Hi everyone,

Well I would have hoped that by now I was able to put the digest out weekly again, but it just hasn't been able to happen. Even though I have been on holidays it has been so busy. As I've mentioned before James is into his final few weeks of secondary school and his performance exams come up very shortly. One is just over a week away and the other is two weeks away. His finals start at the beginning of November. What this has meant for my holidays is that we've had to head around to search for clothes for costuming and extra lessons while he has the time. We have been searching all our opportunity shops (do you have them over there?) to find a suit in the 40's style and he also wanted a particular type of hat. All of the hire things he tried on just didn't seem right, but we finally found a suit that he was happy with...only $10 so that was good, and someone told us of a great store that sells clothes especially for swing dancing. It had some fabulous stuff but quite expensive, however he fell in love with a hat there that we got. I could have done with The Waltons costuming department! We even had to run around to find braces to go with the outfit...they don't sell them much out here. We also have bought him a new suit for graduation.

I had a letter through recently from the Waltons Friendship Society about Richard Thomas appearing in Art over in England again. Was anyone able to go? I also had a letter through from the Waltons International Fan Club talking about the reunion coming up. I'm sure many of you will be going to that one. Please let us know of your plans. It all sounds fantastic.

Don't forget about the Waltons Quilt which some lucky person will win during this weekend. If you want more information on it please visit: www.the-waltons.com/quilt.html I see from the Waltons Forum that there will be tickets for sale at the reunion, and also that you can contact the Waltons Mountain Museum about tickets.

Life has settled down a bit over here after the tragedies of New York and Washington, although I keep my eye on CNN and FoxNews which comes straight from the USA. The terrorist attack continued to dominate our news for some time and of course it still does, particularly with the talk of war, but other issues have started to get back into our papers. Around the time of the tragedy, one of our two major airlines crashed and went out of business with thousands of people affected and for some time afterwards, in the papers there were pages and pages devoted to "War on Terror" then to "The Ansett Crisis", and also "The Boat People Crisis" (I'm sure you've all heard about Australia's handling of that one!) and very little else. Certainly September was a big news month out here.

Talk to you all again soon (I hope). Goodnight everyone,

Karen.

Vale Larry Young:

During the week I had some other very sad news too, which some of you may already have heard. Dianne Young, the wife of one of our longtime members of the digest, Larry Young, wrote to me with the news that Larry had sadly passed away. Larry had been a member since around 1998 and seemed to be a lovely man, and very devoted to Dianne. Judging from his website he was also a fan of country music. He must have really enjoyed the episodes where Jason sang his country music. I am reproducing her letter for you all. I have written to let her know how sorry I was to hear of his passing and that our prayers are with her and her family. He and Dianne had a Waltons site on the web which you may want to visit:

http://www.oocities.org/nashville/opry/8776/thewaltons.html

Rest in Peace Larry. Hope you're catching up on all the Waltons gossip in heaven from Will Geer and Ellen Corby.

Hi Karen,

My husband Larry young used to be a member of your waltons digest. I thought I would write to you and let you know that he has passed away. He had surgery in Nashville Tennessee on July 30th and 10 days later passed away from a blood clot that went to his lungs. He truely enjoied being part of your group, and was only still not on it because we switch email addys and he lost track of how to re subscribe. I still watch the Waltons now because it reminds me of the times he and I would watch together....

Have a beautiful day...

~Dianne

***************

"Sometimes late at night I forget he's not lying next to me...He may be out of sight but out of mind is something he won't ever be. Things that he said to me are still ringing out loud and clear, when he said"I love you baby" that was music to my ears. Each words like a note, like a beautiful tune, the kind that inspires and helps you get through. If I said I can't, he'd say you can....He was my toughest critic or my biggest fan. Now he's gone to a distant shore...and I can't hear the music anymore" ~Loretta Lynn

An excellent special edition, filled with emotion and an outpouring of love and support from around the world. We here in the USA appreciate the support from our Australian,Canadian, and British friends. Australia is one of the few nations we know we can trust, along with Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland,and Israel.

I agree with the overall tone of the letters. We have seen a Waltonesque outpouring of sacrifice, caring for our neighbors, and offering help in any way possible.If Osama bin Laden meant this to divide us or expect the worst in us, it backfired. It did exactly the opposite.

-Patrick

KAREN'S COMMENT: Yes, I agree with you about the attitudes of people. Tragedies such as these do tend to make people rally and bond together in a way that they usually don't. As for bin Laden's motives, I certainly don't know what he hoped to achieve!

Hi Karen,

I really enjoy receiving your digests and being kept up on the Waltons. I just read your special digest #2 with everyone's comments and thoughts dealing with Tuesday's Tragedy. I am still numb and many web sites have some touching photos taken from countries all around our nation. Brings a tear to the eye.

The link if you are interested is

http://www.wam.umd.edu/~hughesa/thankyou.htm

I live in Victoria, BC and received an email this morning from some friends in Idaho. They have a son who lives in NY, fortunately he is fine, but his friends worked in the Trade Centre one on the 107th floor and this fellow is still missing. My friend's son is devastated as with thousands of others. My friend's daughter-in-law is a flight attendant and had just flown on one of the plane's that had been hijacked. She is counting her blessings.

On an upbeat note, our local music bands put together a benefit concert for proceeds going to the littlest victims of this tragedy-the children. I just heard on the radio that they raised over $8,000. The bands and organizers announced the concert Saturday so they did quite well.

As a Canadian, our country mourns and supports the United States. There are still many Canadians working in New York/Washington who are still missing. Hope that they will be found.

Karen, along with my thoughts, I am writing to let you know that I did not receive the Special Edition #1 that you sent out just following the tragic events. You mentioned that many were returned probably due to the heavy internet traffic.

Keep up the good work and sharing Walton news with all of us.

Keep safe and happy.

Mary

Keep your day cheerful and bright!

KAREN'S COMMENT: As Mary mentioned, several people didn't receive their Special Editions of the digest, and I'm assuming it's because of things happening because of the World Trade Centre tragedy, please let me know if you'd like to have them and I'll send them to you.

Have just received word that the scout for the Notre Dame soccer team was scheduled to be on the Boston Los Angeles plane to meet some one in Long Beach Tuesday evening, then the meeting had to be called off and she instead hastily rescheduled a meeting with a prospective player in Providence. So instead she had just boarded the train and was a few minutes out of Boston when it happened.

Donald

KAREN'S COMMENT: There were a lot of very lucky escapes that day. I think they were very lucky that the toll wasn't higher, although that's no comfort at all to the people who have lost family members and friends.

Hello Karen and all!

Thanks so much for the digest Karen. It was a big treat to get some mail not containing the US crisis. I'm looking forward to when life is completely back to normal. The TV guide this week is wrong because of the crisis, but the crossword had a question which we all know the answer to, Ralph _______ of the Waltons. I haven't seen the Waltons for a while, but I hope to find them and tape them soon. It's nice to take a tape when I baby-sit. Not much news this week. My condolences to everyone living in America. Canada is right beside you.

Goodnight everybody,

Robin

KAREN'S COMMENT: What an easy crossword question! For us anyway. :-))

Karen,

Thanks for this. I our family had members(My sister in law's brother and uncle) missing for a short time. Thankfully they called within hours to say they were ok. Now with military action surely to come I am worried about my cousin John Gagnon, who was just promoted to Major in the Army. He was in the Desert Storm action. Thankfully he made it through that. He has a wife and two young children.

Beth

KAREN'S COMMENT: Yes I must say that I'm a bit worried about those involved in the military action too.

Hello Everyone!!

I hope all is well with you in the world... the Waltons has been so warming for me lately, especially being that it is something similar to relate to....just wanted to mention that I did indeed get an autographed photograph from Michael Learned last week....I was a little discouraged, because there wasn't a note or a personalization like one person had received...but something is better than nothing. I wrote to Michael almost a year ago, in October, c/o "The Best Man"...so let me give faith to any of you who might have also written to Michael..... This gives me faith that I will receive a response from Richard!!!! Krys: Happy Holidays!!!! And thrilled to hear that James is doing JCS..... I've always loved that play!!!! I'm sorry this is so short everyone... Goodnight everybody!!!

Love,

Viv

KAREN'S COMMENT: Jesus Christ Superstar went so well. I hadn't seen it before although I was familiar with some of the music, but it was great. James alternated the roles of Pilate and Caiaphas. People said that he was such a scary Caiaphas too!

Dear Friends,

Just a note to let everybody know that the spirit of "The Waltons" lives on.

Our President, George W.Bush,has since this tragedy unfolded, eloquently stated what is good about America. He has repeatedly noted the goodness and kindness shown here and from around the world. This nightmare has actually brought out the best in the American people, when Mr.bin Laden intended it to divide us. It has backfired on him. America is solidly united, probably the most united since World War Two.

My point in all this is, I have discovered that the spirit of America is the spirit of the Waltons. Goodness, kindness, caring, and reaching out not only to our neighbors, but all in need. These are things "The Waltons" always emphasized. What Earl Hamner did was merely portray what is good about our country. These traits have once again manifested themselves in recent days.

-Patrick

KAREN'S COMMENT: You're right about Earl Hamner. He was really able to portray the community spirit and the caring the people all had for one another. I hope these qualities stay with us forever.

Good Afternoon

Thank you for your editions of The Waltons and special ones. They have helped me the last 2 weeks. It reminds me of The Waltons and the spirit and the times they went through. I pray that know one has to go through this again. Thank you everyone for your prayers. God Bless the USA

Rona

KAREN'S COMMENT: Glad they helped Rona.

Karen,

Just thought I'd say hello. I want to thank you (again, if I have already) for those special editions of the Digest. They were a great source of comfort in a time of horrible tragedy here in the USA and around the world. The American people have shown themselves to have Walton-like characteristics along with our caring friends from around the world. Like the Waltons, America and indeed the civilized world will endure and prevail, to paraphrase Irene Porter in England.

Well, enough of my recourse in current events.

I know that sometime ago, some Digest readers noted that the Walton house was also the house on "Mayberry RFD". Somebody also mentioned that they had seen Will Geer as a guest on "Mayberry RFD". Well, the Mayberry-Walton connection goes deeper still.

I noticed that John McGreevey,who wrote more episodes of "The Waltons" than anybody else, wrote the first episode of "Mayberry RFD".

Whether he wrote any other episodes I'm not sure but I would not be surprised. This just proves even more that top-notch talent helped make "The Waltons" the wonderful series we all love. The actors, directors, producers, and writers were and are the best in the business.

Patrick

KAREN'S COMMENT: The Waltons family are certainly a talented bunch. You see their names popping up all over the place. I think all the awards the show won just shows how talented they were, not just in the acting area but in all of the other areas too.