Goodness, the weeks are just flying by at the moment and Christmas will be here before we know it. Tim's finished at Uni for the year, except for exams and James only has another few weeks before he does his finals for the year...then a nice long holiday for him.

We've returned to winter this week with awful weather over the past few days, and today doesn't look to wonderful either. We've been busy too. It seems to be theatre season again and we saw a production of Calamity Jane last night over at James's school. Past students from the college have joined together to form a theatre company and they do a show each year. A couple of close friends of James were performing, one playing the part of Katie Brown. She did a lovely job with it. Another in the cast was a very good friend of Tim's, so it was fun to watch people you knew. There are a few more shows coming up over the next few weeks too so plenty to keep us busy. And I wondered where the weekends were going. :-))

I managed to watch another of newer (to me) episodes sent from the US this week. This time I saw Grandma Comes Home. It just brought back to me once more how courageous Ellen Corby was to return to the set after her stroke. She did a wonderful job of portraying just how difficult it was/is to communicate without words, and how frustrating it is when people don't understand you. The producers of The Waltons must have gone through an awful time too, trying to decide how they should best handle her stroke...do they write her out, wait and see, replace her? What a difficult time it must have been for them too. I just loved how excited Zeb was too. He really seemed so happy to have his Esther home again with him. A truly beautiful episode.

Talk to you all again next week. Goodnight everyone,

Karen.

Hello Karen

I am a 62 year old grandma and great grandma living in Oregon, and I have loved The Waltons forever (smile) I can remember seeing them when my children who are now in their 40-s were small, watching them brings back such memories. It is so neat to. know that they are so loved all over the world.

Karen I enjoy your newsletter so much, I no longer get to see The Waltons or the other shows that are mentioned on the list and I miss them so much, my TV doesn't pick them up without cable and I can't afford it right now. I have something like that wire you mentioned strung up but it doesn't help much. LOL

I have never seen the shows where John Boy is grown up. That sounded like a great one for sure, but my favourites are the ones where the kids are all still at home it is so neat for a grandma like me to be able to see such a neat family interact together.

I need to see if I can get some tapes somewhere, to fill in the void in my life, I know they do show movies from time to time, that you can buy, and I have one about Easter that I bought a long time ago.

I pray everyone is well and happy and that you are enjoying good weather.

Love and Prayers for all,

Lilymae

KAREN'S COMMENT: It sounds to me like you need a Jim Bob around to help your TV woes. Tapes are available...some anyway. Columbia House has them, and also places like Amazon have a few.

Hi! At the end of the 10/07 mailing, Hayley was talking about TNN's new "look." They are now known as The National Network. Part of the reason for the change is because they have, indeed, gone national (they were only a regional station). They have acquired shows like WWF Raw is War (a wrestling program) and they wanted to reach a "new" audience. So, no Hayley, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. It is now The National Network, the station with pop.

Cheryl

KAREN'S COMMENT: Oh you poor things having WWF wrestling. Tim went through a stage of watching it weekly and I'm so glad that he finally grew out of it!!!!! LOL

Hi Karen,

In response to Hayley, yes you are losing your mind. (haha) In "The Portrait", Derek Pembroke is played by Jared Martin while in "The Obstacle, Mike Paxton is played by Dennis Redfield. I think I remember thinking the same thing in these episodes though, so I guess I'm losing my mind too.

Rob

KAREN'S COMMENT: You've prompted me to go back and look at both episodes to compare Rob.

The Revelation is the episode where John Boy comes back from New York to get married to Daisy and learns that she had been married before and has a daughter who lives in Lynchburg. The wedding is called off John Boy accepts the assignment to go to Europe to work for Stars and Stripes and he leaves the bus terminal for New York and Europe broken hearted over Daisy.

The Idol is about Elizabeth's admiration for a new teacher who has a malignant brain tumour--The Portrait is the episode about Derek Pembrokes infatuation with Erin whom he thinks is a woman he once knew in pre-war Paris.

Donald

KAREN'S COMMENT: Yes, you're quite right of course Donald. The episode I saw was The Revelation. Whoops!

Hi everyone,

It's been so long since I have posted though I have enjoyed reading your Waltons talk! Welcome to all the newbies, its wonderful to have such a diverse group. It just proves what a classic show The Waltons is to still be capturing a new audience long after it finished the series.

Forgive me if this has been raised before. In the episode ' The Conflict" where the Walton relatives that live in the mountains are being evicted due to a highway being built through their property, does anyone have any ideas on the comment Jim-Bob makes to his mother when told Boone is his cousin, Jim-Bob replies "how can he be my cousin if he is so old?". Olivia passes it off, (a touch embarrassed) and says "I will explain later". My husband seems to think that this could be a reference to in-breeding, a custom of the 'hill people' back then, though I am not convinced. It is explained just prior to Jim-Bobs comment that Henry is Zeb's older brother, who is now dead but married Martha-Corrine. Martha-Corrine is John's Aunty. Boone is John's cousin. Would Boone being John's cousin automatically make Boone, the children's cousin as well, maybe second cousin. Anyone have any ideas on this one?

Kaz

KAREN'S COMMENT: I always thought that it would be second cousin, but maybe I'm wrong too. Maybe Olivia's response was because it's a bit confusing and might take a while to explain. They seem to take to Corabeth being a cousin fairly readily.

I tuned in to the new television show "ED" and saw that Mary Ellen is portraying a judge. It is a pretty good show and it's nice to see one of the Walton gang on TV again.

KAREN'S COMMENT: I saw a tiny piece in one of our papers this week about Ed and it seems that we may be getting it too. Great news. It was rated as 9 out of 10.

Hello Karen and all

Writing late this week...not much to say....The foliage is beautiful this time of year up here but it's getting cold. It smells like winter too if anybody knows what I am talking about. It smells nice. :) Something reminded me of the Waltons this week. My uncle is named Sam. His son (my cousin) is named Sam. We call him Baby Sam. He is 16 years old. We have called him that since he actually WAS a baby. The name stuck I guess. It reminded me of John and John-boy. I never thought of it before now but it is the same concept.

Does anyone out there do this? It never seemed strange to call him Baby Sam. I suppose that's why I never questioned the name John-Boy. :)

Goodnight Baby Sam, Goodnight John-Boy, Goodnight Karen!

Hayley

KAREN'S COMMENT: Fancy a 16 year old being stuck with the name of Baby Sam! I wonder if John Boy ever hated his name? I liked that Jonesy would call John Curtis, Johnny. Goodnight Hayley! Which reminds me...in Grandma Returns Home, didn't she love hearing all the goodnights again.