Hi everyone,

Thank goodness there's been a lot more mail in my email box this week, and so you won't have to listen to me ramble on forever again. Brenda has written saying that there are now 20 sites in the Waltons Webring. That's a terrific effort for a show that's not even on the air anymore. Congratulations to all of you who do have a Waltons site. They are all so varied that it makes it well worth while for visitors to go to each and every site. It certainly makes browsing for Waltons related material much easier. Thanks again to Brenda for getting it all up and going and running so smoothly.

Well I'm going to close now or I won't fit everything in. Take care this week and continue enjoying your summer. We've had very mild weather here lately so winter doesn't really seem to be quite with us yet. Further up the coast though, Sydney has been battered by storms this week. We haven't had any rain down here at all! We have a few members up Sydney way so I trust that you've all survived the storms with not too much damage. Some areas did look very bad.

Goodnight everyone,

Karen.

Hi Kurt,

I am 15 years old and enjoy the Waltons also! I have been watching them since day one just about!!!

Yes, they were the same Actor, but not the same "person" in the series. Must be they thought he hag good skills...but then they did kill him off, for a while.

The digest is awesome....Karen does a great job!

A Waltons Fan,

Daniel

KAREN'S COMMENT: Fabulous to hear from you Daniel. Your whole family must be devoted Waltons watchers! Does everything stop so you can watch together?

Karen,

I found out some information regarding Robert Donner. He will be performing Robert Donner's Hollywood Cracker Barrel at Spring Farm Cares on August 6 and 7, 1999 at 7pm. Tickets are $27.50 includes a buffet dinner. If there are 3 or more people in your party tickets are only $15.50. The play is a about stories of backstage Hollywood, supposed to be very funny.

KAREN'S COMMENT: It sounds like a great night.

Hi everyone,

My family and I just got back from our trip to Schuyler and The Waltons Mountain Museum. We loved it! The town seems to look very much the same as when Earl, Jr. grew up. The mountains surrounding the area were beautiful. I would love to go back when the cast and the Hamners are there. They said Earl would be there in August and he signs books whenever he is there. I enjoyed a short movie they show where the cast members are interviewed. They are not allowed to give out the real name of the Baldwin sisters, but there was a Judge who made moonshine and the sisters were actually mother and daughter and the daughter is still alive. Wouldn't it be interesting to speak to her? Well, today (July 10) is my husbands birthday so I suppose I will end it. By the way it is also Earl Hamner Jr.'s birthday. We signed a card for him while we were there.

JULIE

KAREN'S COMMENT: It sounds as if you had a wonderful time at the museum Julie. Perhaps you can persuade your husband to go again for one of the reunions. Happy birthday to your husband and Earl, and my own husband Rod who also had a birthday during the week.

Here is a message for Kurt. I too am 14 and all my friends mock me for watching the Waltons....so don't tell your friends if they'll mock u. (it gets annoying!:) They always say goodnight Johnboy when I end a chat with them late at night. Well, that's all. bye-bye!

Jessica

P.S. Did anyone catch the Waltons special and marathon a few days ago??

KAREN'S COMMENT: I get the goodnight thing too Jessica. :-)) My family thinks they're terribly funny.

Hi Karen,

Thanks for the installments from the 1977 TV Guide. And also, I want to welcome our new young member Kurt. Kurt, I understand that your friends might tease you if they knew you were a Waltons fan. But it is also ok to have secret enjoyments outside of your peer group. Although I bet if some of them watched the show, and some just might be doing it, they too would enjoy it. You sound like a great kid. And I think it is great that you found a character on the show to admire and look up. We look forward to your input and questions in future digests.

Karen, I agree with you that 7th Heaven isn't very much like the Waltons. I like 7th Heaven, but I LOVE the Waltons. The children on 7th Heaven are just a bid rude for my taste......then again it does take place in the '90's. I also find the parents a bit wishy washy and unrealistic. The mom is just a bit to sugary for me. Whereas I found Oliva to be much more realistic, contrary to what Michael Learned said. She was a well rounded person.....a mother who could be both loving and stern, a wife who helped her husband but also thought of her own needs. And like most wives and mothers, I feel Olivia was the glue who kept the family together....not saying the other family members weren't important. But Olivia was the mama. And Olivia is someone we could all live up to if we tried hard enough.....she wasn't an unbelievable homemaker like say Martha Stewart or the perfect unrealistic mom like Carol Brady. Olivia is REAL!!!!!!!

Hope you all have a Happy Walton Day each and every day.

Cathy

KAREN'S COMMENT: Isn't it great to have some younger views for the digest now too. Fresh eyes so to speak. I agree with your thoughts on Olivia. I find it interesting the times that she gets cross with Grandma for interfering with her rearing of the children too.

I want to agree with Geri Ann's comments regarding the realism of the Waltons. Watching it again (I never missed it on first run) I am amazed how realistic it is. The clothes and hair may not always be realistic for the time period but the way the events of the times were dealt with certainly is. From going through the depression to the war years, the characters are shown dealing with the times, both good and bad. I think many kids today could benefit from watching the show and learning some history.

Also, my husband thinks the "Recipe" probably was made from corn, which produces a more refined product than some other grains.

The Digest is great!

Laura from Seattle (where the sun is shining!)

KAREN'S COMMENT: There are a few other suggestions for the Recipe recipe. I hadn't thought of corn.

Just listened to the tape again and found out that it was probably 1857 that adoption rules were made, but it did sound a bit like it might be 1957 which was impossible since the episode took place in March or April of 1946.

Simpsons higher than the Waltons? Something is wrong with the rating. I will have to go to the site to see what shows are mentioned. And is Family Affair not even listed ? That was such a wonderful show too.

Donald

KAREN'S COMMENT: Yes fancy having The Simpsons higher than The Waltons, but I guess that more people would see that one perhaps. Generally more recent shows tend to get listed higher.

Regarding Keith's question about the recipe's recipe........in the 2nd 90's reunion (Johnboy's wedding) the sisters show up at Ike's early in the movie requesting "several oodles of sugar" and "yeast, the kind we usually order" for a "special run for Johnboy's wedding don't ya know." That's the only mention of the recipes contents I recall, other than the mason jars they always seemed to be buying.

I enjoyed Kurt's comments. During the majority of my only child childhood and teen years I lived in my own world created around what I had seen on The Waltons. I literally lived a lifetime there starting as a senior in high school and ending as an old lady living in the dream house, sitting at her desk finishing up her autobiography while her husband sat in his chair reading the paper, (I'm sure you can guess who he is:)). I even wrote a portion of it into a book which now resides in my keepsake box. Needless to say NONE of my friends knew about my "secret life" either. :)

Donna

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for adding a few more ingredients Donna. Well picked up.

Hi Everyone,

Two new Waltons sites have just been added to the Waltons Webring this week. One of them is a fan fiction site by Waltons' fan Debbie B. Her story is "The Storekeeper's Wife", about Corabeth Godsey. Debbie's page is at:

http://www.angelfire.com/az2/fanfic/walton.html

The other one is by 14-year old Jessica and is called "I Want to be a Walton When I Grow Up." Jessica'a page can be found at:

http://www.oocities.org/TelevisionCity/Studio/7541/waltons.html

I enjoyed visiting both of these webpages and I think other fans will as well. We now have 20 sites in the Waltons webring! I invite all of you to follow the webring and visit all of these webpages. Each is unique and offers something of interest to Waltons fans.

Brenda

KAREN'S COMMENT: I agree Brenda. If we go through the Web Ring there really is something for everyone there.

And finally, here's the third and final part of the article from TV Guide:

"Growing Pains On Waltons Mountain" taken from the TV Guide June 25-July 1, 1977.

Thomas finishes a horseshoe game with Eric, signs autographs for a band of giggling preteen gate-crashers and talks about the show. "When we started I didn't think it had much of a future. Everything since has been a pleasant surprise." He has directed some of the shows because he "was scared. If something scares you enough, you should do it." This past spring he performed at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles in the play "Merton of the Movies," which also scared him.

On this particular day, shortly before her illness, Ellen Corby and Will Geer (Grandpa) have been having an animated talk session. David Harper slouches by, lost in private thoughts. "David, straighten up," Corby commands. David pulls himself erect for a couple of steps, tosses her a hurt-angry look and then slumps on.

"I love that boy. I love him most of all. Now Eric, it was hard on him when he didn't turn out tall, Now he's doing exercises and I taught him how to hold his head. Doesn't he look good?"

For Corby, "The main fun of this show is being with the kids all the time, watching them grow up." The Walton children, meaning all except Thomas, who goes his own adult way, spend a great deal of their private time together, and Corby tagged along every time she was asked.

"One day this man came on the set, acting like everybody should know him. His name was Elton John. The kids said he gave concerts and they invited me. There was all this loudness, and afterwards I stood on a chair and yelled just like everybody else. I never told them that all the time I was wearing earplugs."

At lunch the young Waltons are full of banter and private jokes, reflecting the years spent together on the show. But there also seems a sense of a graduation approaching, an awareness that the Walton kids, ready or not, are becoming the Walton adults.

Jon answers questions about his fancy new car and Eric thinks maybe he'll buy something like it. Mary and Eric have just returned from a telethon in Texas, and she tells of Eric's grand manner with the airline champagne. Eric then tells about his late-night trick on the telethon phone. "Here it was three in the morning and I was talking to this kid, and all of a sudden I thought, why is this child up so late? And I said, "Kid, go to bed"."

What happens if and when The Waltons fades away? Says Eric, "We'll stay in the business. We'd be dumb to throw all this away. We have an education in acting and filmmaking. Even if we don't act, there are lots of good jobs around a studio."

But Hamner doesn't think they need do anything but The Waltons for a long time. "We've had it with the Depression and poverty as a theme. The family is now moving into the years just before World War II. All that ferment, with isolationism and Hitler. Those were exciting times - and our show will be stronger than ever."

Hamner is aware that some people find his show a bit gooey and would be happy to see it disappear. "There was this director I wanted to use and he said no, he was diabetic. I asked him to look at a couple of episodes and he would find that he was wrong. I never heard from him. The show is bittersweet. Things don't always go well. but we try to end on an upbeat note."

Whatever its future, The Waltons seems to have provided happy times for its young players, all of whom have been with it since the first special. Kami, sitting in the huge Walton kitchen, said, "It used to be when they told us we were through, I would say, "Oh, good, now I can go home." Then one day I knew I was just saying that because everybody says it. I don't really want to go home. I want to stay here forever."

THE END

KAREN: Hope you all enjoyed the article. I've got a few more that I'll share at some stage.