Hi Waltons Fans,

First of all I have a message from Arthur for you all. He wrote and told me that he has scanned photos, and reproduced the articles which he transcribed for our mailing list, and put them up on the Net. To find them go to:

http://www.surflink.co.uk/users/arthurdungate/default.htm

There you will find a link for the articles. I have already written and thanked Arthur for doing this, and to tell him that it looks terrific. Check out the photo of Jon Walmsley with long hair! :-)

I have also been very busy, and now have the first 10 digests on the Internet. For those of you who are newer to our list you can now catch up from the beginning.

TTYL, Karen.

From Shirley:

Going by the birth order of the Hamner children, I would say the order of the Walton children go like this: John-Boy, Jason, Mary Ellen, Erin, Ben, Jim Bob, Elizabeth. Now if you like to know the order of the Walton cast children, they go like this: Richard Thomas, Jon Walmsley, Judy Norton, Eric Scott, Mary McDonough, David Harper, Kami Cotler. (Mary is just six months older then David).

KAREN'S COMMENT: We still haven't solved the question of who is older yet then have we? Ben or Erin? You might well be right Shirley. It's a good suggestion.

From Logan:

Hello to everyone, My name is Logan and I live in Richmond, VA . I just joined the mailing list about 2 weeks ago. I have been a Walton's fan ever since I was little. I'm married and have a 4 year old daughter.

I would like to respond to the letter from the Boellner Family about their upcoming trip to the Walton's Mountain Museum. As you can guess from my address, I'm only about an hour and a half from the museum. The town of Schuyler is where the museum and the Hamner home are located. I have been to the museum many many times and have met Mrs. Hamner. I also have met "Jason", "Toni" and "Erin". I have been to the Rockfish River and seen the site of the Dew Drop Inn. I look forward to sharing some of my stories with everyone through the Digest.

Charlottesville will be your best bet on where to stay. I know that they have quite a few good hotels. As for food, the only suggestion that I can give ( and I know it sounds mean ) is do not eat at the Schuyler Family Resturant in Schuyler. The food is not so good. As for the things not to miss, well my favorites are Monticello ( Home of Thomas Jefferson ) and an Orchard just down the road from there called Carter's Mountain.

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thank you for your information about the Schuyler area. Hopefully it will help lots of list members.

From Mikkala:

I am so thrilled to have found others as devoted to the Waltons as I. It is a joy to read all about you and to discuss positive things for a change! What a delight! I read the article about what all of the Walton's actors have been up to-one thing that was not mentioned-many members divorced and remarried. Did Jon Walmsley and his wife/actress who played his wife remain together or have they too found marriage life more difficult and less lasting then we all hope for?

KAREN'S COMMENT: It's great to have some mail from our newer members. I'm glad you're enjoying the list. There certainly have been a lot of marriages/divorces/ remarriages among the Waltons actors haven't there. I read an article recently about Mary McDonough (Erin) and she, too, is now divorced. As for Jon and Lisa Walmsley I have no new information...I had thought that they must still be together considering that they both appeared in A Walton Easter. Hopefully they are. Perhaps someone has some current news.

From Julie:

It was fun reading the article about "Whatever Happened To..." even though it was a few years old. I think it is so nice that all the actors got along so well, and keep in touch after so many years. It is also nice to know that other people enjoy watching old Waltons reruns beside myself, and care enough about a quality show to subscribe to your newsletter and write in occasionally. It is fun to hear everyone's opinions.

From Jeanine:

I just started a job at Wal-Mart and the first person I rang up had 3 Waltons videos. They are single episodes and they cost $6.96 each. I checked it out on my break and they have all sorts of episodes. Could you pass this along to the rest of the fans. I highly recommend them. I paid over $20.00 for each 2 episode tape I bought. Lastly I have to say how sad I was when I heard Jimmy Stewart died. As many of you probably know one Ellen Corby's first acting roles was in It's A Wonderful Life. She was great and I learned that she was also a good friend of Stewarts. KAREN'S COMMENT: Well there's another place that people can look for their missing episodes. Thanks for the tip Jeanine. Do they have The Changeling or The Ghost Story? These seem to be the two which Family won't show.

From Kim:

The Homecoming: "The Homecoming" referred to the father's very late return home on Christmas Eve after working all week in another city quite a distance away. The title also refers to the father's decision, at the end of the film, to quit his job and work closer to home after he realizes how worried his wife and children were all day, waiting for him.

My local station ran "The Homecoming" quite some time after the Waltons had stopped airing, so it wasn't a terrible shock for me to see different actors in the roles of John, Olivia, and Grandpa. I enjoyed Patricia Neal's performance because she reminded me of a couple of great aunts in my family who had raised their children during that time. She did not tolerate back-talk and she expected the older children to mind the younger ones because her housework was a constant, exhaustive chore.

John-Boy's character showed him to be restless and tired of always having to be a "mother hen" to the younger ones. He snatches every opportunity to write in a hidden journal in his room behind a locked door, prompting speculation from his mother and grandmother that he is in there smoking cigarettes. When the Waltons first aired, John-Boy was supposed to be 18 (I think). In "The Homecoming" he is a year or two younger, on the verge of needing to make a decision of what sort of work he will have to take on in order to become a man and a responsible adult. He is hiding his dream of being a writer from his father because he feels it is not something his father would understand (or possibly approve of). He wants to be like his father, who is described as larger than life, but feels that no matter how hard he tries, he will always come up short. When the father returns, however, the Christmas present he gives to John-Boy is a pen and some writing tablets. Apparently he's known about his son's dream all along and is supportive.

There are also little touches in the film that make it more realistic to me. John-Boy is told by his mother to churn the butter because she is so busy. He protests that it is women's work and dubiously and sloppily churns until his grandmother sighs and offers to do it for him. When Mary-Ellen wishes to accompany John-Boy in going up the mountain to get the Christmas tree, her mother refuses, telling Mary-Ellen that her place is in the kitchen. The grandparents don't live there; the mother sends one of her children over to invite them to dinner. The barn is not so close to the house as in the television show - when the children go out to the woodpile, they get cold! It is not a quick or easy jaunt. Also, we are shown that there is a basement in the house.

The end of the film, when the father returns home, is lovely, with the sight of the children scrambling all over the presents on which the father has spent his entire pay cheque. When the mother asks, "What will we live on the coming week?", the father replies, "Love, woman. Love", and kisses her.

I'm also new to this list, after very happily finding it just when I was about to stop looking. From what I've read so far, everyone seems so varied and interesting. I live in Hamilton, Ontario, with my 11-year old son Clifford. I work in a social services department and own a battered truck and a snobby cat. I joined the Columbia Home Video club because they started offering Waltons' videos and found that my son will sit down and watch the tapes with me when Ellen Corby or Will Geer come on-screen. My favorite characters are John-Boy, Grandpa, and Jason but it's difficult to narrow down a favorite episode. I like the first five seasons the most, when the house was full and busy. I'm enjoying reading the past digests. They're heaven-sent to someone who's been without Waltons for so long. I won't give you that whole bit about how I thought I was the 'only fan in the world because so many people laughed when I mentioned the show'. I believe it's one of the few shows where the actors were allowed to grow and take character-risks and where the writing was intelligent, and I'm really looking forward to being part of this group.

From Beth:

Waltons reaction to Toni being Jewish: I think the reason everyone thought that was weird was not because of anti-Semitism, but because of Olivia's strong Protestant (read Baptist!) beliefs. I guess she wanted all of her children to grow up to be Baptist too, or at least something closer than Jewish. And perhaps too, they were thinking that there were enough hardships for couples starting out and their different faiths would only make things harder for them. And this would mean a lot of different traditions as far as Christmas, Easter, etc. were concerned. I am sure there is one episode where Jason brings home a soldier in his company who is Jewish and they all treat him just fine and sympathize with him about the horrors he speaks of; as a matter of fact I think he opened their eyes to some of the horrors endured by Jews during that time. And didn't someone kin to Flossie Brimmer or something come to Walton's Mountain and try to live only to be persecuted there as well? Please let me know if you guys can remember these episodes. I seem to remember a book burning and then people realizing they had burnt a Bible? Maybe they were German and not Jewish and people were reacting to the war...........

Dot's Trip: Thanks so much for your post about your trip, Dot. It was neat reading about places all around where I grew up. At which campground did you stay? Just curious! Did you go anywhere near Lovingston which is where I grew up? I have been wanting to hear from someone who had eaten at the restaurant and now I have! I will go next time I'm in Nelson and try it out! I know the people are great up there because I grew up with them! (or their children and grandchildren). Thanks again for telling us about your trip!

Also, country folk up there are not likely to be very familiar with computers and the Internet. I don't mean they're stupid or anything! as I am a country person too, but the older people don't know much about computers and even less about the Internet. My Dad is like that and really doesn't care to know anything about computers! My Mom works with them daily, but has very limited knowledge about the Internet. Just a thought.............

One Roomed Schools: There are not any schools to my knowledge anymore that have more than one grade in a classroom. There are small country schools, like the one my children attend, that have only one teacher per grade and only 18-24 students per grade. There were, however, one room school houses around when Earl Hamner was growing up. I know there are some in Nelson County that are still standing, in particular one in Shipman. I am not sure if Earl actually attended a one-room school or not because I think most of the elementary schools in Nelson were built in the 20's or 30's, I'm not sure. I think they were high schools in the early 1950's until the high school that is there now was built in 1955. If Ralph doesn't know I can find out for sure.