Hi everyone,

It's been an absolutely huge weekend here and I'm writing today as a very proud parent. Tim was able to get his results on Friday (choice of phoning or Internet), with a letter coming today, and his results were wonderful. :-))))) His score was 93.1, out of a possible 99.95, and should allow him to get into the course he wants fairly easily. I'll explain a bit further because it's quite different to your system in the USA I think, and very complicated.

You can score a study score, out of 50, for each subject you do. These are then adjusted so that the values of the subjects are sort of equalled out. For example there are 3 different levels of maths you can do and the easiest is scaled up a couple of points, the next scaled a bit more and the more difficult one scaled a lot. Tim scored 27 out of 50 on the most difficult maths, and that scaled to about 38. It's a hard subject to score well in. Anyway after that is done, they add the top 3 of your scores together, add in your English score, and then add a further 10% of your next 1 or 2 subjects, if you have them. You don't actually have to study more but it's an advantage to have done so.

So you have your score, then they rank all students in the state, giving them a TER from 99.95 down to less than 10. The very top students get 99.95 so you can see why we were so thrilled with Tim's result.

With regard to University placements, to get into something like medicine, dentistry or law, you need to get about 98. It's very competitive. Is it the same over there? It's quite sad to hear some stories about people who have worked so hard all year and are then disappointed with their 97.9 because they can't get into their course. The young man who came top of the state (Victoria) was only 15! Can you believe it? Most of the students completing their studies would be 17 or 18.

Anyway enough of my boasting. :-)) On to Waltons matters. Many thanks to those of you who have written and shared your visits either to the Smithsonian Institute or on the cruise. Hope you all had a fabulous time. It sounds like it might be an annual event (the cruise) because it was so successful.

A lot of people are still asking about the Waltons CD. Please try your local music store as they might be able to get it in for you, or try the official Waltons site <www.the-walton.com> or if you prefer, Amazon on the internet <www.amazon.com>.

Well goodnight all,

Karen.

Dear All,

I was so thrilled to hear that the Smithsonian Institute was honouring the "Waltons" this past Thursday here in Washington, D.C. only 45 minutes from my home. I had every intention on going but was unable to, last minute.

My son is a serious violinist and had a rehearsal with his pianist for an upcoming performance... my husband was out of town and couldn't help me out. Did anyone go? I was soooooo looking forward to meeting Richard Thomas etc.

What a disappointment. However, my son took preference!

Goodnight All,

Elena

KAREN'S COMMENT: What a shame you had to miss it, but I know that family definitely comes first. Hope his performance is great.

Hello! I have so many questions about the Waltons and here they all are: Who did Mary Ellen divorce? I don't recall that at all. how is rose related to the Waltons? What happened to Ben and Cindy's second child (can't recall his name)? He just disappeared. Mary Ellen was told that she could have no more kids, but in The Walton Thanksgiving Reunion, she had two more kids, on John Curtis was not there. Please answer at least one of my questions!!!

Thank you.

~*Jessica*~

KAREN'S COMMENT: I'll leave some other members to respond to your questions, but I will refer you to the Waltons Digest Archives at:

THE WALTONS DIGEST PAGE (members only):

http://www.oocities.org/TelevisionCity/Set/4536/index.html

and also the FAQ at:

www.the-waltons.com

<<Can you answer a few questions for me? In which television special does Aimee come home with her husband and baby boy? She was played by the same actress that originated the role of Aimee, wasn't she? Why was Cora Beth upset with Aimee?>>

Corabeth was so upset with Aimee (it's spelled the French way) because Aimee married a mechanic who had a tattoo. To Corabeth, this was as if Aimee was throwing away her life to marry someone who wasn't worthy of her.

She said that she would have rathered Aimee run the store than marry him.

And yes, it is the same actress who originated the role, Rachel Longaker.

-Beth

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for your answer Beth. Yes Corabeth simply wasn't happy to see Aimee marry beneath her but was Ike instrumental in getting them back together do you think? It wasn't made clear. Nice to see Rachel reappearing.

Hi fans,

Will someone let us know if "The Homecoming" is scheduled to be on TV anytime this Christmas? I haven't seen it in 10+ years. And that was before we had a video tape player.

Goodnight from Alabama

Ed

KAREN'S COMMENT: Very good question. Does anyone know about that? You can buy a copy though. That's an easy one to get.

Dear Karen and Walton fans,

This is my first time writing but I must. I enjoy this digest so much and I know you will be able to relate to me and my experience at the Smithsonian Inst. in Washington DC this past Thursday Dec.2, 1999. My brother who lives on Capitol Hill gave me this as a Christmas gift. I myself live in Central PA.. I flew in on Thursday with my nice clothes and a copy of THE HOMECOMING for signatures, only to be disappointed to learn that my luggage was lost!!! All the prepping was a waste, I went in my travelling clothes which consisted of jeans and sneakers! UGH!

Oh well…This is what I had waited a lifetime for...and no matter what I was going. Upon arrival my heart stopped when I looked in the auditorium and there stood MICHAEL LEARNED!!!!! But just that quick she was gone. We got great seats only about 10 rows back...we had heard that the cast would not do autographs after the show because they had a dinner commitment. Once again I was devastated. My brother went and talked to everyone possible to try and get me the opportunity to talk to one of them or get an autograph...but no luck.

As the cast was introduced, Patricia Neal and Earl Hamner first followed by Michael Learned, Mary McDonough, Jon Walmsley and Judy Norton. My heart skipped a beat...it was so exciting.

The evening consisted of a brief movie highlighting "THE LOVE STORY" then questions asked by a mediator from the Smithsonian. It was so interesting. The questions asked were wonderful. I didn't want to breath for fear I would miss a word they were saying. Then a point in the evening the mediator turned to the audience and said it was time for questions from the audience...without thinking my feet took me to the microphone. There I stood in front of all these Walton family members. It all seemed like a dream to me. I was first to talk...well talk is what I did... I couldn't hold back the tears as I expressed how much I enjoyed The Waltons over the years and what a wonderful influence they were in my life. I also apologised for my attire, told them of my lost luggage, this was a gift from my brother (who by now was in shock and ready to crawl under his seat!:-)), on and on. I ended by asking them to autograph my copy of THE HOMECOMING video.

I till this day cannot believe I did all that and didn't collapse!!!! They were happy to sign my video…MICHAEL LEARNED asked my name which I will never forget as most of them wrote "TO SANDY, LOVE.....".

EARL HAMNER himself walked the video back to me and I had the opportunity to tell him what an honor it was to meet him.

My video case will be permanently framed and that evening will be one I will never forget. For any others who were there I can only imagine how I babbled on and on that night…it was raw emotion.:-)

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell my story. Not too many others can appreciate the excitement I felt. I would be happy to answer any questions anyone may have. Thankyou and goodnight!

SANDY

KAREN'S COMMENT: What an eventful night you had. I think I would still be frozen to the seat or too shy to get up and speak!

You are right Jane Schuler and Janet Gilchrist are not the same person. Besides The Day for Thanks on Waltons Mountain took place in 1947 and Johnboy married Janet Gilchrist in the spring of 1964.

Donald

KAREN'S COMMENT: Yes it took John Boy a looooong time to find Janet!

Karen,

Just wanted to let you know that when readers input character information from the Waltons I place it on my web site at www.galesburg.net/~atkins/waltons.html

For instance, you mentioned the names of Jason's, Mary Ellen's, and Erin's children in the last digest. Although I haven't verified these names, I am placing them at my web site, assuming I can verify them as Arthur Dungate and I write the synopses of the post-movies.

I welcome everybody to visit my site if they have questions on The Waltons, including family, friends, neighbours, animals that appear on The Waltons, plus web sites associated with The Waltons. If someone has additional information that they can verify (give me the information and the episode where the information appears), I will include it on my web site.

I hope this web site will become a good source of information about the Waltons.

Thanks,

Bill

URL: http://www.galesburg.net/~atkins

KAREN'S COMMENT: It's always good to verify the information that's written here as sometimes we need to have corrections, but the digest certainly is a good way to get snippets like that. We have an amazing body of Waltons knowledge among the 400 of us. :-))

Hi Karen and all. Greetings from Indy. I too have not posted for along time. But wanted to comment on this cousin Jerry. Karen as you know I do have every single Walton episode and special and have never heard of a cousin Jerry.. As far as a episode list from Columbia House Video, I have two of them.

Eric,

KAREN'S COMMENT: Would it be possible to email me a list of the videos which Columbia House have please? I could then add it to the mailing list.

Hi Everyone,

I just came back from a recording studio yesterday which was able to record the old Waltons record album onto a CD. They keep all of their music on file, and the man told me that if anyone else was interested in having copies of it made to give them a call. It was $40 for me to have it transferred to CD -- $30 to get it off the album and $10 to burn a CD.

I would be glad to be a Toledo go-between if anyone needs help of this kind. During the tour of the facilities, they also showed me that they do just about everything, including making commercials, soundtracks, transferring music, copying video tapes, etc. Maybe they do PAL tapes? Who knows. I would be glad to help anyone.

Larissa

KAREN'S COMMENT: What a wonderful idea. Thanks for the information Larissa.

Hi all. We are back from the cruise and what a wonderul time it was! Jon Walmsley was so nice to me and played a song on his guitar and sang for me since I requested it. Mary McDonough (Erin) really took a shine to my 10 year old daughter Lauren, and they spent lots of time together. Eric Scott (Ben) was there with his fiancee and looking very in love. Judy Norton was there as well as Martha Nix Wade(Serena) with her husband and their little girl. My little girl spent a lot of time playing with her little girl and Martha told me thank you the last night for letting Lauren watch over Bailey some and play with her. I felt like I should be thanking her for allowing my daughter to be with her daughter.

Joe Conley (Ike Godsey) was there with his wife and they are such a great couple and he is very funny. Ms. Patricia Neal and Mr. William Windom were there and what an honor to meet them. Unfortunately, Kami had a family situation which kept her from attending. She was disappointed and so were all of us but of course we understand about family and wish her and her family all the best and our prayers go up for them. Tony Becker (Drew Cutler) was there as well and he was great and very funny.

They are all great with their fans and we hope they had as good a time as the fans did. Many new friendships were established and we even met some of the people we have been talking to over the Internet through the forum. This was just the first cruise. They say there will be more. We are definitely planning to be in Schuyler in October for sure, if not before. The cast members spent more time with us than I thought they would.. They ate with us, socialised with us, played around with us and were very warm and friendly. Hope this helps to fill y'all in on what went on.

Karen

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for sharing with us Karen. It sounds like a fantastic time was had. I'm thrilled to hear that Eric Scott is engaged. He and his little girl deserve all the happiness this new relationship brings and I wish them all well. Kami posted on the forum that her mother in law became ill and they need to take a trip to see her and she didn't want to take extra time away from her teaching duties. Obviously she is a very dedicated teacher. Hope her mother in law is OK. Perhaps she can make the next cruise.

Hello Karen and Digest Members,

There has been some discussion about whether the "Cousin Jerry" reference is a sly way of honoring Jerry Goldsmith, or perhaps some other member of the crew. I don't know the answer to that, but I have noticed that the show sometimes finds a sneaky way to include those involved with the show.

For instance, in the show where Ben is making a bench to honour his fallen uncle and other boys from the county who did not come home from WWI, there is a marker in the cemetery that says "Harry Harris." This is one of the directors for The Waltons who is listed in the opening credits quite a bit. Can anyone think of other instances where they have snuck in names?

--Laura

KAREN'S COMMENT: I'd forgotten that one but yes you're right. Any other times we know of? And as an aside, Harry Harris is still directing great shows. I've often spotted is direction in 7th Heaven.

Hi Karen,

A quick answer to a few points --

<<I had a letter from someone this week asking about where you can buy Waltons tapes in Britain. Is the show still on over there?>>

Currently, The Waltons is on weekly, usually at 12 noon on Saturdays, on Channel Four. And there are NO Walton tapes on sale in the UK. Probably because the relatively small prospective sales would make it uneconomical to prepare and duplicate PAL625 versions.

Last week Channel 4 showed The Waiting (Season8 Ep9) and today, Sat, at midday, is to be The Silver Wings (Season8 Ep10)

Arthur

KAREN'S COMMENT: Now a couple of weeks ago someone from England was writing about Waltons tapes and show information, and the above is some of that information from Arthur for her. Thankyou. I have only EVER seen one Waltons video produced in PAL over here, which I very quickly bought. It has The Townie and The Anniversary on it.

Dear Karen,

I bought the Waltons paper dolls (Whitman) at a yard sale about 5 years ago for a whopping 10 cents! Do you have any idea of what the value may be? The box is a little bowed, and 26 of the outfits are still left uncut, but the one that was cut out is still with the set. The plastic stands are long gone, but John Boy and Mary Ellen are in very good shape. I see the book of all the kids on ebay for about 10 bucks, and I was curious if you had any idea of what mine may be worth. I would be willing to entertain an offer, I see you already own yours, but perhaps you know another die hard fan.

Sincerely,

Caren

KAREN'S COMMENT: Now Caren is not a member but I include her letter here in hope that some of you might be able to give me an idea of how much these are currently worth. Any ideas? I haven't seen the boxed sets on Ebay for some time.