Hi everyone,

I received my copy of The Blue Ridge Chronicle, the magazine for The International Waltons Fan Club, during the week. A very nice tribute to mothers is included in this issue, including the speech given by Elizabeth in church about her mother, on Mothers Day. This piece comes from Mother's Day on Waltons Mountain. There is quite a bit about the dedication ceremony at the Waltons Mountain Museum, which is very interesting. It sounds like it was a great day. And some good news for Leslie Winston (Cindy Walton) and her husband, Bob Yannetti, who are expecting a baby in August. Perhaps someone could let us know when their baby arrives. We don't seem to hear a lot about Leslie Winston, but I think she really sparkled in her role as Cindy. There are some lovely scenes between her and Ben just after they married. There is also a lovely photo of Kami with her new little son, Cotton.

Until next time, goodnight everyone, Karen.

From Ralph (and also Kim):

All of these questions about ages confused me so I asked Earl Hamner himself. Here is his answer:

"The order of children is JOHN BOY, JASON, MARY ELLEN, ERIN, ERIC, JIM-BOB, AND ELIZABETH."

That should settle the debate.

KAREN'S COMMENT: Well there you have it everyone. Many of us were wrong, but well done to those of you who knew the answer already. I think this is one I will put on my trivia page. I can honestly say that the answer came straight from Earl Hamner. Thanks for this Ralph.

From Lee:

Now someone was asking about all the episodes that mention Germany, Jews, Hitler, etc. Well this is what I have found:

In The Ceremony, from the first year, a Jewish family comes to the Mt. Their only child, boy, becomes a friend of John-boys and the gang and ends up having his Bah Mitzvah (spelling?) at the Waltons home. The Waltons are curious about the religion and very gracious to the family

In The Fire Storm, from the 5th season, John Boy reprints parts of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and causes a stir. It leads to book burning, books with German writing. John Boy gives the Rev and his fellow book burners one of his hysterical lectures and pulls a book out of the fire. Flossie Brimmer translates the first few lines. They are all aghast when they realize they were burning the Bible.

In The Rumor, Willy Brimmer, Flossie's brother-in-law, comes to Waltons Mountain. He is persecuted by some of the locals and John ends up defending him and hiring him at the mill. Like The Ceremony, the family is curious, and aids the person and/or family in need, whether they be Jewish or German.

In the Home Front, Jason brings home Lupinsky (a recruit) who plays the Jewish soldier in a later episode that tells the family about the horrible things happening to Jews. I don't know if it is supposed to be the same person, but it is the same actor in the episode The Unthinkable. The family show genuine concern and sadness for the soldier and his family.

Jason meets Toni in The Remembrance, but there is no mention of her being Jewish.

I don't know what episode it all comes out in, any one out there know?

Karen, before I went on vacation, Ralph was teasing that he would have information on another special, did anything come from that yet, that you know of?

To the person with the WalMart information, sorry forgot your name, and I don't have the digest in front of me, do you know if the episodes are uncut? I would hate to buy them and have a few minutes missing. But that is great to know! Well, until next time...Good Night

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for all of this Lee. Any more comments? I haven't heard anything official about another special, and I know that Ralph has been particularly busy with things of late. Can't help you any further with that point. Jeanine is the WalMart Waltons fan. Do you know if the episodes are cut? I find it very hard to tell at times.

A more recent update on the Waltons actors from Arthur:

Here's the second "Where are they now?" article. This one appeared in Satellite TV Europe, May 1995 when The Waltons was shown on a UK satellite channel once a day, five days a week. I'd just canceled after a free one month trial subscription, and, very fortunately, the May issue still came. ---

John Walton (Ralph Waite):- Ralph Waite carried on acting for a while after they stopped filming The Waltons in 1982. Then in 1990 he ran for Congress, saying: "Being seen as a father figure is a political advantage and it's one I'm willing to use". He wasn't elected though, which is probably a good thing because politics would have played havoc with his family life! Now he's acting again in a play in Cincinnati.

Erin (Mary Elizabeth McDonough):- Mary is 33 and teaches acting in Sydney, Australia.

Elizabeth (Kami Cotler):- When The Waltons finished, Kami was a huge star in the US and was mobbed wherever she went. She decided to become a Broadway star but - mainly because everyone who saw her saw Elizabeth Walton, not Kami Cotler, - failed. Today, at the age of 29, she's returned to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the setting for The Waltons, where she's a happily married first year elementary school teacher.

Olivia (Michael Learned):- Has three children of her own and lives in Alamo, California with her attorney husband. She still acts, mainly on Broadway.

Jason (Jon Walmsley):- Just like Jason, Jon is a talented musician and plays in a country rock band. Now aged 37, he plays piano, guitar, mandolin, flute, drums, cello, harmonica and strings - though not all at the same time!

Mary Ellen (Judy Norton):- Judy, now 37, has remained in the entertainment business and is currently directing a play in Canada.

John-Boy (Richard Thomas):- Richard Thomas is the most successful ex-Walton by far. He's starred in a whole host of films including "The Red Badge of Courage", "Roots" and "Berlin Tunnel". His television credits include Stephen King's "It" and "Death in Small Doses", and he's currently working on a new film in Germany.

Ben (Eric Scott):- Eric Scott was just 23 when he left The Waltons and got a job as a courier driver for a messenger service. He's stuck at it and now he's Vice President of one of America's biggest messenger service companies - you could say he's done OK for himself!

Jim Bob (David Harper):- David has hardly been seen or heard of since The Waltons went out of production and, at the age of 33, he's now something of a recluse. When last heard of he was scenery painting in the San Fernando Valley, California.

(from "Satellite TV Europe, May 1995").

KAREN'S COMMENT: Once again Arthur, thank you very much for this. My eyes opened with Mary McDonough teaching acting in Sydney though. It's certainly the first I've heard of it and usually papers mention if an overseas actor is living here, and exploit it a fair bit. We have Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich on The Sound Of Music) who is now living here permanently, and is often mentioned. We have a member living in Sydney though. She may know something more.

From Marca:

Thank you for putting the first Digests on your web site. Now I have some more stuff to read during the rainy days over here. It is very nice to read what other people wrote in the first Digests, also because some of their names were new for me. And it was a surprise to see that your son James also likes The Waltons and wrote something for 'our' Digest (good taste!).. Does your husband like The Waltons too or is he more like your oldest son or more like himself? ;-)

(KAREN: Actually Marca, Rod teases me for watching my "weepies", although he does tolerate them. I enjoy shows like Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven. James "son with good taste" watches these with me. James is a young man with quite classic tastes as he also enjoys classic movies immensely. Rod and Tim are more interested in action movies and sports.)

In Digest 3 I read that Earl Hamner wrote to you.. Does this mean that he knows about your mailing list and is he a member too..?

(KAREN: No, Earl contacted me after I set the page up, and I now write to him from time to time. He does know about the mailing list though.)

To Brenda: It's very nice to read your complete answer to my question about the one-room school in the series and I've already visited your home page and the pages about the one-room schoolhouse. The article about the Museum says that students wrote a research paper based on the interviews. I am wondering if some of this papers are available electronically so I can read them for I became very interested in the history behind the series The Waltons (that's why I asked about the one-room classes).. And did you write a summary of these papers in your last e-mail..?

I was always interested in the history of Europe and particularly the period from 1900-1970 with the Second World War as specialty. I am not so familiar with American history because you can understand there was so much to do in Europe during that period. But by watching The Waltons in the last years I learn more about the history of America.

It's useless to tell you in which part of the Netherlands I live because compared to the U.S. and Australia, our country is rather small and the distance between north and south are 400 km. (250 miles) at most and from east to west not even 200 km.. But there are 15 million people in our country and still many rural areas left, one of which I live with my husband. Therefore the distances to the schools aren't that big and there were always enough teachers so that children of the same ages could study together in one classroom. In those days there were more then 30 children of the same age in one classroom.

To Arthur: Thank you for telling me about the Homecoming. Now about your Special Waltons Article.. Of course I read the articles about the actors and also about David Harper. It says that he played small parts in movies like "Fletch" with Chevy Chase, and guess what: one of our satellite stations programmed to broadcast this movie that same night.. What a coincidence..! Even though David plays a small part I watched the movie.. We had to wait for a long time but after about one hour he appeared as a driver of a stolen car which was taken over by Chase. I recognized him immediately - he was a bit older of course and he had braces in his mouth. Do you know if it was only for that movie or did he also have braces in the last seasons of the Waltons..?

One of the advantages of corresponding with a fan who lives nearby is that you can draw one's attention to the broadcasting of something interesting. So I attended Kim to this :-) as soon as I discovered it but unfortunately she couldn't receive this station :-(

Also to my surprise I saw last Monday Richard Thomas on that same station playing in an episode of The Outer Limits. This is a series about science fiction and suspense similar to the X-Files. Richard played a professor at the University who developed 'nanobots' which were even smaller than miscoscopic robots. These things could be injected in animals or persons and were programmed by Richard to cure diseases like cancer, heart-diseases and dandruff (he was sometimes funny too)… By accident doctors diagnosed pelvic cancer in his brother-in-law after which the latter broke in at the university and injected himself with these nanobots. And because it's fiction these robots went their own way and misformed this brother-in-law.. Richard didn't know how to prevent or to recover this so in the end he had to kill him by electrocution..(!) A simple and strange story maybe and although I don't like science fiction very much I thought he acted very convincing. What a surprise altogether.

Has anyone seen some of the movies that 'our' actors have made after they left The Waltons…? And what did you think of their performances..?

(KAREN: I've seen Richard in a lot of things. Performances I've particularly enjoyed are "The Christmas Box" and "Hobson's Choice". I have seen Mary McDonough in a couple of things too. She was good but the movies weren't terrific and I can't even remember the names.)

At last!!!! After weeks of abstinence (I hope it's the right word for it) the broadcasting of The Waltons does continue again in my country. We've had Wimbledon and the Tour the France but next week two new episodes are being shown among which The Comeback, with an unmarried Mary-Ellen - while she married four, five weeks ago..!? At the end of August it stops again, I think, because of the U.S. Open.

One other thing: some of the members of this list regularly offer their apologies for writing long letters. I believe it's just the purpose of it - writing your thoughts so that other people can enjoy it. I like it anyway when you all write things about The Waltons, the backgrounds of the series and even the weather in all the parts of the world. The more the better.. don't you think so?

KAREN'S COMMENT: Yes, I really don't mind long letters, providing it is all relevant, as yours is Marca. It sometimes can't be helped because people leave all their mail and catch up on it in one go, therefore having a lot to say. :-)