Hi everyone,

Welcome once again to our new members who have joined during the week. The list is slowly growing. Remember if you have any mail you wish to have posted to the list, just send it to me to add to the next digest.

Well there's not much news from me today...it's been a fairly quiet week so I think I'll just hand over to you now.

All the best, Karen.

From Leon:

I followed the discussion about Mr. Hamner's accent. I can't hear the small differences within southern accents. Being a person from an non-English speaking country ( 80-90% of the Dutch people understands, reads and writes English :-) . I only hear the differences between the major accents, like Australian, English, Scottish, Irish, Canadian, American, Southern and Caribbean. They mostly are developed by ancestors coming from different countries. I don't know who founded Schuyler but it looks like the Dutch word "schuilen", this means a hiding-place, a shelter or refuge. Other places like Rockfish and Scottsville have clear English names. This can explain the difference with the surrounding accents and the resemblance with the Canadian language where a lot of Dutch people emigrated to in the last century. Not only the English were the first to colonize Northern America, the Dutch bought Manhattan from the Indians and called it New Amsterdam, Wall Street was called Wal-straat, Brooklyn was called after the Dutch place Breukelen, Harlem after the Dutch city of Haarlem. There were even presidents with Dutch names like Van Buren and Roosevelt or famous families like Vanderbilt.

The discussion about the changing of some names, like Nelson County into Jefferson County, Schuyler into Waltons Mountain and Hamner into Walton, made me wonder why the series is created around a family living in Virginia and not a Walton family living in California where the outdoor scenes were filmed? The family life and values they stand for are universal. Also the program was based upon the youth of Mr. Hamner and his family not a recreation of their lives.

I hope to get some reactions on my remarks about the accent and location. Goodnight to you all out there on the net.

From Julie:
Hi, Karen! Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed the latest installment of the digest! I have a question I have been wondering about. Can you or anyone in the "club" tell me the title and plot of the final Waltons episode? In the regular series, I mean, before they started with all the specials. I have never been able to pin it down, and would like to know. Thanks!

KAREN'S COMMENT: Glad you're enjoying it all Julie. It's really fun to do as well. I can tell you that the final regular episode was called The Revel and aired 6/04/81. I'll leave it to someone else to tell you all about it though so stay tuned for the next digest. Actually after I watched Founder's Day, I thought what a good ending this would have made to the show too. Everything was sort of tied up and reminisced about in it.

From Lee:
Greetings Walton friends. "Kin is people you gotta kiss even if they got a mustache"--Jim Bob from Dust Bowl Cousins.

Time Line tidbits: The Journey--Maggie McKenzie was celebrating 55th wedding anniversary. She was married in 1879, that makes the year 1934. This fits making the 1st season 1933 and second 34. I also thought it was funny that John Boy bought a dinner of Lobster and Scallops for only $2.10!!! and a 25 cent tip!

Trivia: Name the Waltons many pets through the years! There seems to be a new one in every episode. Here are some to look for: Ben's Pig, Elizabeth's raccoon, the family dog, the peacock (this one I don't know), there are sure to be more animals I haven't come across yet.

More Trivia: What does Olivia use in Cousin Polly's frosting and cake recipe to win the prize at the county fair? How old was the Judge when he died? What was the nickname John had for John-Boy and who gave it to him?

I have been thinking about my favorites----episode, character...etc. I love Elizabeth and Jim Bob when they were little. There scenes together are so cute and always bring a little smile to my face. I would have to say Olivia and John are my very favorites. They are such a fun, happy and in love couple, even after so many years and KIDS! They disagree and have their spats, but in the end they always compromise and agree to disagree. I always wished my parents had been more like that. As for favorite episode I like any in which John gets that gleam in his eye and showers Olivia with his joy and love and she usually resists coyly if the children are around and then gives in. I am still watching for a specific one to be my very favorite, but it will probably be when the kids are young.

KAREN'S COMMENT: Lee I adore the quote of Jim Bob's. I remember as a child being expected to kiss all the relatives whenever we saw them and at times I hated it. Fortunately none of them had beards or mustaches, but some certainly were whiskery!!! Elizabeth also had a cat that had kittens then died. What was the cat's name? Jim Bob and Elizabeth seemed to have a lovely "sibling" relationship which came through in the series. They really cared about one another. By the way Lee, thanks for the answers to the trivia questions. You've tricked me with some of them too. :-)

>From Jeff:

I read with interest someone's comment about not liking the 1993 Waltons special. Perhaps if I went back and examined it closely, I would feel the same way, but I had been out of touch with the Waltons for a very long time (I hadn't seen an episode since I started high school in 1977) and suddenly finding them again was like seeing the daffodils bloom after a long winter. I was so happy to see everyone again, especially the Baldwin sisters, who were now old and rather frail, but their fluttery mannerisms were still in evidence. Through total ignorance, I missed the follow-up specials - John Boy's wedding and the Easter Special, but I've ordered the latter from Columbia House and anxiously await its arrival.

I'm sure I will enjoy the recent specials as soon as I'm able to see them, but I think my favorite episodes will always remain the first few seasons, when the children were at home and the family weathered one crisis after another, yet always managed to keep the house filled with love, warmth and togetherness. It was this theme, I feel, that made the series such a hit, and why it still has such a loyal following today.

When reading about Mary McDonough's appearance on ER as a lupus patient, I remembered reading about a year ago that the actress suffered from a blood disease which, she believed, was caused by silicone breast implants. They had been removed and she was channeling her energies toward resurrecting her career.

KAREN'S COMMENT: Well said Jeff. I heartily agree with you. I love to revisit with the family as they get older but my favorite episodes are from the series as the family is growing up.

Someone commented on Ralph's forum that Mary does suffer from Lupus herself and that she believed that it was caused by her implants. It sounded as though she was thrilled with the quality of the ER script for her episode. I don't know much about Lupus but apparently it can attack your organs, as it did in Mary's character's case on ER, making an organ transplant necessary. Apparently though none of Mary's organs are affected.