"When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, I had a tendency to think of myself and my immediate family as the only Waltons, but that wasn't true, we were part of a great clan. There were other mountains and many other Waltons who lived farther up in the Blue Ridge. They were part of the family who's way had scarcely been touched by the passing of time. We were a family born to share a kinship with the seasons, always gratefully accepting that which the land gave, but living in the knowledge that weather and misfortune could take it away. One summer we were to learn that man also could take away what the land had given".
Returning home from a picnic, the family come to where a new highway is being constructed. When they get home they find their kinfolk Boone and Wade Walton waiting to see them who tell them the Government has ordered them to vacate their land to make way for the new development, but they are going to make a stand against eviction and expect all the Waltons to help. The next day they all go up there. Lucas Avery, the local Senator who's been campaigning on their behalf says it's been agreed there would be no more blasting near their land while Martha Corinne goes to see the new home which has been offered them. She decides to go, but that night while she's away the construction boss Mr Blake breaks his agreement and lays explosive charges.... to wait means losing money.... Wade defiantly still intends to build a house for himself and his wife Vera on the mountain. John-Boy discovers that Wade has a hobby in making superb woodcarvings.
Martha Corinne returns from seeing the new house to find that the construction boss Mr Blake hasn't waited, and so they make a stand with rifles ready, at the edge of her property. As Mr Blake, accompanied by several State Marshalls starts to advance towards them, John-Boy runs out between them in a last desperate attempt at resolving the situation by talking. But the tension is too great and firing starts and John-Boy gets shot in the side. As they all run to him Martha Corinne says she wants no more bloodshed, and sadly agrees to pack up and vacate the land.
"The house is gone now, along with the animal shelters and out-buildings. The forest is grown up and there is no sign that once a man and a woman struggled there to raise a family and make a life for themselves. Only the tiny graveyard endures, not far from where the house itself stood. With Martha Corinne's eviction from Blue Rock Creek our link with our pioneer past was broken, but it remains with us today in our heritage, in our history and in our pride. Martha Corinne died in 1939, she was buried on the mountain beside her husband and infant son. Wade and Vera settled in the south-western part of the state, where Wade built their home and began a career which saw him become one of the country's most talented woodcarvers. Boone Walton was killed by a truck as he crossed the highway one night in 1943. He was carrying 2 gallons of moonshine".
Elizabeth: Mama, you promised me that song, and you forgot.
Olivia: First thing in the morning, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: I'd sleep better if I heard it now.....
Olivia (sings):
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlour
Spinning dreams of the long, long ago
Spinning dreams of an old-fashioned garden
And a maid with her old-fashioned bow.
Elizabeth: You too, Daddy.
Olivia & John (sings):
Sometimes it seems I can hear her in the twilight
At the organ softly singing "Old Black Joe"
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlour
Spinning dreams of the long, long ago.
Elizabeth: Goodnight Mama and Daddy.
Olivia: Goodnight, Elizabeth.
John: Goodnight, Elizabeth.
Note: Martha Corinne and Boone appear again in The Ponycart (Season 5).
Also appearing -
Martha Corinne (Beulah Bondi); Boone Walton (Morgan Woodward); Wade (Richard Hatch); Vera
(Lindsay V. Jones); Lucas Avery (Paul Fix); Mr Blake (Mills Watson).
Note: Beulah Bondi played the mother to James Stewart in the 1946 RKO film "It's A
Wonderful Life" (James Stewart's favorite film).
"When you're growing up, Septembers have a special feeling. Another carefree summer is all too quickly ended, and a new school year is about to begin. There was an extra excitement for me in the September of 1934. My years at Miss Hunter's school on Waltons Mountain were over, and I was ready to take those first faltering steps into the strange world outside. How vividly I recall the edgy excitement, the awful exilaration of preparing for my first day at Boatwright University. It was a day which showed me how little I knew about some things, and how well my parents had prepared me for others".
Dressing up in his best clothes, as this, his first day at college is such a special day, John-Boy stands out as a Freshman and is the butt of practical jokes and humiliations by the older students led by Paxton. Everything seems to go wrong, he can't put a foot right. Unknowingly parking his car in the faculty spaces, it's towed away; he falls for a practical joke involving a goat and Professor Ghote.....; he's left his registration Certificate at home and has to phone Ike to get his father to drive over with it.
Back at the Waltons Mountain school, Jason tries to take John-Boy's place and acts the big brother, which doesn't go down well. Miss Hunter makes him realise that by trying to be someone else he loses his own special personality.
"There have been many other first days in my life since that long ago September, but I've been sustained through them all by two certainties - I am who I am, with whatever shortcomings, and family ties may lengthen to accomodate distance, but they are never broken".
Elizabeth: John-Boy?
John-Boy: Yes, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Did they really give you a big present?
John-Boy: They did.
Elizabeth: Was he nice?
John-Boy: Well he was very busy, he didn't pay too much attention to me.
Elizabeth: That's the way most big brothers are.
John-Boy: Well I'll try to remember that.
Elizabeth: But they're still nice to have.
John-Boy: Goodnight, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Goodnight, John-Boy.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Miss Hunter (Mariclaire Costello); Michael West (Ted Eccles);
Polly Thompson (Devon Ericson); Paxton (Dennis Redfield); Hobgood (David Ankum); Crouch
(Jack McCulloch); Prof. Ghote (Lawrence Dobkin).
Note: After World War 2, Paxton (Dennis Redfield) who'd been so nasty to John-Boy, becomes
a good friend (see The Obstacle - Season 7).
"Waltons Mountain meant many things to my family. It was a source of food for we took game from its forests and fish from its streams. It was a refuge in time of trouble, and a link with the history of our family's past. And once it became the setting for a race that none of us would ever forget".
Now settled in at Boatwright College, John-Boy is invited by a college chum to see his racehorse, which he's going to enter in the local cross-country race. On Waltons Mountain all the family is excited for Blue the white mule to enter and all the children enthusiastically prepare him. Grandpa, who won the race years ago, gives John-Boy some tips, and although there's stiff competition, John-Boy and Blue win.
"That sense of pride and confidence that my mother and father instilled in us as a family was shaken occasionally. But in all, it stood us in very good stead. When we left Waltons Mountain and went to make our way in the larger world, we were always able to fall back on those rich and true feelings that we learnt as children".
Elizabeth: John-Boy?
John-Boy: Yes, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: When Blue dies, will he go to Heaven?
John-Boy: I expect so.
Grandma: Now John-Boy you be careful what you tell that child! Heaven's for people,
not for mules.
Grandpa: Old woman, you're just mad because you lost that bet!
Grandma: I am not mad. And move your feet, they're cold!
Jim Bob: If Blue doesn't go to Heaven, where will he go?
John-Boy: Um well maybe er, maybe to a special Heaven for mules, Jim Bob.
Goodnight.
Jim Bob: Goodnight, John-Boy. Goodnight, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Goodnight Jim Bob. Goodnight Blue!
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Carl Jensen (Brendon Burns); Selina Linville (Kathleen Quinlan);
Col. Linville (Frank Janson); Mr Roswell (Jim Gammon); Prof. Foster (Glen Gordon).
"In today's troubled world it isn't unusual to hear that a member of a family has packed up and left, gone off on his own, feeling rejected and misunderstood. When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain it never occurred to us that such a thing could happen in our family, and yet, it did".
Now that John-Boy is at College, Jason and Ben are the older ones during the day, and Jim Bob feels small and alone. He brings home a guineypig, a mascot at school. During the night the little creature dies but the rest of the family are too busy with their own activities to spend time with him. Sad and alone after burying it in the woods, Jim Bob runs away, getting a lift into a nearby town, but John-Boy tracks him down. While having tea in a cafe, his straight talking to Jim Bob is overheard by someone at the next table who turns out to be the man who's lecture John-Boy had to miss while searching for Jim Bob. He offers much sound advice which John-Boy feels was of more value than the missed lecture. Back at home, Jim Bob is welcomed back by the family who promise to be more understanding.
"I often remember Jim Bob saying to my father - "It's OK, next time I'll make you listen". I wish that it were in the power of all children to say that to their parents, and to know that indeed they would be heard, as we were in those wonderful days on Waltons Mountain".
Elizabeth: Goodnight, Jim Bob!
Jim Bob: Goodnight, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Goodnight, Jim Bob.
Jim Bob: You already said that once.
Elizabeth: I know but I wanted to say it again.
Jim Bob: Elizabeth, you're crazy!
Elizabeth: Mama, Jim Bob called me a name.
Olivia: Well you call him a name.
Elizabeth: Jim Bob, you're a name.....
Jim Bob: Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh.
Elizabeth: What's so funny?
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Elwood Dobbs (Geoffrey Lewis); Amy Partridge (Ann Noland);
Bennett Holmby (Herb Nelson); Sgt Strong (Gary Vinson).
"Life on Waltons Mountain never seemed more stable than when I was 18 and in college. It was comforting to know that the family was always there, knowing exactly what they were doing, and accepting it as the right and necessary way to live. Each of us has a secret life, private dreams and aspirations and fantasies that we are hesitant to share with others. I had always associated my mother with our home, and thought the boundaries of her life were within the walls of that house. Then, one day, I happened to stumble across my mother's private dream".
John-Boy discovers Olivia outside painting a picture. She says it's just relaxing doodling, but he suggests she has some art lessons. To do that she'll have to go to evening classes in Charlottesville, so John-Boy teaches her to drive his car. At the art class the instructor, Joshua Williams, begins to fall for her, so she stops going. Soon after, he comes to the Walton house to seek her out. In a touching manner she tells him that her life here at home with her family is what she has chosen, and still loves.
Mary Ellen tells her current boy-friend Guy, who wants to take up medicine, that she intends to become a doctor, but at first he disapproves of a woman being a doctor as much as Grandma does.
"The mountain coloured our lives when we lived in its shadow, and even after, when the course of our lives led us far away. Wherever I may be, with the coming of night, also comes the whisper of those long-ago voices".
Olivia: What's going on in there, you girls?
Mary Ellen: Nothing, Mama.
Olivia: Sounded like somebody whistling.
Mary Ellen: Mama it's just Guy, he promised he'd whistle goodnight to me from the
road.
Ben: I thought he was a doctor, not a mocking bird!
Mary Ellen: Oh, will you make Ben shut-up?
Olivia: Be quiet, Ben.
Mary Ellen: Can I please whistle back, Mama?
Olivia: Go ahead, Mary Ellen, or else he'll be out there all night.
Mary Ellen whistles.
Also appearing -
Joshua Williams (David Selby); Mr Evanston (Roger Price); Mrs Riddle (Ysabel MacClosky);
Mrs Hallett (Iris Korn); Don Millman (Biff Warren).
"Sometimes when we were children all the love and attention we got at home just wasn't enough. For each of us there came a time when something from the outside was needed to give us a sense of self-confidence. It was a need of this kind that got my sister Mary Ellen into a lot of trouble, and gave me a whole new way of looking at women".
She is excited about going to the college dance, her first, and she buys a second-hand evening bag to go with her dress. At home she finds there's a pretty amethyst ring inside which she decides to wear at the dance, but she and Erin keep the finding of the ring a secret. Later, Mrs Breckenridge, the previous owner of the bag, comes over to enquire if the missing ring, which has great sentimental value for her, has been found. Mary Ellen wears the ring at the dance but loses it in the rest room. Discovering the loss when she's back home, she, John Boy and his date return to the locked up college building over the weekend. On being denied entrance, one of the girls enters through the rest room window, finds the ring but is discovered coming out. Very unhappy as a result of all the trouble she has caused, Mary Ellen takes the ring to Mrs Breckenridge.
"Our lives are measured not by birthdays but by the events that fall between them. Mary Ellen's first grown-up dance was a landmark in her passage from girlhood into the beautiful and engaging young woman she was to become. Yet, for a while in her dresser drawer, a reminder of the cocoon from whch she had emerged, there remained a beat-up and much treasured old baseball glove, which she eventually passed on to her brothers".
Mary Ellen: Mama, you know what?
Olivia: No, Mary Ellen, what?
Mary Ellen: My birth-stone is a diamond.
Olivia: That's real interesting. G'night Mary Ellen.
Mary Ellen: Can I have a ring with a diamond in it sometime?
Olivia: Maybe you'll be given one when you get engaged.
Mary Ellen: Oh why Mama I don't want to wait that long!
Olivia: I'm afraid you'll have to. G'night!
Mary Ellen: It's just not fair! Goodnight, Mama.
Elizabeth: Mary Ellen? You can have my Lone Ranger ring, it has a real fake diamond
in it.
Mary Ellen: Thanks, Elizabeth, but I think I'll just wait for the real thing,
goodnight.
Elizabeth: Goodnight, Mary Ellen. Goodnight, Mama, goodnight, Daddy.
Olivia & John: Goodnight honey.
Also appearing -
Audrey Butler (Kathleen Cody); Mike West (Ted Eccles); Mrs Breckenridge (Adrienne Marden);
Martha Rose (Cindy Eilbacher); Vernon Rutley (Roy Engel); Arthur Jackson (Jason Johnson).
"When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, the word "honor" was hardly ever used, but its meaning was well understood. Honorable behavior was something that was expected in my family. Therefore, I found it strange when like every other freshman at school I was told that honor was a tradition, and that the heart of it was to be found in a system that governed our lives as students, and one that if ignored could end our days as members of the student body".
John-Boy is asked at college to help another student by coaching him for a forthcoming exam. The student, Tom Povich, is a football player on an athletic scholarship but wants to be a lawyer to help his hometown. If he fails the exam, he'll have to leave college. During the exam, Tom is seen looking at another student's answers. John-Boy sees him do so, and in turn is spotted by another student. Under the honor rules, he has to report Tom or face disqualification himself.
At the preliminary hearing by the student Honor Council John-Boy offers to defend Tom at the full hearing the following week. He takes the line that the system is wrong, and that it is the professors who should monitor exams, not force students to tell on their friends. He puts his case so strongly and convincingly that the Honor Council reduces the charge from being a major one, with expulsion as the penalty, to a minor one, which results only in Tom being banned from classes for a week.
Back on Waltons Mountain, Jason sees Ben acting strangely and spies on him to try and find out what he's up to. He sees Ben secretly smoking cigarettes. Since this is forbidden by John Walton, Jason goes to Grandpa for advice who comes up with an idea and takes Ben out with him fishing. There he lights up and offers Ben one, but makes sure he inhales it deeply. Ben is sick which cures him of the habit completely.
"The experience with Tom Povich was one of many I was to encounter as my horizons widened beyond Waltons Mounain. They were to expand my own vision, and increase my understanding of what I'd already been taught from the time I'd been a child. And while I was a college man, and my horizons were expanding, it was still a comfort and a strength to return each night to that house, and to go to sleep to the sound of those voices whispering goodnight".
Jim Bob: Goodnight, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Goodnight, Jim Bob, goodnight, Ben. GOODNIGHT, BEN!
Jim Bob: He's in the bathroom.
Bob: I don't think so.
Elizabeth: How can you tell?
Jim Bob: Because he's got his tobacco sack hidden out in the barn.
Olivia: John!
John: Go to sleep, Liv.
Also appearing -
Tom Povich (Richard Masur); Victor Povich (Jacques Aubuchon); Council President (Dennis
Redfield); Dr Emory (Tom Lacy).
Note: Dennis Redfield appeared as Mike Paxton in The First Day Season 3), and The Obstacle
(Season 7).
"Sometimes the future tries to warn us by casting a shadow over the present. Such a warning came to us one morning in the form of a scent of smoke borne by the wind".
Olivia and Grandma find smoke coming from a nearby house and find a lady, Mrs Susan Hanover, unable to control the stove. The Hanovers, city folk from New York, have just moved to Waltons Mountain. Mr Ted Hanover, who's father used to live here, wants to experience the country life, but his wife and children don't, and they become an unsettling and disturbing influence on the Waltons. Erin is attracted to Charles, the son, but he tries to take advantage of her, while Alicia, the snobbish daughter tries to make John-Boy write in a "fashionable" style. Ted Hanover comes to realise that he's putting his own interests before his family, and they return to New York.
"We were never to see the Hanovers again, although Erin did receive one letter from Charles. She carried it around for a while, pinned inside her dress over her heart, but then, a new boy came along, and the last reminder of the Hanovers went out of our lives".
John: Liv?
Olivia: Um?
John: I think I can let go of the boys when the time comes, but I don't know how
it's going to be to give the girls to some other man.
Olivia: You probably won't have much to say about it.
John: Liv?
Olivia: Yes?
John: Maybe they'll be old maids!
Olivia: I wouldn't count on it!
John: Liv, I love you.
Olivia: Will you go to sleep!
John: 'Night Liv.
Olivia: Goodnight, John.
Ben: Goodnight Mama, goodnight Daddy.
Erin: Goodnight Mama, goodnight Daddy.
Olivia: Now look what you've started!
Elizabeth: Goodnight Mama, goodnight Daddy!
Jim Bob: Goodnight Daddy, goodnight Mama.
John & Olivia: Goodnight.
Also appearing -
Susan Hanover (Barbara Cason); Ted Hanover (Mark Miller); Alicia (Linda Purl); Charles
(David Gruner).
Note: One of the children mentions John-Boy staying out all night dancing, which could
refer to the next episode (The Marathon) which possibly should be shown before this one?
"Entering Boatwright University in 1934 meant that I was also entering a whole new phase of my life. Although exposure to the outside world brought excitement and challenge, it also brought changes and conflicts which neither I nor anyone in my family had been able to foresee".
John-Boy enters a 7-day dance marathon with, as his partner, Daisy, a girl he's just met in the bookstore. When he tells the family that he's entered, Olivia is angry and forbids him but he says he has a life of his own and so is going to go through with it. On Waltons Mountain the children build a crystal set on which they hear the radio broadcast from the marathon. That didn't please Olivia who finds it hard to realise that John-Boy is growing up and it's time for her to let go. After 3 days of the marathon, and when John and Olivia come to see how he's getting on, John-Boy decides not to go on, leaving Daisy his dancing partner to continue with another contestant.
"As I continued growing up, the horizons of my world widened. I eventually moved far from Waltons Mountain, but the things we had then, the love we shared and the delight we took in each other's company have never faltered and remain constant to this day".
Alarm clock rings.
Olivia: Ben, turn that off!
Ben: I can't, it's stuck!
Olivia: You'll wake up John-Boy!
Mary Ellen: John-Boy!
John-Boy: I'm already woken.
Mary Ellen: John-Boy's back.
Olivia: Well let him get some sleep.
Mary Ellen: Goodnight John-Boy!
Ben: Goodnight John-Boy.
John-Boy: G'night.
Jason: Goodnight John-Boy.
Mary Ellen: Goodnight John-Boy.
Elizabeth: But it's daytime! You can't say goodnight..... Good morning John-Boy.
John-Boy: Good morning Elizabeth.
Also appearing -
Daisy (Dierdre Lenihan); Bracket (Bernie Barrow); Helen (Joyce Jameson); Spanky (Lennie
Weinrib); Fred (Charles Haid).
"In those grey and grinding days of the Depression we often found comfort in the old familiar proverbs. We knew that in unity there was strength, that blood was thicker than water, that to err was human, and to forgive, divine. Usually we never examined these truths too closely, but in the autumn of 1934 I discovered, through pain and remorse, just how profoundly true they were".
In College John-Boy joins a writers class. Being the youngest in it he feels uncomfortable, thinking he's the least qualified. Olivia sees an advertisement in Ike's paper inviting authors to submit material for publication so she takes some of John-Boy's manuscripts in to the publishers office. He is overjoyed when later she shows him a letter praising his work, asking for more and offering to publish! A contract is signed and later a box arrives containing the first copies of his book of short stories - and a bill...... The company was in the "vanity press" business.
The children obtain an old row-boat which they repair and renovate. Jason's new harmonica arrives and while playing it in Ike's store, Bobby Bigelow's agent hears him and offers him an audition which results in him playing in the band whenever they are in the area. When Jason asks to borrow the truck for the third time in a week, this all comes out and the whole family go to hear him and celebrate. At College, John-Boy is interviewed for the radio about his writing and explains the disappointing circumstances of the publishing of his book.
"The scars of that first disappointment were a long time in healing, but they did heal. The best medicine as always was the sympathy and understanding of my family, and a ridiculous little row-boat that went a long way in helping me to forget".
Jason: John-Boy, now that I'm making money I can help you out with that bill for
the books.
John-Boy: No, Jason, I'm going to pay for that myself.
Jason: Sure now? Glad to help out.
John-Boy: No really Jason, but thankyou.
Jason: John-Boy?
John-Boy: Uh huh?
Jason: I'm kinda glad you didn't take me up on it!
John-Boy (laughing): Goodnight, Jason.
Jason: Goodnight, John-Boy.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Prof. Parks (Paul Jenkins); Mr Andrews (Granville Van Dusen);
Caspar Tice (Robert Sorrells); Mr Guffy (Garry Walberg); Tim Collins (Gerald McRaney);
secretary (Melisa Mahoney); Bobby Bigelow (Mayf Nutter).
Note: Garry Walberg was soon to play "Lt Monahan" in the "Quincy"
series.
"As a family living on Waltons Mountain during the '30s we were largely self-sufficient and had little dependence on cash money. Still, as I ventured out into the larger world, I realised that making ends meet was going to be a far greater problem than I had anticipated. I set about looking for a part-time job, one which would pay me an adequate wage, and at the same time, not interfere too much with my studies".
The part-time job John-Boy finds is to read to a blind girl, Ruth, who has become very withdrawn since she lost her sight. He reads to her but she makes it hard for him to communicate with her. Since she never leaves the house, he offers to take her out for a walk, but she refuses. She even refuses his invitation to come and visit the family at Waltons Mountain.
Back home, Mary Ellen feels very sympathetic and spends time searching for a pebble which she thinks would be a gift of friendship for Ruth. However, when John-Boy gives Ruth the pebble, she is angry, and is full of self-pity. This prompts John-Boy to tell her some home truths and she starts to realise what she's doing to herself, depriving herself of a meaningful life. So she changes her mind and agrees to come to Waltons Mountain. When she arrives, they all go for a picnic lunch at Drucilla's Pond. When they are packing up to come home, Elizabeth tries to walk along the bridge handrail but falls off into the water, and Ruth all by herself, tries to rescue her.
"The doctor said Elizabeth had nothing more serious than a bump on the head, and a bruised knee. Ruth returned to Westham, but she didn't remain hidden away as she had before. After some training at an institute for the blind she returned to Boatwright University, was graduated, and eventually became a social welfare worker for the State of Virginia".
Jim Bob: Mama?
Olivia: Yes Jim Bob.
Jim Bob: Ben's snoring and he's keeping me awake.
Olivia: Maybe he'll stop if you turn him over on his side.
Jim Bob: OK.
Ben: Jim Bob what d'you thing you're doing you gone crazy or something?
Jason: Will you two pipe down, keeping everyone awake.
Jim Bob: Ben, you'd better stop hitting me.
Ben: Well you started it.
John-Boy: What's going on over there?
Mary Ellen: It's a fight in the boys room.
John-Boy: Oh, no.....
Olivia: You children behave yourselves before you wake your father.
Ben: You're gonna get it Jim Bob!
Jim Bob: Leave me alone, Ben.
Jason: Ben, Jim Bob, go back to bed!
Elizabeth: Who's winning, Jason?
John-Boy: Am I gonna have to come over there?
Jason: Ben's winning, Elizabeth.
Erin: It's a disgrace that no-one gets to sleep around here.
Grandma: You children want a spanking?
Grandpa: Esther what the -
Elizabeth: Daddy!
John: Think I'd better go over there, Liv?
Olivia: Somebody'd better do something.....
(uproar)......
Also appearing -
Ruth Thomas (Elaine Heiveil); Mrs Thomas (Peggy McCay).
"By the Fall of 1934, people were beginning to hope that the worst of the Depression was over. Some jobs were opening up and there was an urgency in the country to get up and get going again. There was a restless feeling to life, we all felt it and my father was no exception. The Fall of that year brought him the first real discontent we ever knew him to have".
He decides he needs a change so, despite Olivia's misgivings, he takes a job as a skilled machine operator in the town of Norfolk. At home, Grandpa has toothache but calls it rheumatism since, as he puts it, rheumatism goes away, but toothache means a visit to the dentist..... John gets lodging at a boarding house where Stavros, one of the the residents, feels that John is coming between him and the landlady Mrs Champion. Although John has promised that he'll be home each weekend, there's so much work on hand at the factory that all staff are required to work the weekend. John-Boy drives over to see him one evening and they go to a pub for a drink. Stavros, drunk, gets them into a fight, and in the ensuing commotion they make their escape. Wondering what they're doing there, they decide to go home - back to Waltons Mountain, where the whole family welcomes them with great enthusiasm, even Grandpa, who's had his tooth out.
"A house is more than paint and walls, ceilings and floors. A house is a history of all those people that it sheltered, and when we move away, we leave behind us the persons we were then. The prints of our fingers on a door frame, the marks on a floor we walked, the whisper of our voices, and all those things that were done, and said".
Olivia: John?
John: What?
Olivia: That woman you wrote me about, Mrs Champion?
John: Uh Hm?
Olivia: What was she like? I mean, how old was she?
John: Oh I don't know, she was - well she wasn't young, she wasn't old, I mean, she
-
Mary Ellen: Goodnight Daddy.
John: Goodnight, Mary Ellen.
Olivia: You mean, what, John?
John: I mean, she was kinda unusual.
Olivia: Oh?
Erin: Goodnight Daddy.
John: Goodnight Erin.
Olivia: How was she unusual?
John: Well, she was -
Elizabeth: I love you, Daddy.
John: I love you too, honey. Goodnight! Where was I Livy?
Olivia: No place that can't wait 'till morning!
John: Liv? I love you.
Olivia: I love you too, John.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey - very briefly (Joe Conley); Mrs Champion (Joanna Moore); Stavros (Panos A.
Christi); Hester White (Anne Loos); Mr Gary (Jack Garner).
"Old friends were treasured on Waltons Mountain, and it was a pleasurable time when people who had moved away would come back to visit or to remain. I remember a time when friends, both real and imaginary appeared in our village and how those friends affected our lives".
Elizabeth invents an imaginary friend she calls "Jimmy", which makes the family somewhat curious.
A former neighbor, Mason Beardsley, returns to his old house after he and his wife Delia moved away to Atlanta 5 years ago at the insistence of their son James Lee. When asked about his wife, Mason says she'll be coming back shortly, and talks about what they'll do together when she does come. Then his son James Lee arrives and reveals that his mother Delia has been dead for 2 years, but his father has never accepted her death and continually pretends that she's still with him. James Lee has come to find his father, and Grandpa offers to go and find Mason.
"A short time later Mr Beardsley was released from his search on this earth, and we all came to feel that he at last, found his Delia. As I look back now at all the lessons we were to learn on Waltons Mountain I recall with increasing gratitude that our parents and grandparents were there to shed light and make clear what we couldn't understand".
Elizabeth: You still awake, John-Boy?
John-Boy: Yes Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: D'you always write what's true, or d'you sometimes just make believe?
John-Boy: Sometimes I make believe, it's called Fiction.
Elizabeth: It's alright, if you know it's make believe.
John-Boy: Thankyou, Elizabeth, goodnight!
Elizabeth: Goodnight John-Boy, goodnight Mama.
Olivia: Goodnight Elizabeth. Goodnight Grandma, Grandpa.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Mason Beardsley (John Beal); Minnie Doze (Madge Sinclair); James
Lee Beardsley (George Garro).
"The Spring of 1935 was a particularly good one on Waltons Mountain. Peach blossoms exploded in a pink mist and the mallards built their nest early along the Rockfish River. Spring's arrival was so magnificent that it left us unprepared for anything that might in any way deny the beauty of life".
Grandpa's 73rd birthday is approaching and Grandma buys two tickets for a lecture on Tahiti which he particularly wanted to go to. But before the day comes, he collapses and the doctor diagnoses a mild heart attack and Grandpa has to stay in bed and have rest and quiet. Grandma, however, refuses to admit that there's anything wrong with him.
After a few weeks in bed, and even though the doctor says he's getting over it and his heart is stronger every day, Grandpa feels he'll never get better, and even asks John-Boy to go and select a tombstone for him..... He feels so despondent that the family arrange to have a tent put up just outside in the meadow, and move Grandpa's bed there. Although the doctor disagrees with moving him, Grandma insists and so the tent becomes Grandpa's bedroom.
Being outside among the flowers and trees, he starts to recover, and although a few weeks late, they bring him his birthday cake. John-Boy borrows the lecture slides and himself gives in the tent the lecture Grandpa had missed.
"And so my grandfather was to recover, and to grow strong again. To savor the coming and going of the seasons, the blossoming of the peach trees in spring, the turning leaves of autumn, and always to enjoy the growth of his sprawling brood of grandchildren, as we were growing up on Waltons Mountain".
Elizabeth: Grandpa?
Grandpa: Yes Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Is your heart alright now?
Grandpa: It's alright now it's beating like all thunder.
Elizabeth: Are you having another heart attack?
Grandpa: No, your grandma just kissed me.
Grandma: Oh you old fool!
Also appearing - Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Dr McIvers (Rance Howard); Henry Ferris Jr (Brion James).
"During the time when I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, I heard whispers and rumors about a woman named Victoria Madden. Some claimed that she was dead, others said that she had simply run away from a bad marriage, Whatever happened to Victoria she left behind a daughter, her name was Nancy, and when my brother Ben became attracted to her, he had no idea of what the consequences would be".
One day Ben finds Nancy very sad, and she tells him her mother isn't dead, but ran away when she was small, and now her daddy won't let her go and see her in Charlottesville. Nancy persuades Ben to borrow John-Boy's car to take her to see her mother secretly that night. They arrive in Charlottesville and meet her mother in the hotel, leaving the car outside, with the keys still in it.
A lad steals the car for a joy ride, but hits another car who's driver takes down the number. Next day the Deputy Sheriff comes asking John-Boy about his car being in a hit and run accident. He denies any knowledge of it but outside, the car is found to have a damaged front fender (mudguard). Then Ben owns up but won't tell what really happened. Erin tells John-Boy that Ben has been seeing Nancy Madden, so he goes to see her but she doesn't say anything, then her father Eustace returns and orders John-Boy away.
The situation gets so out of hand that John tells Ben he must break his promise not to tell about Nancy. They go to the Madden's home, but Eustace angrilly orders them off. Nancy then admits all, and her over-protective father breaks down, realising that if Nancy didn't want to stay with him, she wouldn't be there now.
"Nancy Madden remained in Waltons Mountain with her father. She was graduated from Miss Hunter's school and was courted by several young men including my brother Ben, but she never married. As her father grew old, he came to depend on Nancy totally, and she nursed him until he died. She still lives in the old Madden home, is active in missionary work, and on Sundays she sings in the choir".
Elizabeth: Daddy?
John: What d'you want, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: When I grow up, can I marry you?
John: 'Fraid I'm already taken, honey!
Olivia: Goodnight, Elizabeth.
Also appearing -
Nancy Madden (Cindy Fisher); Mr Eustace Madden (Warren Kemmerling); Victoria Madden
(Hersha Parady); Deputy Sheriff (Don Barry).
"When you're part of a family where eleven people live under one roof, you're not likely to spend much time thinking about loneliness, you're more likely to be looking for ways to have even a few minutes by yourself. But, I remember a visitor who showed us all the face of loneliness, not only her own, but that of a man close to us, a man we had, until then, taken for granted, but had never really known".
Cousin Corabeth Walton from Doe Hill comes to visit, her mother has died and she needs somewhere to rest, just for a few days, so she's given John-Boy's bedroom, but it looks as if she's settled in for good...... Ike Godsey is attracted to her, saying he's never met anyone like her before, so John invites him to come to supper one evening, but during the meal he's awkward and shy. later he invites Corabeth, Olivia and John to a nice restaurant in Charlottesville. Although still feeling shy and awkward, Ike proposes marriage to Corabeth who accepts, but later has serious second thoughts.
John warns Ike, who is excited at his coming marriage, that Corabeth is not an easy woman to live with, but Ike admits that he's finding his life is so lonely that anything would be better than his present situation. Corabeth, extremely apprehensive at the prospect of such a big change in her life as marriage, makes preparations to leave, but when the day comes, the two nervous people do get married.
During all this, Erin, troubled at being younger than Mary Ellen yet older than Elizabeth, tells John-Boy she feels she's a nobody. So John-Boy takes her in to town to have her photograph taken, and the resulting portrait restores her confidence.
"I couldn't say that Cousin Corabeth and Ike lived happily ever after, but it seemed they had their share of happiness along with their troubles and griefs. To my knowledge, my father never again played the role of matchmaker, though with four sons and three daughters his opportunities were endless".
Elizabeth: Mother?
Olivia: Yes, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: I found a four-leaved clover today.
Olivia: Now you'll have good luck!
Elizabeth: I gave it to my friend Nancy.
Olivia: Uh huh?
Elizabeth: Nancy needs it more than me.
Olivia: That's very generous of you.
Elizabeth: It was easy, because I've already picked out my husband......
Olivia: Goodnight Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Goodnight.
Note: Jason plays the chapel organ for the wedding.
Also appearing -
the Baldwin sisters (Mary Jackson & Helen Kleeb); Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Corabeth
Walton (Ronnie Claire Edwards); Rev Fordwick (John Ritter); Rebecca (Audrey Berindey); Mrs
Cook (Lanna Saunders); Belden (Jon Locke).
"When I recall the young years on Waltons Mountain I remember the pleasure of ordinary events, and the ordinary people who shaped them. But there were other times when neither the events nor the people were ordinary, and our lives were altered for a time".
Sis Bradford, a wayward student at Boatwright college who makes up her own rules without regard to other people, nearly collides with John-Boy's car, causing him to swerve violently and ram the kerb, wrecking his front tire. Later, she see's his car in the street and steals his Chemistry notebook from it. When he finds he hasn't got it, he searches desperately for it at home, needing it for a coming exam. Sis then arrives at the Walton's home, bringing a new tire for John-Boy, but while no-one is looking, conceals his notebook in the school satchel of Jim Bob's friend Danny, who had led Jim Bob to attempt to steal from Ike's store. When Danny gets into trouble with his father, who brings him to the Waltons to own up, it turns out that Jim Bob saw Sis Bradford closing the satchel. When John-Boy next sees the girl, he tells her that although she's attractive, she's dishonest, rude, unkind and thoughtless, and hopes she's happy with herself, because that's all she'll ever have......
"Those were not the last mistakes Jim Bob and I were to make, though we were truly ahead of the game, because our parents and grandparents gave us decent rules to live by, and decent examples to follow, and gave us, too, their love and understanding hearts".
Elizabeth: John-Boy?
John-Boy: Yes Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Are you awake? What's Chemistry?
John-Boy: Chemistry? Chemistry is the science that treats or investigates the
composition of substances anmd various elementary forms of matter.
Elizabeth: Oh. Goodnight.
John-Boy: Goodnight Elizabeth.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Sis Bradford (Darleen Carr); Tom Comley (Beeson Carroll); Mrs
Brimmer (Nora Marlowe); Prof Whitley (Glen Gordon); Danny (Willie Aames).
"When I was growing up in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia we never heard the words "generation gap", yet, such a separation developed shortly after my grandfather recovered from an illness, and for a while it was to threaten the unity of the entire family".
Grandma and Grandpa are feeling old and left out, so when Henry Townsend, a widower, asks Grandpa to look after his house while he's away, they both leave the Waltons and move in. With a big order to fulfill at the mill, John advertises for a paid hand and engages Easy Jackson, but he proves to be careless, ruining several saw blades.
The grandparents find looking after Henry's house boring and wish they were home again, while John wants Grandpa to come back, but both sides are stubborn and too proud to relent, until John goes to see Grandpa and tells him how much he's needed, so they both come back home. Grandpa very diplomatically asks Easy to take over looking after Henry's house.
"It was good to have our grandparents home again, without them the family had been incomplete and our lives disjointed. But they were home, and our lives were back to normal".
Elizabeth: Grandma, are you asleep?
Grandma: What do you want, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: Can I sleep with you and Grandpa?
Grandma: It's alright with me, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Will you come and get me, it's dark in the hall and I'm scared.
Grandma: There's nothing to be scared of.
Grandpa: Huh? What's the matter?
Elizabeth: What did you say?
Grandma: I said there's nothing to be scared of.
Grandpa: Old woman have you lost your mind hollering your head off in the middle of
the night?
Grandma: I wasn't hollering at you.
Grandpa: I don't see anybody else here but me.
Grandma: Oh go back to your snoring!
Elizabeth: Grandma, I'm waiting!
Grandma: I'm coming, Elizabeth.
Also appearing -
Ike and Corabeth Godsey (Joe Conley & Ronnie Claire Edwards); Mrs Brimmer (Nora
Marlowe); Easy Jackson (Britt Leach); Henry Townsend (Dan Priest).
"People coming to Waltons Mountain for the first time may have been surprised to find that we had such a good life. More often than not, outsiders' impressions of hill people are formed by comic strip characters or jokes about hill-billies. We were neither, yet, we did have our rituals and our customs which must have seemed odd to outlanders. I remember a time when one of our Blue Ridge customs caused a great deal of discomfort to a visitor and almost broke up a marriage that had just barely gotten under way".
Bob Hill from Richmond comes to wed young Olivia, a family friend of the Waltons. He is unaware of a local custom called a Shivaree in which the groom is often kidnapped on the wedding night. Bob, not being a country boy feels out of place and wants to have the wedding back in Richmond, but his bride's friends are all here and she doesn't want to change it. When John-Boy explains about the Shivaree, Bob is dismayed and says he won't stand for it, so the family call it off. However Ike and Yancy, who are looking forward to it, have gone out hunting and can't be contacted. On the wedding night they return and capture Bob, leaving him handcuffed out in the woods. John and the others start searching for him and eventually find him, but Bob is so angry at what's happened that he thinks his marriage is a big mistake. To calm him down, the family clean up an old cabin on the mountain and persuade Bob and his new wife to spend the rest of the week there.
"Bob and Lyvia were to enjoy the remainder of their honeymoon in the privacy of the old cabin on top of Waltons Mountain, and when it was over they returned to Richmond, secure in their marriage and in their love for each other".
Elizabeth: John-Boy?
John-Boy: Yes Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: Will I have a shivaree when I get married?
John-Boy: I don't know honey, by then a shivaree might be a thing of the past.
Elizabeth: Good! Then my husband won't have to throw money to a bunch of kids. He
can give it to me!
John-Boy: Goodnight Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Goodnight.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Bob Hill (Bruce Davison); Young Olivia (Deborah White); Yancy
Tucker (Robert Donner); Hyder Snow (E.J.Andre); Roswell (James Gammon); Minister (Lee
Philips).
"One of the things that I find distressing about life today is that people don't really seem to enjoy their work anymore. When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain my father and my grandfather loved their work and they instilled a respect for work in each of us. But I recall one time when my brother Jason had to make a choice, a choice that was difficult for him, but even more difficult for my father".
Feeling that the Depression is almost over, John and Grandpa make plans to expand the mill, thinking that when Jason leaves school he'll join them full-time, it becoming the "Waltons and Son Lumber Yard". But Jason has other ideas. After playing and singing a song at school, Miss Hunter, impressed with the high standard of his performance, advises him to have music lessons from Mrs Breckenridge. To John-Boy she suggests he writes a novel, the subject of which could be the people here on the mountain.
After having some music lessons, Mrs Breckenridge urges Jason to apply for a scholarship at Kleinberg Conservatory of Music, but his father is against this, believing that music can be only a hobby. When later John Walton relents, John-Boy is so impressed that he enthusiastically announces that he will write the novel, which will be about the family.
"Almost all of us chose careers that took us away from Waltons Mountain, but no matter how far any of us traveled in later years we always came home, and while we were away my mother and father were always with us, in our hearts, and more importantly, in our attitudes toward life".
Jason practicing scales on the piano.
John: Jason, are you going to keep that racket up all night?
Jason: Sorry Daddy, I just started playing and I forgot all about the time. One
more minute?
John: That's all.
Jason plays a tune.
Elizabeth: Goodnight Jason.
Erin: Goodnight Jason.
Everyone says Goodnight to everyone else.
Also appearing -
Miss Hunter (Mariclaire Costello); Mrs Breckenridge (Adrienne Marden); boy (Mans Kjellin).
"For as long as I can remember I never wanted to be anything but a writer. Nor can I remember ever thinking of giving up writing, although at times the agonies of being rejected were painful and frustrating. I recall one Saturday morning when I had gone to pick up my usual batch of rejection slips. It was a day which was to mark the beginning of a new plateau in my career".
Among the mail at Ike's store John-Boy finds a letter from a publisher who's interested in his story and wants him to lengthen it. It's a story about Miss Emily Baldwin and her lost love with Ashley Longworth.
Grandpa wins first prize in the church raffle which turns out to be a statue donated by the Baldwin sisters, but when he brings it home, Grandma says it looks like one of Grandpa's old girl friends, Moselle Lewis..... She wants it moved away from the front of the house so it's put in the barn, but Grandpa moves it into their bedroom. Grandma insists it goes. Things get so strained that the family decide to put the statue in Drucilla's Pond.
Ike has told the Baldwin sisters about John-Boy's story and they make him promise to read it to them when he has finished it. They are expecting it to be a true historical account but he has fictionalised it. When reading it to them John-Boy sees it is distressing Miss Emily so he ad libs the ending, making it a fairly-tale happy one.
"My decision not to submit my story about Miss Emily was difficult to make, but later I was glad I didn't send it to the magazine. I did send them a new story called The Statue, it was published and just about everybody who read it enjoyed it very much".
John-Boy: Goodnight Grandma. Goodnight Grandpa. Mama? Mama?
(silence....)
John-Boy: Goodnight. Everybody asleep already?
John: No, son, but no one has much to say to you since they read that story about
the statue.
Grandma: Telling everyone I was jealous over Mosell Lewis....
Grandpa: It's nobody's business but mine, what colour my nightshirt is.
Olivia: I have never said a swear word in my life.
Mary Ellen: And I do not practise kissing on the mirror over my dresser.
Elizabeth: And you didn't even mention me at all.
John-Boy: Is there any chance we can talk this over?
John: I think we ought to sleep on it, son. 'Night.
John-Boy: Goodnight.
Also appearing -
Ike & Corabeth Godsey (Joe Conley & Ronnie Claire Edwards); the Baldwin sisters
(Mary Jackson & Helen Kleeb); Mrs Brimmer (Nora Marlowe).
"We were a close family growing up on that mountain, but as we grew older and were faced with the problems of finding maturity, conflict sometimes developed between us. I remember a time when my brother Jason's pursuit of fame as a musician, and my brother Ben's pursuit of a young lady brought them into a bitter misunderstanding".
Jason has written a song which he hopes Bobby Bigelow will let him use on the radio but Ben suspects that it would go down better if his girl-friend Sally Ann sang it with Jason. As they rehearse together they're attracted to each other, causing Ben to get extremely jealous. As the time of the broadcast approaches, Ben sulks and decides to stay at home, but when listening on the radio he hears Sally Ann dedicate the song to him, he comes over and they make up.
"Ben walked home with Sally Ann, and Jason walked home with Betsy. They both got back to the house around midnight, singing".
Jason: Ben?
Ben: Uh huh?
Jason: Did you kiss her?
Ben: I'll never tell.
Elizabeth: Did you kiss Betsy, Jason?
Jason: I'm asleep, Elizabeth.
Jim Bob: I'd rather kiss Reckless than a girl!
Ben: Jim Bob, you got a lot of growing up to do. Goodnight. Goodnight, Jase.
Jason: Goodnight, Ben.
Note: Song: "Will You Be Mine" written and performed by Jon Walmsley.
Also Appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Sally Ann Harper (Erin Moran, - "Joanie" in "Happy
Days"); Betsy (Doney Oatman); Zack Rosswell (James Gammon); Easy Jackson (Britt
Leach); Horace Brimley (Wilford Brimley); Elvira Rosswell (May Jo Catlett); Bobby Bigelow
(Mayf Nutter).
"It was hard to think of my mother and father's marriage in terms of years. As far as we children were concerned, they'd always been married. But of course there had been a beginning to their union, and when their 20th anniversary was approaching, we decided to help them celebrate it in a very special way".
The children plan to do a painting for their parents, of the house with each of them depicted in it. John and Olivia on the other hand, decide to retake their marriage vows. At Boatwright College a famous lady writer, Madeline Bennett is to come and give a talk to the students and John-Boy is elected to look after her during her stay. Following her talk Madeline suggests she and John-Boy have a picnic together in the woods. A romance develops and he falls in love with her. He plans to leave college and go with her to New York.
Back at the house it's time for John-Boy to paint himself in the picture, and after the ceremony of his parents retaking their marriage vows, he slips away to meet Madeline at the railway station, but at the last minute decides to stay and she leaves on the train alone.
"Madeline and I were to correspond, and we were to see each other again. In the meantime I remained on Waltons Mountain, continuing that life which prepared me finally for a place in the larger world".
Mary Ellen: Mama, do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with Daddy?
Olivia: 'Fraid not, Mary Ellen.
John: I'm surprised at you, Liv.
Olivia: John, I've got a terrible confession to make.
John: Uh huh?
Olivia: I didn't marry you for love. I married you for your money.
John: Oh Olivia Walton.....
Olivia: That was a joke!
John: Hm. You're getting to be a regular Fanny Price!
Olivia: You want me to tell you another one?
John: Liv, will you shutup so I can kiss you goodnight?
Olivia: Whatever you say!
Also appearing -
Madeline Bennett (Laura Campbell); Prof Parks (Paul Jenkins); Mrs Parks (Sally Kemp);
Gloria Webb (Julie Rogers); Sally Barstow (Kathy Cronkite); Rev Fordwick (John Ritter).
"Late in 1935 there came a time of excitement and anticipation on Waltons Mountain. Big things we felt were about to happen. Like the rest of the country, we were inching out of the worst of the depression, and on a single day three of us attempted to take giant steps. I was applying for my first job on a newspaper, my father was attempting to expand his milling operation, and Jason was only a hair's breadth away from winning a scholarship at the Klineberg Conservatory of Music. We were all convinced that in the months ahead we would see the return of prosperity, and happier days".
Just as John Walton has taken out a bank loan to buy new mill machinery and gets a big order, Grandpa goes down with flu. John is left to build the new mill extension all by himself, working all hours. To Olivia's consternation he continues to work during a heavy rainstorm. When Olivia finds him unconcious on the ground he's sent to hospital where in spite of hospital rules Olivia remains by his bed.
With this crisis John, recovering in hospital tells the family to sell the new machinery but John-Boy and the rest of the family decide to drop everything and work hard to finish the new mill building. Jason, having got the scholarship to the Conservatory plans to give it up and play with Bobby Bigelow's band to earn money, while John-Boy thinks about leaving college for a year to work full time on a newspaper. John, in hospital, emphatically refuses to agree to this, but Ike overhears what is happening and gets the neighbors to come round and finish the mill.
"The Depression wasn't over by a long sight and prosperity wasn't anywhere near around the corner, but we had taken a giant step forward as a family".
Elizabeth: Daddy?
John: What is it, honey?
Elizabeth: If you had died when you were six, would you have gone to Heaven or
Hell?
John: I don't know, what do you think?
Elizabeth: Well, you could have probably made it to Heaven, 'night Daddy.
John: Goodnight, Elizabeth.
Olivia: John I really do wish you'd start thinking about going to church on
Sundays.
John: Goodnight, Liv.....
Olivia: 'Night.
Also appearing -
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Dr McIvers (Rance Howard); David Fletcher (M.Emmet Walsh); Walt
Catlett (John Carter); Joseph (Craig Hundley); Nurse Howard (Caludia Bryan); Mr Bennett
(Herbert Anderson); Zack Rosswell (James Gammon); Barbara (Celia Bonaduce); music judge
(Jerry Crews).