Hi again everyone,

Hope you are all well. I have been catching up on Internet things just over the last few days, and one thing on my list was to check out Ralph's Waltons site again. He has just added some new features and it is well worth visiting or revisiting. A Waltons forum is now up and running from his site, where you can post messages for other visitors to read, and perhaps answer. You might find that you can help these people with their questions too. I didn't recognize any of the email addresses so I don't think that these people are members of our mailing list. Anyway visit and enjoy. The number of messages are increasing every day. Well done Ralph. The address is:

http://www.the-waltons.com

Also included are profiles on Ike Godsey, the Baldwin sisters and Zebulon Walton. They are terrific reading and I hope you enjoy them. There is also a sound clip but I haven't tried this yet.

I am still considering which of all the episodes are my favorites. I like The Career Girl, because this one shows Erin maturing and thinking of someone other than herself. Sometimes she is depicted as being quite self centered and this one shows her growing up I think. I particularly like The Burnout. One has to feel for John Boy when he loses his whole novel and has to start at the beginning and rewrite it. This episode also shows the family each coping with a tragedy in their own way too, and is interesting from this point of view. The Inferno is one which is very powerful too and I always feel for John Boy when he feels that he cannot describe accurately enough, the horror he has seen in the explosion.

Perhaps the one I do like best though is the 1982 special A Day of Thanks on Waltons Mountain. This episode has a lot of humor in it with the turkey, Isabella, awaiting her turn at being Thanksgiving dinner. The children are all growing up and we get to see them as the almost adults they are. And I just love it when John Curtis points out Zeb as being the "friend" he goes to play with at the pond. No matter how many times I see this episode I am still able to laugh at Jonesy bringing in the turkey for Grandma to cook, chuckle when Yancy says that he knew his Thanksgiving dinner when she was just an egg, and cry as they all remember Grandpa.

Well it's over to you now. Keep well, Karen.

From Jeff:

Regarding the use of Jefferson County as the setting for the action, I rather suspect that Mr. Hamner chose not to use Nelson County (the actual name) because it doesn't have the same sort of southern ring to it. Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War and that name would have been considered VERY southern. Also, the name "Waltons Mountain" is fictitious as well, so why not invent an equally fictitious county name to go along with it?

I recently obtained (through Columbia House) a documentary made in the early 80s called "A Decade of the Waltons". Earl Hamner is the on-camera narrator and he walks through the set and juxtaposes the action of the series with his own memories. It was interesting, I thought, and at the end, each of the actors who portray the Walton children (minus Richard Thomas) gets to talk to their real-life counterpart. I didn't realize until watching that tape that there were actually 8 children in the Hamner family and that two brothers were rolled into one character for the show, that being Eric Scott's character, Ben.

I also want to say that, being from the south myself (Tennessee) I have always regarded Earl Hamner's accent as being rather odd. The way he pronounces "house" and other words with "ou" in them sounds almost Canadian, and I wonder if that particular accent was/is limited to the area of Virginia around Schuyler. It certainly isn't a typical southern accent.

My favorite episodes generally involve the Baldwin sisters. I love they way they cling to southern tradition, with such grace and style. And I get teary whenever Miss Emily reminisces about Ashley Longworth and the kiss they shared in a shower of golden maple leaves.

KAREN'S COMMENT: Someone wrote to me about A Decade of the Waltons the other day and commented that it would be good to know which episodes the scenes came from. I wonder how many we can identify? Speaking of flashback scenes, did anyone notice that there are 2 scenes in The Achievement (season 5) which have been taken from The Homecoming, but have been redone to show Michael Learned and Ralph Waite as Olivia and John? It's interesting to watch them and compare.

From Marilynn, referring to comments about The Homecoming:

This initial episode is one of my least favorites. None of the main actors really "acted"(i.e., didn't lose their own persona into that of the characters). They just seemed to be reading their lines.

Michael Learned made Olivia a "real person" (warts and all). Olivia had a whole range of emotions. She was strong, loving, and no pushover. Hooray, Olivia!! I think she and John/Ralph Waite gave us role models that were real people who weren't always in the best of moods...who is...yet they persevered. Their lives and the well-being of the family as a whole took precedence (when needed) over their own needs; and that is how it should be. The Waltons gave all of us a good insight into what it means to be a member of a team/family.

Hello, everyone again. I'm sure I won't be the only one writing this week to say they saw Mary McDonough on "ER" last Thursday! Wasn't it a nice surprise! I can't really remember ever seeing any of the "Walton" kids on anything other than "The Waltons," except of course, Richard Thomas. She did a really great job as a woman with Lupus receiving a donated kidney from her beloved younger brother. Can anyone else remember ever seeing any of the other "children" in guest appearances anywhere?

From Marlene:

The Ghost Story and The Changeling will not air on the Family Channel, but Columbia House does have "The Ghost Story" because it is in the years they provide 1972, 73, 74. They would not have "The Changeling" as it doesn't air until 1978.. As I understand it the Family Channel is not airing those episodes because they deal with poltergeists in the Changeling and a Ouiji Board in the Ghost Story. As Beth & Karen guessed they deal with supernatural and psychic phenomena, not part of the Family Channels beliefs.

Thanks Shirley for the info on Founders Day about the argument between the Baldwins, Cora Beth and Grandpa as to who settled Walton's Mountain first. It seems like someone is having fun with adding this cousin, that uncle, then another ancestor and now a sister to episodes ..(The writer's probably never dreamed we would be scrutinizing the time line as well as how the relatives fit in.) The Love Story states that Rome and Rebecca were the ones to build the house on Walton's Mountain, but from the Deed (per Shirley) the First Walton landed in 1789 and lived on Walton's Mountain in the summer of 1796 (a little imagination here can say they lived in another house and not the one mentioned in The Love Story.

To Julie: "The Captive" is the episode that brings to light Cora Beth's drinking problem.

To RK: In "The Hot Rod" the secret alluded to, was that the secret room was used by grandfather, (the Colonel) whose female cousins were numerous and frequent and were probably not his cousins.

In The Furlough, John Boy tells his story of being in the ocean, clinging to parts of their downed airplane called the "Katey Anne" with his friend Stewart, ( who eventually slips away and drowns.)

The Homefront airs 9 months after the Day of Infamy Episode--Dec 7, 1941 and tells of John Boy missing in action. The Journal tells of John Boy's Journal and he is still missing in action and in The Waiting, he is in the hospital in a coma 2 months after the Homefront a year after Day of Infamy.

The Furlough airs 3 months later. So in all, a year and three months after the war started, John Boy came home.

As for Cindy and Ben's daughter, Virginia, her death is mentioned for the first time in A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion, 1993 and it doesn't say how it happened.

rkjones: Mary Ellen found out that Curt was alive when his friend, Betty Howell, (who was in love with him) came all the way from Florida looking for Mary Ellen. Curt had changed his name and didn't want to go back to Mary Ellen because as he told her, he was wounded and lost his manhood.

I just seen Erin (Mary Beth McDonough) on TV last night. She played a kidney transplant patient on the show called "ER". Of all of the Walton children, the only ones that I have seen on TV since the ending of the Walton show are John Boy and Erin. I did read about Mary Ellen (Judy Norton-Taylor) being in an issue of Play Boy magazine. I also read of Elizabeth (Kami Cotler) working in a restaurant. Has anyone heard if she had the baby (believe it was due in April)??? What became of Jim-Bob (David W. Harper)?

From Lori:

I just saw the episode the other night when Elizabeth has a big crush on the new pastor. Erin is helping the Baldwin sisters write their memoirs and Miss Emily finds the ring from Ashley Longworth in the tree. It is so romantic, and sad at the same time, knowing that she could have been happy and married him if her father would not have interfered. Oh, well, that was how things were back then, I guess.