, her "knight in shining armor", transfers her affections to a lost wild fawn, which she calles "Lance". She wants to keep it even though she's told it's illegal to keep a wild animal in captivity. After an escapade with a couple of poachers the Game Warden, Mr Hennessy, offers to turn the fawn loose in a game park, but Erin finally decides that it would really be best for the fawn if she turned it loose in the forest herself.
"My sister Erin gave Lance his freedom and he took it gratefully. We never did see him again although two years later we did glimpse a doe and a fawn. The little one looked so much like Lance we told ourselves that this must be his son. Erin decided to give boys another chance, and if Harold Beasley wasn't exactly a "knight in shining armor", he was devoted and persistent. I never regretted my brief fling as a man of business. When I'm reminded from time to time of the lessons Graham Foster taught me, memory carries me back to that Depression time, and the voices of my family".
Jim Bob: I wish today could just go on and on.
John-Boy: Sounds like you must have had a good time.
Jim Bob: I guess this was the best day of my whole life and now it's almost over.
John-Boy: Well, tomorrow may be just as good!
Jim Bob: That's right, or even better!
Olivia: Goodnight, Jim Bob. By the way where's that frog?
Jim Bob: Gee Mama I don't know it was here a minute ago..... goodnight.
Olivia: Oh, Lord, good night.
Also appearing -
Graham Foster (Charles Tyner); Harold Beasley (Jimmy Davila); Mr Hennessy (Matt Clark).
"Next to Christmas, I suppose you'd have to say that Thanksgiving was our favorite time of the year. We may have been poor in worldly possessions but at Thanksgiving, more than any other time, I think we knew, we really knew, how great was our abundance. It wasn't until the cold November of my 18th year however, that I fully understood what abundance meant. It was a time of terrible questioning for all of us, and when it was over, we all knew a bit more abut Thanksgiving".
John-Boy gets a letter that his girl-friend Jenny Pendleton whom he hasn't seen for a year*, is coming back for Thanksgiving with her mother Eula. At work in the sawmill the belt comes off and he's knocked on the head by a plank. Shortly after, he starts to get bouts of dizzy spells and blurred vision.
Jason helps the Baldwin sisters with preparing a batch of the Recipe. He's so useful and diligent that the sisters come up with the idea that they'd like to adopt him..... That night they call on the Waltons to discuss it. John and Olivia are dumbfounded, especially Olivia, but with great effort she controls herself, declining their offer and inviting them to Thanksgiving dinner.
John-Boy's attacks of dizziness and blurred vision increase. He's applying for a scholarship to Boatwright University, and during the important entrance exam, his sight fails and he has to withdraw. The doctor diagnoses a blood clot near the brain and an operation is necessary. After the operation, Miss Hunter persuades the education authorities to allow him to re-take the exam in the hospital.
Mary Ellen gets a part as an Indian Princess in a school play.
For Thanksgiving, Ben wants to shoot a turkey for the dinner himself, so he and Grandpa go out on the mountain But Ben is impatient and fires too soon and the turkey escapes. Ben is extremely disappointed but Grandpa suggests he buys a turkey from a local farmer.... Just as the family sits down to the Thanksgiving dinner, John-Boy returns home.
"Several weeks were to pass before we were to know the decision of the scholarship committee. The announcement came by telegram. My name was on the list - my journey was about to begin - I had won the scholarship".
John-Boy (screaming from outside): I've got it! I've got it! I've got it!
Everybody (shouting and cheering).
John: You're wonderful.
Olivia: I never kissed a College man before!
Elizabeth: Can I go with you?
John: I'm proud of you, son.
Jason: Next time it'll be me!
Mary Ellen: And me, I'm going to College too.
Erin: If you're going then I'm going.
Grandma: Well I can't get over the passing of time, just yesterday he was a baby
and next thing you know he's going to be getting married.
Ben: Who's going to help us with homework now?
Jim Bob: I will, Ben.
Ben: How can you, you don't even know how to -
Jason: John-Boy when you go to College can I have your room?
Note: * see The Love Story (Season 1).
Philip Leacock, the Director of this episode, was nominated for an Emmy for best
direction, and Joanna Lee, the Writer, won an Emmy for the best script.
Also appearing -
the Baldwin sisters (Mary Jackson & Helen Kleeb); Rev Fordwick (John Ritter); Miss
Hunter (Mariclaire Costello); Dr Vance (Victor Izay); GW Haines (David Doremus); Jenny
Pendelton (Sian Barbara Allen); Eula (Diane Shalet).
"When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain in those years of the great Depression, for me and my brothers and sisters it was a time of making do with the little there was. A time of stretching a nickel till it bought a dime's worth, often a time of doing without. In such times keeping children in school was just too much of a strain for many families, but for my father educating his children had almost the same importance as feeding and clothing us. I remember one day when the regular routine of our school life was threatened".
Because of a family emergency, Miss Hunter has to leave temporarily and the community has to find a substitute teacher. They find a Miss Pollard from New York. She is brilliant but inexperienced, and her teaching methods are unsympathetic to the children's needs. She is emotionally insecure, is withdrawn and rejects the friendship eveyone tries to offer her.
Meanwhile Ben intends to build a kite to enter a contest. Grandpa helps, but wants to build it his way. So do some of the others. Ben gets depressed at not being allowed to use his own ideas, until his father advises him to forget the others and build it as he wants.
Although Miss Pollard advises John-Boy with his writing, and gives him a book of Emerson's essays, the situation with her builds up until she resigns, but Olivia has a heart-to-heart talk with her, and she comes to realise that strict self-reliance is not the answer for everything, and she asks to start all over again. She joins in the family's activities and they all go to the kite flying contest.
"Ben's own personal kite won Second Prize that day, the other three Waltons finished, as they say, "out of the money", but nobody cared. In due time Miss Hunter came back, and although everybody was glad to see her there were tears shed at the thought of losing Miss Pollard. We had learned to know and to love her, and we were all the richer for the time she had spent with us. I still have that collection of Emerson's essays on my desk, and whenever I open its pages I'm carried back again to those Depression years on Waltons Mountain and the sound of those voices of the past".
Elizabeth: Mama?
Olivia: Yes, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: Do I have to wait until I'm 21 before I'm grown up?
Olivia: Well, that depends. Some girls grow up sooner, some later.
Elizabeth: Can you tell me when I'm a grown up?
Olivia: I won't have to tell you, honey. When it happens, you'll know!
Elizabeth: 'Night, Mama.
Olivia: 'Night, Elizabeth.
Also appearing -
Miss Hunter (Mariclaire Costello); Miss Pollard (Catherine Burns).
"As much as every member of our family loved our day to day life, we all had moments when we were prone to consider what life would be like if we had a million dollars. Most of the time those moments of avarice were short lived, and quickly replaced by the real values that made up our lives. But one day a letter came which pushed every member of the family toward a new appraisal of what was really important in life".
The letter says that an old friend of Grandma's has died and left her 250 dollars. She decides to give 50 dollars to repair the church roof, 3 dollars each to the children and the rest towards John-Boy's education. So in anticipation, they decide to use money already saved, to buy a new water heater, and also to get Grandpa's watch repaired. The children start talking about what they'll do with their part of the money. Then another letter comes which says that debts owed have wiped out the legacy.... Grandma feels so ashamed at the promises she can't now keep that she stays in her room, until John-Boy goes and talks it over with her.
Mary Ellen is envious of another schoolgirl who's had her hair dyed blonde so she obtains the materials, but first experiments on Jim Bob's hair, which turns a strange mixture of ginger and grey....
The men of the community get together to renew the church roof themselves, and Grandpa sells the repaired watch and he and Grandma put that money into a new fund for John-Boy's education.
"To their surprise and to our grief, time crept up on those two vigorous old people. I remember that my grandmother at 94 was still beautiful and wore violets in her hair. And as long as he lived, my grandfather insisted that he'd been kissed by every pretty girl who happened to come by our house. How innocent were those days, how rich we are to have known them".
Ben: Grandpa?
Grandpa: Yes, Ben.
Ben: Why did you marry Grandma?
Grandpa: Well I think it was her idea, Ben.
Mary Ellen: Was it really, Grandma?
Grandma: Well I helped it a long a bit as I recall, he was shy in those days.
Grandpa: I was not.
Erin: Was Daddy shy, Mama?
Olivia: Never.
Grandpa: Old woman where do you get off, telling such tales I've not got a shy bone
in my body.
Grandma: You did in those days.
Grandpa: I did not.
Grandma: You did too.
Elizabeth: Is he shy now, Grandma?
Grandma: Oh, sometimes I wish he was. Goodnight, now.
Everybody says Goodnight to everybody else.
Also appearing -
Rev Fordwick (John Ritter); Ike Godsey (Joe Conley).
"The peace and beauty of the land and sky around Waltons Mountain was a source of constant comfort to all of us during those difficult Depression years. Some of the changes that were going on in the world did eventually reflect themselves on our mountain, like the increase in the number of airplanes that spotted the sky. In particular I remember an air mail plane that used our mountain as a landmark. My mother especially liked to wait for the plane to go over, and sometimes watching she'd get the look on her face people have when they watch wild geese winging their way south to warm sunny days".
One evening the plane makes a forced landing in the field and the pilot, Tod Cooper, has to stay the night. In the morning the family help him with repairs. Tod hasn't told them he's married and he and his wife used to be a flying team, but his wife Sue tracks him down. She's going to have a baby and Tod feels it will tie him down too much, until he talks it over with John Walton. It's Olivia's birthday, and while the rest of the family have decided on their various presents for her, John-Boy is stuck for what to give her. John has made her a mirror, and the children have made a birthday cake, while Jason has composed a short song for her. John-Boy finds a poem which he reads to her, and then Tod gives her a great thrill by taking her up for a ride in his plane.
"Today great passenger planes plough through those skies above the Virginia mountains. Last year one of them brought my mother to see us in California where I now live. We're expecting her again soon, and no doubt our thoughts and our memories will return to those early times when that era we called "depressed" was so very, very good".
Elizabeth: Mama, did you get your wish?
Olivia: Sure did.
Ben: What did it feel like up there, Mama?
Olivia: Oh, the air was cold and the wind whipped me in the face, and down below
everything looked like tiny little specks.
Jim Bob: Did you see me, Mama?
Olivia: Uh hum.
Jim Bob: Did I look like a speck too?
Olivia: You made a very special speck, Jim Bob.
John: Allright you high flyers time to settle down!
Olivia: Not me, I'm still up there, flying.
John: Happy birthday, honey!
Olivia: Goodnight, John.
Note: Jason (Jon Walmsley) plays and sings a short song for Olivia's birthday.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley), Tod Cooper (Michael Glaser), Sue Cooper (Julie Cobb).
Note: Michael Glaser was before long to play a lead in "Starsky & Hutch".
A little tidbit: Grandpa (to John): Can you do without me for a while, John?
John: No.
Grandpa: Try! .....
"When I was growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia in the Depression, many of the things we take for granted today, back then were luxuries - like going to school. Many boys my age had to quit school and find jobs to help support their families, but my father and mother were determined that each of their offspring would graduate from high school".
Ben is tired of being bullied by stronger boys and has sent off for a body-building course. He practises the exercises and enters the nail-driving contest at the church picnic, but doesn't win.
John-Boy's teacher, Miss Hunter, persuades him to enter an essay-writing competition and gives him extra tuition at school. But Rev Fordwick comes courting her, and with her growing pre-occupation with him, John-Boy becomes hurt and jealous. His feelings get stronger until there is a showdown, and both are embarrassed when it comes out that the essay he has written is about her.
"I was to know many teachers, but none so dedicated and gifted as Miss Rosemary Hunter. Even today I can feel her influence, for like any good teacher she left an indelible mark on my work, and on my life".
Ben: John-Boy?
John-Boy: Yes, Ben?
Ben: After Preacher Fordwick marries Miss Hunter, you reckon he'll call her
Rosemary?
John-Boy: No, I expect he'll call her "darling".
Ben: I got called that, today.
John-Boy: Naomi?
Ben: You betcha.
John: Allright you Romeos, pipe down, it's bedtime.
Ben & John-Boy: Goodnight, Daddy.
John: Goodnight, boys.
Also appearing -
Miss Hunter (Mariclaire Costello); Rev Fordwick (John Ritter); Ike Godsey (Joe Conley);
Mrs Brimmer (Nora Marlowe) appears briefly (her first appearance in the series).
"Many times when I have tripped across those events in one's life called milestones, I have thought about how they so often catch us unawares. There was, for instance, that unforgettable Spring many years ago when in the same week Grandma had to face growing old, Mary Ellen had to face the feelings of a woman".
As her 68th birthday approaches, Grandma's hearing deteriorates and she resents getting old. Mary Ellen is attracted to an older boy Kevin Sturgess, a university student she meets fishing, and she pretends to be older than she really is. He gives her a kiss, and she feels romance for the first time. GW, her boy-friend at school, senses she's far away from him. Grandma gets fainting spells and Dr Vance thinks it could be due to an ear infection but she refuses to go for treatment. Mary Ellen needs a room of her own and asks Olivia for the use of the shed, but John-Boy has already asked his father to use it as a study. When he finds that Mary Ellen has moved in, he explodes. Later she finds that Kevin called to see her but Grandma has told him she was in school with the other children. Heartbroken, she flies out and into John-Boy who, however, treats her very gently, giving her a beautiful bunch of flowers he had bought for Grandma's birthday. Because she's gone deaf, the children intend to give her a hearing trumpet, but Grandma comes back from seeing the doctor with medicine for the ear infection. So, since her hearing will get better, the children welcome her with different presents, and Mary Ellen, happy again, relinquishes the shed.
"Mary Ellen's new found maturity was with her one day then gone the next; in time it was to come to stay. Today she lives in Richmond, Virginia, the wife of a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University* and the mother of two sons. We see each other when we can, and our talk is apt to return to those days during the Depression which these many years later still seem filled with wonder".
Ben: John-Boy?
John-Boy: Yes, Ben?
Ben: Does the world go round the sun or does the sun go round the world?
John-Boy: I believe the Earth circles the sun, Ben.
Erin: I wish you would stop talking about things that go around, you're keeping me
awake.
Mary Ellen: I can't sleep either, just laying here tossing and turning.
Jim Bob: Let's all go downstairs and have some cocoa.
Elizabeth: That's a good idea, Jim Bob!
Jason: Can we, Mama?
Olivia: Would I be crazy if I said "Yes"?
John: You would, but go ahead anyway!
Olivia: Allright, but don't dirty my kitchen!
Everyone cheers.
John: You know, cocoa's not a bad idea. Want some?
Olivia: Why not.
Note: * as later episodes (not, at this time, written) show, Mary Ellen marries a
doctor (Curtis Willard), and later a vet (Jonesy).......!!!!
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); GW (David Doremus); Dr Vance (Victor Izay); Kevin Sturgess (James
Carroll Jordan).
"Growing up on Waltons Mountain during the great Depression, we learned early to concentrate on the essentials of life. With many of the necessities so hard to come by, we had little money to squander on extravagances. But there came a time when my father decided another kind of survival was important, and to nourish the human spirit it was necessary to indulge an extravagance".
Repeated failure of the children to co-operative with family chores brings Olivia to the end of her patience and prompts John to suggest he takes her away on a vacation - on the long postponed honeymoon in fact, to Virginia Beach. However, the mill engine packs up and its repair is vital, and it looks as if the honeymoon is off, but the children contribute, and Grandpa sells his rare 2 cent coin to Ike for 20 dollars. Grandma has to go away for a short time as she's promised to look after some children. After John and Olivia leave on their trip, Reckless the dog chases a skunk into the house and everyone has to sleep in the barn. Instead of a hotel bedroom, the truck breaks down and John and Olivia spend the night in the cab. In the morning they finally reach their destination and stroll on the beach. Back at home, Erin and Elizabeth have come down with colds, while John-Boy has fallen down a steep slope and dislocated his shoulder after an argument with his girl-friend Marcia Woolery. Olivia, worried about the family, phones Ike who unthinkingly tells her everything. They immediately rush home. Grandma returns, having lost her voice with having to shout so much at the children she was looking after. To compensate, John plans a camping trip for the family.
"My fondest memories are not of those special outings or unusual occasions. What I like best to recall is the quiet moment at the very end of an ordinary day, when we drifted off to sleep, secure in the shelter of our home, and of our parents' love".
Jim Bob: Daddy?
John: Yes. Jim Bob?
Jim Bob: Today when Elizabeth and I were playing, I think I saw a crack in the sky.
John: A crack in the sky?
Jim Bob: Will all the air leak out?
John: I'll tell you what, tomorrow, you and I'll have a look. If the crack's still
there we'll get in touch with President Roosevelt, or somebody up there.
Jim Bob: You always know the right thing to do, Daddy. 'Night.
John: Goodnight, Jim Bob.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Marcia Woolery (Tami Bula).
"When we were children we never thought of the house we were born in as beautiful, or plain, or anything special, except that it was our home, and was there. But there came a day when we were faced with giving it up. It crept up on us, as so many crises do, through the normal routine of living".
Charles Harmon represents a business combine which wants to build a health resort on the mountain, having found the mountain's hot mineral spring water to have special quality, and he offers John a modest fortune to sell out. The money is very tempting and John considers the offer very seriously, although John-Boy is strongly opposed. As the grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary approaches, each member of the family goes up individually on the mountain to consider the future. John decides that the family's heritage is worth more than money and does not sell.
"Many years have gone by since that 50th anniversary. My grandparents are no longer alive, and most of us have moved to other places in the world. We go home when we can, and on those occasions our spirits are renewed by the feelings that flood back, the feelings we had as children growing up in that wonderful old house that stands in the shadow of Waltons Mountain".
Mary Ellen: Here comes the moon, right where it belongs.
Jim Bob: I wonder if Gary Cooper's looking at it too.
Mary Ellen: Probably, he's so romantic.
Elizabeth: Mary Ellen?
Mary Ellen: Yes, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: If you can have Gary Cooper, can I have Clark Gable?
Mary Ellen: What do you want with Clark Gable?
Elizabeth: I just want his picture.
Mary Ellen: Oh I thought you wanted to marry him.
Elizabeth: I'm too young to get married.
Olivia: That's a relief, Elizabeth! Goodnight, you girls.
The girls: Goodnight, Mama.
Also appearing -
Yancy Tucker (Robert Donner); Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Sheriff Bridges (John Crawford);
Mrs Brimmer (Nora Marlowe); Mr Harman (Noah Beery).
"Living on Waltons Mountain we were always in touch with the motion of life. Growth and change, loss and gain, were natural and were expected. We saw the green leaves turn to gold and then fall to the ground, crumpled and grey. But all of us knew that when spring came again life would renew itself. But one summer we were faced with an unexpected kind of change that made us all wonder if the future was really a thing to look forward to".
Jason's close friend Seth Turner who yearns to play in his father's band offers to make a recorder for him. One day Seth collapses and the doctor diagnoses leukemia and forecasts he's only a year to live.... Jason is very deeply shocked and can't bring himself to talk to his friend. Seth finishes making the recorder and wishes he could teach Jason to play it but his mother becomes over-protective and refuses to let him out of the house, even refusing to let John-Boy see him when he calls. Then Seth's father Red Turner comes home after the band's tour and persuades his mother to let him live a normal life and to join the band. Seth gets John-Boy to give the finished recorder to Jason and Grandpa brings Jason round to accepting the situation, saying that Seth's gift of the recorder is something to remember him by. Before he leaves with his father's band, Seth teaches Jason to play it.
"As time went on there were other occasions that necessitated our grieving, and I often think that this early brush with total loss made us better able to face those which were to come after".
Jason plays "Beautiful Dreamer" on his recorder.
John: You're getting to sound real good, Jason.
Jason: Thankyou, Daddy. Goodnight, Daddy, goodnight, Mama.
Olivia: Goodnight, Jason.
Erin: It sounds like Waltons Mountain would sound if it could sing. Goodnight,
Jason.
Jason: Goodnight, Erin. Goodnight, Grandpa.
Grandpa: Goodnight, Jason. You're a good boy.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Seth (Ron Howard - "Richie" in "Happy Days");
Red Turner (Ken Swofford).
Note: Red Turner appears again in The Comeback (Season 5), but this time played by Merle
Haggard.
"I like to think back on my boyhood because though the times we lived in were hard, the life we lived was good. We were never hungry, for food was plentiful, we took it from the land, but still there was a lack of material things, and I remember with wonderment the way my parents wove the magic around us that kept us from ever feeling poor".
Olivia surprises her family when she takes on a job as a door-to-door saleswoman. It's for a skin beautifier, and she sells some to the Baldwin sisters (who need the bottles for the Recipe), to Mrs Brimmer, to Maude Gormley, and to others, selling every bottle. Then feeling ill, she consults with Dr Vance who pronounces her 3 months pregnant. But Elizabeth is very upset, feeling she will now be neglected, until Olivia explains that the baby will need looking after by all the family. The children start making things in preparation, John-Boy a cradle, the girls start on some clothes. But the pregnancy does not progress and Olivia loses the baby. Everyone in the family has to learn to live with the disappointment.
"As the years went on and we all went our separate ways, we were to provide my mother and father with so many grandchildren that their lives were never without the sound of a baby or a growing child's voice. And all those grandchildren were beneficiaries of the extraordinary love that was given to us during those years we spent on Waltons Mountain".
Olivia: Mary Ellen, do you still want to take dancing lessons?
Erin: If she does I want to, too.
Elizabeth: Me, too.
Olivia: Now children, Mary Ellen asked first.
John: Hang some lessons, there's a perfectly good piano downstairs, why doesn't
somebody learn to play that?
Erin: Yuck!
Elizabeth: Me, too, yuck!
Olivia: What would you rather do, Mary Ellen?
Mary Ellen: Neither, Mama, I just started reading about Florence Nightingale, I
think I'd like to be her.
Olivia: That sound's sensible.
Mary Ellen: And heroic, too. Goodnight, Mama, goodnight, Erin.
Erin: Florence Nightingale! Yuck! Goodnight Mary Ellen , goodnight Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Yuck! Goodnight, everybody.
Also appearing -
the Baldwin sisters (Mary Jackson & Helen Kleeb); Mrs Brimmer (Nora Marlowe); Maude
Gormley (Merie Earle); Dr Vance (Victor Izay).
"The Depression years were hard ones for just about everyone in the country. Our family had little money and few luxuries, but we did have food on the table and clean clothes to wear, even if they were mostly hand-me-downs, and a bountiful supply of love to sustain our household. Other families were not as fortunate as we were, and I remember how my mother and father occasionally invited a child from the Jefferson County Orphanage to share our life on Waltons Mountain".
The little boy is Stevie, but he's withdrawn, embittered and unhappy. The local blacksmith Curtis Norton and his wife Ann haven't been married long. She confides to Olivia that the doctor has told her she can't have children, but she doesn't want to believe it, insisting she will have her own child one day. When Olivia reprimands Stevie he runs off and is given a lift by the blacksmith who takes him to his home. Stevie visits the blacksmith several times and they become good friends. Ann is reluctant to accept Stevie at first, but later, as Stevie is about to return to the orphanage she comes to realise how much he has come to mean to both of them and they decide to adopt him.
"The Depression lingered on, hard times continued, but somehow the love that was most important to us on Waltons Mountain extended itself to others, and love is what the Nortons gave to Stevie, and he to them".
John: Everybody quieten down now and get some sleep!
Olivia: 'Night everybody.
Jason: Goodnight, Mama, goodnight, Ben.
Ben: Goodnght, everyone.
Jim Bob: Goodnight, Mama.
Mary Ellen: Goodnight, Daddy.
John: Goodnight, children.
John-Boy: Goodnight, Daddy, goodnight, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Goodnight, John-Boy, goodnight, Jim Bob. - GOODNIGHT, JIM BOB!
Everyone (shouts): GOODNIGHT JIM BOB!
Jim Bob (sleepily): What's going on? I was asleep. What's everybody doing?
Everybody: Goodnight, Jim Bob!
Note: Curtis Norton and Ann appeared previously in The Bicycle (Season 1), but Curtis
was played by Ned Beatty.
Also appearing -
Stevie (Tiger Williams); Curtis Norton (Victor French); Ann Norton (Ivy Jones).
"I suppose at one time or another in the course of our lives many of us have experienced an event or occurrence which could not be explained, and at the same time was shrugged off as a co-incidence or a trick of the mind. I remember a series of such events, and even today many years later I still can't help wondering just how much of it was co-incidence. It all started one afternoon in late Fall....."
Ike gives John-Boy a "spirit board" to take home, and it arouses the curiosity of the children. They are delighted with their new "game", but when playing with it, it spells out the name of Luke, a little boy staying with them. Later, when they try again, it starts to forecast an impending disaster, that Luke must not go away by train. As they are on their way to the station the truck gets stuck and they miss the train. Later they hear on the radio that the train they missed had crashed....
"There are forces in our lives that we can understand and explain, there are others that mystify and confuse us, but who is there to say that the strong bond of love that existed between a mother and her child had to be severed by death. For love is a force that lives, without beginning, without end. It is an energy that brings sustenance and nourishment to the human spirit. Of all endowment, the ability to love is the most enobling and such is it's mystery that the power of love can be felt beyond death, beyond time".
Jim Bob: Elizabeth, Mrs Hawkins has some puppies she wants to give away.
Elizabeth: I don't want any of them.
John: Thought you wanted another dog?
Elizabeth: I wanted a runt dog and she doesn't have one.
John: Runt only means the dog is the smallest one in the litter.
Elizabeth: I know, but no one ever wants those. I think I'll wait for Charity, she
makes good runts.
Jim Bob: You're a runt, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Am I, Daddy?
John: In this family, you're the girl runt, and Jim Bob's the boy runt.
Jim Bob: I am not.
Elizabeth: You are, too.
Olivia: Oh, Lord, now they'll never get to sleep....
Jim Bob: I am not.
Everybody: You are, too, Jim Bob!
Jim Bob (whispering): I am not.....
Also appearing (briefly) -
the Baldwin sisters (Mary Jackson & Helen Kleeb); Ike Godsey (Joe Conley).
"Being a country boy on Waltons Mountain, and looking like one, always seemed as natural and normal as anything to me. But a few days before my Graduation from high school I began to look at myself in quite a different way".
The family is buying John-Boy a new suit for the occasion, but after doing so, Chance the old cow dies, and there is a need to find another supply of milk. Another cow will cost more money than can be afforded, so without the family knowing, John-Boy returns the new clothes so that the money can be used to buy a new cow. Grandpa is persuaded to give up his best suit and Olivia then alters it to fit John-Boy. At that Graduation ceremony outside the little school on Waltons Mountain John-Boy gives a speech in which he expresses his gratitude for all those who had helped him throughout his life.
"We could not have known then the great and momentous events that were to happen in the decades to follow. But that small school and those teachers like Miss Hunter had prepared us, and that preparation helped sustain us through those turbulent years, through war, the death of kings and presidents, and through those lesser day-to-day experiences whch added together make up the fabric of our lives".
Olivia: He'll be learning so many new things, science, biology, foreign
languages.
John: That's what he's going to College for. Find out what the world's all about.
Elizabeth: If John-Boy learns all those foreign languages, will we still be able to
talk to him?
Erin: He probably won't want to talk to us.
John-Boy: You're all talking about me as if I suddenly turned into a different
person and making me very nervous.
Olivia: Don't be nervous, you'll be the smartest boy in that whole school.
John-Boy: Mama, please.
Olivia: Allright. Sleep tight! 'Night everyone!
John-Boy & Erin: Goodnight.
Olivia: John.
John: Hmm?
Olivia: He will be the smartest I just know it.
John-Boy: Mama......
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); the Baldwin sisters (Mary Jackson & Helen Kleeb); Miss Hunter
(Mariclaire Costello); Rev Fordwick (John Ritter); Marcia Woolery (Tami Bula); Mrs Brimmer
(Nora Marlowe).
"Looking back down the years to the great Depression, I realise now that our family was much more fortunate than most. Many things were in short supply, but we had the advantage of being able to live on the bounty of the rich Virginia country. And even more important than the gifts of the land, our family remained intact. We stayed together under one roof and were never deprived of the comfort and closeness of our mother and father. Those feelings easily made up for what we often lacked in material things".
Olivia takes pity on George Reed, a despondent down-and-out book salesman. He sells her a "Five foot shelf" of a collection of 50 books for a downpayment of 3 dollars. But instead of mailing off the order at Ike's store, he uses the money to buy from Ike a large doll for his daughter. That night, John finds out, has a serious talk with him, listens to his hard-luck story about wanting to give his little daughter a fine birthday present, then surprises him by telling him to keep the doll, and get out. The next day the salesman comes back. He's returned the doll to Ike and has come back with their money. Accepting his obviously sincere apology, they decide to go ahead with the collection of books, and soon the first shipment arrives.
"The salesman was right about one thing - the wit and wisdom of the ages were contained in those books, and many of the voyages we took were no less memorable for having been enjoyed through the written word".
Mary Ellen: It was, too, Michaelangelo who painted chapels I know it.
Jason: You're wrong Mary Ellen, it was that Cellini feller.
John-Boy: It was Michaelangelo, Jason.
Mary Ellen: See, smarty.
Jason: Well, I can't be expected to know everything.
Jim Bob: Something I want to know.
Elizabeth: What's a chapel?
John: Like a church, honey.
Elizabeth: Oh, that's nice. Goodnight Daddy, goodnight Mama.
Olivia: Goodnight, Elizabeth. What was it you wanted to know, Jim Bob?
Jim Bob: Is Mr Selini or Mickelino going to paint our church?
Olivia: Either one, we're not proud!
John-Boy: Mama!
Olivia: 'Night, John-Boy.
John-Boy: Goodnight!
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); George Reed (Ben Piazza).
"In every town or village there used to be the hidden people, those who for one reason or another are shut away from life or, for some strange reason shut themselves away from the world. My quest for a car in which to drive back and forth to college was eventually to lead me to two of those hidden people".
Ike knows that Mr Hyder Rudge has a car he never uses. A storm has damaged Mr Rudge's roof and John-Boy goes to see if he'll trade the car for repairs to the roof and other work, but his wife Martha feels her husband won't be able to give up the car. After working very hard for weeks, on the last day John-Boy finds that Mr Rudge has taken the car away and hidden it, the garage is empty. Mr Rudge returns and says he's never going to get the car. So Mrs Rudge walks out on her husband, and tells the Waltons they used to have a son, who died at sea when only 20 years old; the car was his. Mr Rudge had never got over his son's death. She brings the car keys and thinks she knows where it has been hidden and tells John-Boy to go and get it. He finds it, and then drives it back to the Rudge place and faces him. He tells Mr Rudge he knows about his son, but would like to know more. Mr Rudge starts to talk, and eventually they both return to the Waltons house where Mr Rudge asks his wife to come back to him.
"The Rudges remained hidden people to a certain extent, rarely involving themselves in our lives or that of the community. Perhaps they just didn't need us, that without the false dream they were finally able to find contentment in their lives together".
Mary Ellen: I'm getting to be a pretty good driver!
John-Boy: You're supposed to watch the road, not look around to see if GW Haines is
watching you.
Mary Ellen: He sure did look surprised when I drove by.
John-Boy: You can't blame him, you headed straight for him....
Mary Ellen: Can I drive it again tomorrow, alone?
John-Boy: You can't drive it alone until after I graduate.
Mary Ellen: But that's four years from now!
John-Boy: I know. Goodnight, Mary Ellen.
Mary Ellen: That's not fair!
John-Boy: I know. Goodnight, Mary Ellen. Goodnight Mama, goodnight Daddy.
Goodnight, Mary Ellen.
Mary Ellen: Oh goodnight.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Mr Rudge (Ed Lauter); Mrs Rudge (Bonnie Bartlett).
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