Hi everyone,

Well here I am writing to you after a VERY hectic week here. This week we have celebrated James's 15th birthday (Wednesday) and my mother in law turned 80 on Thursday, so this afternoon there has been a really big family gathering to celebrate. I'm very pleased to say that she is still in wonderful health. She has no car and walks every where, even on the hottest or the wettest of days. She is still working too, doing housework for the "old ladies" as she calls them! Some of them are not all that much older than her, but maybe that's the secret of staying young...you always consider yourself to be much younger than everyone else. She told me though that she is starting to cut down on her working hours and that as one old person dies, she isn't replacing them with anyone. :-)

James had a lovely day for his birthday too, celebrating it with a class geography trip to the Toolangi Forest which was also on that day. They had wonderful weather for it which was good, because at Toolangi it is very often wet, cold and miserable. We've been on picnics up there and sat in the shelter all day huddled by the open fire, wearing thick coats, hats and gloves.

He and I have been making plans to go and see all of these musicals which are coming to Melbourne very soon: Chicago, Les Miserables and Fiddler on the Roof (with Topol). Should be a lot of fun. We also watched the Tony awards presentations with much interest as we often get some of the Broadway shows out here. There's already talk of quite a few of them coming.

Definitely something to look forward to, when you are a stage musicals fanatic. I might not be able to satisfy my passion for The Waltons at the moment, but at least I can do something about my passion for musicals! Talk to you all again next week,
Goodnight everyone,

Karen.

Hi, everyone!

I've been watching Waltons reruns faithfully ever since they first started on FAM. I feel like I've seen almost all of them a couple of times. However, there is one I remember (or think I remember) from when I was really little that I have never seen in reruns. I think Olivia was pregnant, because the older kids were teasing Elizabeth, saying "you're not going to be the baby anymore". Did I make this up? It's happened before... My mother says when I was 4 and 5 years old, I would watch tv and then recreate what I watched, with generous embellishments!

Another question... Did anyone notice how John-Boy always seemed to wear the same clothes in the early shows (pale overalls and shirt), while all his siblings had well-stocked closets?

Heather :)

KAREN'S COMMENT: Would this episode be The Cradle do you think? If it is it might be airing soon, as I believe you are now into season 2. Never noticed about the clothes before...I'll have to watch a bit more closely. Maybe it was that he was already an adult when the show started, whilst the younger actors kept growing!

Karen,

Just so you will have some information, The name Ora is a very popular name in this part of the country. Being raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains myself it was most popular back around the timeof the great Depression and the setting of The Waltons. As a matter of fact I myself have 2 Aunts named Ora and get this Ora Lee. These are old mountain names. I lived and played in the NC Blue Ridge Mountains, and as you know they extend up through Va. We have all sort of country names around here not only was Ora popular but Ila, Ida, Della, Mae and Many more it was also very popular to put to first names together to make one first name such as Mary Ellen, Ila Mae, Della Mae, Fannie Ann, Ora Lee, etc...So you see Mr Hamner was very accurate in the names he used on the show for a real life effect. Those of us who lived in the area would have know better and the effectiveness of the show would not be the same.

Thought you would be interested in this . Keep warm and take care, We will bottle some sunshine for you and ship it to you it's HOT here now.

Scott and Karen Vestal

Walton Franatics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for this info. Ora is definitely an unusual one for me as I've never heard it before. Having two names over here would be good at times, as we have a lot of the Italian and Greek families who call their children by the same name. Works very nicely until you get cousins at school who have both the same first and last names! Maybe this was why it was done in your region too.

Hello everyone. I don't know if this has come up before when we were talking about the Baldwin cousins. I finally got a chance to see "The Reunion" on TNN (one which I've never seen before) and the Baldwin sisters mentioned that they hoped their cousin Tyrone would come. Tyrone was apparently "put away" for some time as he built a chariot and started riding it around town. (Tyrone never did show to my disappointment.) It seems to me that the Baldwin family is full of con men trying to take advantage of those two women. It makes me wonder what their father, the Judge, was actually like.
Kim W

KAREN'S COMMENT: I would have loved to have seen an episode with "Papa Baldwin" in it. He would have been such a colorful character. I think all of their cousins are simply wonderful.

Did not know that Richard Thomas played the part of Tommy Hughes, the son of Dr Bob and bitchy Lisa Hughes! My mother loved that soap opera! And I remember Lisa Hughes episode with Bruce Elliott!

Question: What was the phone number of Ike Godsey's store?

Answer: 3 shorts and a long.

Donald F Nelson and Erin the cat

KAREN'S COMMENT: I can remember this information being in the episode where John Boy works at the bus depot and has to ring Ike's to tell his parents not to expect him home for the weekend.

Hello Karen,

I've been wanting to write to you for a while but I've been on jury duty here in the states, so now I'm playing catch up with my correspondence. I have a few comments on the last two digests. You had written about the TV Guide covers and how one was an artist illustration. This cover was titled "The Waltons Grow Up" published on 6/25/77.

I also wanted to comment on TNN. After reading the digest with Rob's comments on the film being "jerky", I watched carefully and low and behold it was true. I watched "the Reunion" which aired on 5/13/98. The film was very jumpy. Scenes actually did not make sense because they would cut out the last few seconds of a scene (which I guess they thought that no one would notice). Now that I've been watching carefully, I am noticing it more and more!!

I've also been noticing that the question of how to get the entire series on tape keeps coming up. I get my tapes from Columbia House Video. I receive one tape a month which has either 2 episodes or 1 two-hour episode. I am one-third of the way to the complete set. The cost (in U.S.) is $ 24.95 each (includes shipping). The address is Columbia House Video Club, 1400 N. Fruitridge Ave., Terre Haute, IN 47811. Phone number is 1-800-457-0866. The tapes come in a beautiful plastic case which snaps closed. Definitely worth the money!!!

To Pat Davidson who had asked how to get a copy of "The Easter Story", this was one of the first tapes that I received in the collection. If she is still in need of a copy, I would be glad to make her one and forward it to her.

I also wanted to let you know that I had been searching for Walton's memorabilia for YEARS and had only found the game and one of the children's books. Since discovering e-bay a month ago, I now have the entire collection (6 books) of the books, 3 TV Guides, a McCall's with Michael Learned on the cover, the thermos, one of the Little Golden books, The John Walton doll, the John-Boy Walton doll (Mary-Ellen and Olivia dolls are on their way), an original "The Homecoming" book, another book just called "The Waltons", 2 complete unopened sets of the view-master packets, and an unopened set of paper dolls. The total amount I have spent (in US dollars) is approx. $150.00. Hope everyone has a safe and healthy summer!!!

Sharon in Pennsylvania

KAREN'S COMMENT: Wonderful information Sharon...thank you. Now I know for a fact that Columbia House WILL NOT ship overseas as I have asked them, but I am working on a source here in Melbourne who tells me that he can get episodes in for me. I'm not sure where from but here's hoping. I looked at Ebay this morning and there were 30 Waltons items. I would love to bid, but am a bit reluctant to being outside the states. Has anyone outside the USA used it? The international cheques can be quite costly and the exchange rate is really low at the moment which is a bit of a problem.

And finally, here's the 3rd installment of Richard Thomas's biography. There's a few of the latest things missed though such as The Christmas Box, and the later Waltons specials. Another favourite of mine missing is Hobson's Choice with Sharon Gless. I think it may have been about 1982. It is such a lovely story, very funny in places, and Richard is wonderful as the illiterate shoe craftsman, Will. Perhaps we can add a few of the latest things and bring it right up to date.

F.B.I. (11-17-71)

Episode: "The Game of Terror"

Role: Chill

Two young movie stars - Richard Thomas ("Last Summer," "Red Sky at Morning") and Jerry Houser ("Summer of 42") - portray youthful kidnappers in "The Game of Terror." Some game: their victim is imprisoned in a cave that could become his tomb.

The Homecoming - A Christmas Story (12-19-71)

With: Patricia Neal

Pilot for "The Waltons." Earl Hamner, Jr's play about a Virginia mountain clan preparing for Christmas back during the depression, invests the characters with charm and civility. Neal (the mother) is the guiding light who holds the family together while worrying over the return of her husband, who's been forced to work in another town. Thomas is John-Boy (author Hamner as a youth).

Night Gallery (2-23-72)

Episode: "The Sins of the Fathers"

The Waltons (9-14-72 through 1978)

Role: John-Boy

H.M.S. Pinafore - Special (11-23-73)

Narrator

The Red Badge of Courage (12-3-74)

Role: Henry Fleming

This faithful adaptation of Stephen Crane's classic Civil War novel about fear under fire stars Thomas as Henry Fleming, the youth who questions his courage in battle, runs away, and then fights again in a fit of madness with his tattered company of greenhorns. The braggart, the questioner, and the solid man all have their moments before authentic, bloody battle scenes reveal a regiment learning