| WALTONS DIGEST 28-2000: Hi everyone, Here we are again for a new Waltons Digest. A little bit of news for our Australian members...channel 9 is finally showing Beyond the Prairie today at 4 p.m., which probably explains why this is going out early. Just to jog your memory, Beyond the Prairie is the telemovie about Laura Ingalls Wilder, which has Richard Thomas as Charles (Pa) Ingalls. Hope some of you get to see it. It's still very chilly here, although the sun is out this morning. There's really not much other news from this end. Life goes on as always. I can't believe that it's nearly August already. Where is the time going to? Talk to you all soon. Goodnight everyone, Karen.
Hi Karen and Everyone! On the subject of the ages of the Walton children. I am sure the different writers did not stick to the same age differences as the show progressed. At one point I wrote down ages every time they were mentioned in the different shows and they never computed the same, so I gave up trying to figure it out. In The Homecoming, from which the show was originated, Mary Ellen was 13. That was Christmas of 1933. The series had only seven children, but in the book, the eight children were all about a year apart from Clay-Boy at age 15 down to Pattie-Cake at age 8. John-Boy was 16 or 17 when the series started and Elizabeth was not yet in school, so she must have been only 5. As I remember, in a show where one of them graduated, the comment was made that there had been a graduation every year, which means the older children were all about a year apart in age. I know that in Maryland there was no 8th grade in many of the country schools in the 1930s and 1940s. They went from 7 grades of primary school right into the 4 years of high school, which meant they finished high school at age 16 or 17, depending on when their birthday fell on the calendar. If that was the case in Virginia, as well, then they all graduated from school a year younger than children do today at 17 or 18. In the North Eastern states it was not uncommon for rural children to start 1st grade at age 5 if the teacher felt they were ready for school and the one to three room primary schools had room. I know of a boy who started when he was still age 4 because he was already reading and there were only 10 children in the one room school. He turned 5 in February of his first grade year and graduated from a University 3 months after he turned 20. This was an average boy who worked hard, not a gifted child. It amazes me that several friends of the Digest here in the U S don't seem to know that July 4th, Independence Day, has nothing to do with the Civil War (War Between the States to southerners). The first one was in 1776, the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted and it is the day that is considered the birthday of The United States of America. Settlers had been in this country since the Mayflower arrived at what is now Massachusetts in the fall of 1620, and some say non native people were here before that in other areas. Of course, the American Indians were the natives. The Civil War was from April 1861 to April 1865. The Revolutionary War was from April 1775 to September 1783, when the final peace treaty was signed with the British. Our various flags over the years are a great history lesson. This country has had more changes in its official flag than any other country of the world. There is a nice commemorative set of postage stamps currently being sold that shows 20 of them from the Sons of Liberty Flag of 1775, which was 13 red and white stripes for the original 13 colonies (no stars), to the current red, white, and blue 50 star flag which was adopted in 1960 after Hawaii became the 50th state in August 1959. Previously there was a 10 stamp series of U S Historic Flags issued in 1968. It was nice to see Germany represented in the current Digest. Best wishes to all of you in all countries! C J KAREN'S COMMENT: Yes we have a nice international flavor to the digest. I think the dates were a bit out too, although I do think that she has taken them from episodes where dates and ages were mentioned, so no doubt they were scripted...but as we Walton lovers know, the writers sometimes slipped up a little...or a lot if you were Ben, Cindy and MaryEllen!!! LOL
VA is wonderful just like Sharon said especially because there is so much beauty not just history. I am a lifelong resident and now live in a town outside of Richmond in Chesterfield County. The real small town I grew up in has only one thousand people--Crewe. That is where I want to move when the kids are out of school, but the husband is resisting. He is more into technology and the hustle and bustle. I am working on him. We are driving through Crewe and then to Appomattox next week. This is a really interesting place to visit which is where the surrender of Civil War was between Lee and Grant. It is only about an hour and fifteen minutes from Charlottesville. So much to do. Jean KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for mentioning this one Jean. I'm sure many of the visitors to Schuyler will now include Crewe as a stop on their holidays. If Virginia is anything like Victoria, there are lots of country towns well worth stopping off at that are barely listed anywhere at all. Trouble is that over here, the major highways have bypassed a lot of the small towns and people no longer go to them.
Last Wednesday I got another catalogue from Critics Choice Video and Day of Thanks was not available. It could be that they are out of copies right now or being the summer it could be that they consider this video to be out of season. The birthdates are somewhat askew. For Mary Ellen and Erin's ages to be the way they are described Mary Ellen would have to be just a year or less older than Erin., This is not possible. Something was amiss in the calculations. Donald KAREN'S COMMENT: A Day of Thanks is still on their website, under "Day of Thanks" rather than "Waltons". If anyone is interested, an email to check availability might be a good idea.
Hi Karen and everyone, I hope all is well with you. Thanks for sending what I missed, that was the only trouble I had, which was probably my computer- so thanks. You are a wiz! I would be fine if I could think like that! LOL Anyway.... I am from the USA, New Jersey. Although, we have flashes of different weather sometimes I don't know where I am! LOL Anyway, I hope you like "It's a Miracle" I personally think it's a great, and very moving show. If you have ever seen the show "Beyond Chance" on the channel Lifetime, "Miracle" is much like that, the elements/ qualities and basis of the show are very similar. I also heard that RT is working on a new project, with, I think his daughter- but I don't know much about it. Keep up the good work! Take Care, Viv KAREN'S COMMENT: One thing you notice about Richard Thomas, is that he is always busy! I'm looking forward to It's a Miracle...Foxtel channel 32, 6.30pm Sunday evening from August for those Aussies on the list.
Hi there Karen, Channel 4 has been very kind to us Brits ... last week we got to see John Boy's wedding, this week it was Erin's and next week we get Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain. Why they are jumping around so much is anybody's guess but at least we get to se them. <<What year were the Walton children born?>> Series one was set in 1932, "John-Boy" mentions this a lot in his commentary, he also says he was 17. I think he was born in 1915, this would tie in with John going off to WW1. In the episode when Rev. Fordwick comes to the mountain it is mentioned that Elizabeth is 5, this was also 1932. John Boy 1915 Jason ... no way is there a 5 year gap between him and John Boy, although a bigger than usual gap as John went to war.If John returned at the end of WW1 (which finished in Nov 1918) then Jason couldn't be born until the end of 1919. Mary Ellen 1920-ish (16-ish in 1936 .. see the Abdication for conformation) Erin as a guess 1922 Ben as a guess 1923 JimBob 1926 ( 18 in 1944) Elizabeth 1927 Best Wishes Alison KAREN'S COMMENT: Yes, it was the big gap between Jason and John Boy that struck me too. In The Breakdown it says that Jason was always running to keep up with the older John Boy but I think it also mentions the age difference as being only about 18 months.
I have been receiving your digest for sometime now and thoroughly enjoy it. Thanks for doing such a great job. Just wanted to express a few thoughts about the show. Of all the episodes I enjoy the early ones the most mainly because the children are younger. Concerning the acting, John, Olivia, John-Boy and the grandparents were all excellent; of the children, I think Jim-Bob was the best. He is a very good actor. He always seemed to come across as natural and very believable. Of the two John-Boys I liked Richard Thomas the best. A cousin of mine met him once, he said that Richard Thomas was a very nice guy who didn't mind talking to fans or having his picture taken. As for favorite characters on the show, aside from the Walton family themselves, my favorite characters are the Baldwin sisters and Cora Beth. The Baldwins are fun and charming. Cora Beth with her nosiness and scheming always makes me laugh. One of my favorite episodes I think involved the death of President Roosevelt. I don't remember the name but at the end the Waltons are at the train station waiting for the funeral train to pass and when it does instead of hearing Earl Hamner you hear John Walton say "Good night, Mr. President." To me that was very moving. Thanks again for the digest, I always look forward to reading it. Ed KAREN'S COMMENT: I have the second half of the two parter you mention. It comes in the later part of the series and is excellent. You're right, that train going past at the end and the Goodnight was extremely moving.
Hello everyone! As I mentioned in the last digest, I was waiting to hear from Columbia House about a list of Walton tapes. Well, I've received it and is quite long. A lot of you here in the states may already have obtained this list, but for those of you that have not ..here goes!!
I'm assuming that they are not all on separate tapes ...??? They did say that additional volumes are to be added in the future . The address for this is : Columbia House / Video Library , 1400 North Fruitridge Avenue, Terre Haute, Indiana 47811! I can't wait to order! For all of you that don't own many tapes and would like to I hope this helps!!! Goodnight all!!!! Sincerely, Judy KAREN'S COMMENT: I would assume that there would be two episodes on a tape, unless the episode is a two part one. Thank you so much for the list.
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