Hi everyone,

Thank goodness it's the end of the week and we can have a bit of a rest. It has been one of the most hectic weeks this week with James performing each night and Christmas celebrations on as well. School is finally over for both Tim and James now. Tim has his report and was up early yesterday to get his year 12 subject result off the internet. I'm very happy to tell you that he did marvelously well in it, so it's a good start for his final year 12 subjects next year. James gets his report sent next week, but he has done very well too, so there are celebrations all around in our house this weekend.

As for me, well I finish school next Thursday. I am moving to a new school next year so there is a lot of cleaning and so on to be done, so life is really busy there too, even though the teaching part of my job has finished for the year. The weather here isn't really helping things either...it's just sooooo hot. Another scorcher is forecast for today. At the moment it's 8 am (daylight saving time) and its already well over 30 degrees. Hopefully a cool change will come through later tonight. We've had a few bushfires already too.

Back to matters Walton though...we continue to have The Waltons shown on Foxtel here. Most of season one was shown and we are now into season two. Again though, they are all over the place, but it's so nice to see them again, I don't care!

Talk to you all again soon,

Goodnight everyone, Karen.

Hi Everyone,

This is in response to the person who asked what route the bus from Rockfish probably took. I'm probably forgetting one or two of the names on the side, but I know some of them were Rockfish, Charlottesville, Richmond, Norfolk.

If the bus were running today, they would definitely be taking I-64 to get from Richmond to Norfolk (and presumably Route 29 or something to get from Rockfish to Charlottesville - I'm not exactly sure where Rockfish is supposed to be on the show.)

Given that interstates didn't exist back then, the most reasonable way for them to have made the same trip is:

Route 29 (or whatever) - Rockfish to Charlottesville

Route 250 - Charlottesville to Richmond

Route 60 - Richmond through Williamsburg to Newport News

Route 17 - Newport News through Suffolk to Portsmouth

Route 58 - Portsmouth to Norfolk

This route will take you down the Peninsula north of the James River. The other possible way, though it would be longer and less direct, would have been to cross the James River in Richmond and travel south of it. That would be:

Route 250 - Charlottesville to Richmond

US 1 - Richmond to Petersburg

Route 460 - Petersburg to Suffolk/Chesapeake

Route 13 - into Norfolk

Note that I am restricting myself to streets that I'm sure were available then but using cities' names as they are now. I'm certain of the available streets down in the Norfolk area because I grew up there. For many years the only way to cross the James River without going all the way to Richmond (or taking a ferry) was the James River Bridge on Route 17 (between Suffolk and Newport News.)

I can't remember what the other names on the bus are but if either Newport News or Williamsburg is on it, then they would have traveled via the first route. If Petersburg is on it then they would have gone the second way.

And in response to the person who asked how they could get heirlooms out of the attic after a fire: A few years ago, one of the buildings on the UVa campus (the physics building's top/attic floor) caught fire. Grad students had offices up there and one of them was the Teaching Assistant for one of my classes. He lost a lot of books and notes and research in that fire. But, in his desk drawer he had had a big stack of papers to grade. Turns out that our papers in that drawer did not burn up because the drawer was packed tight and so there was no oxygen in it to allow the papers to burn. Similarly, if they had a trunk or something in the attic which was packed with stuff, chances are good the insides didn't burn. Especially since the top of the house didn't burn completely (such that there was nothing left at all.)

Happy Christmas Shopping and Happy Finals Time,

Larissa

KAREN'S COMMENT: My apologies to Larissa. She actually replied in time for last week's digest, but it got so big that I was going to add her letter to part two, and forgot!

Hi Karen,

Welcome Rebekah......John Curtis would have been old enough for Viet Nam as he was born in 1941. So for the Thanksgiving reunion that took place in 1963 when Kennedy was shot, John Curtis would have been 22 years old. Wow, that means they should have made Elizabeth 35 years old if they followed the time line exactly. Rebekah, you will eventually notice and be frustrated by (like all of us) that the reunion movies don't follow timelines exactly, at least when it comes to aging the family properly. Of course if they did, John and Olivia would be in their 80's by now and grandma over 100. And it is frustrating that they never give you an update on "whatever happened to....."

To me that is even more frustrating than the timeline. But we all love the show anyway and you will come to love it as we have, if you don't already. We look beyond our annoyances just so we can have the opportunity to visit with this wonderful family once more - a family I'm sure we all have come to think of as our own. Let's just keep hope they continue making their yearly special.

Good Night,

Cathy in Arizona

KAREN'S COMMENT: It's interesting you make the point about John Curtis Cathy, because wasn't Jonesy referred to as being away in Vietnam?

I did send the email to Alex and Marca's website for errors. Another bad error on an earlier episode, The Obsession was that Florence Nightingale was not born in England but was born in Florence, Italy.

There is someone on the forum named Jim B-I don't know who he is but he is not Jim Bob! Anyway he said that with the reunions they can't have everybody there so that is why some of the characters were not included.

It was mentioned on the forum some time back that Virginia had died of Scarlet Fever. Who ever mentioned it might have been confused with the fact that John Sr's sister did die of scarlet fever.

Did send an email to the TV station and got a reply to the effect that they used it for commercial breaks. Originally TV advertising wasn't allowed on British television.

Donald

KAREN'S COMMENT: I suppose it was budgetary restraints and other actor's commitments that may have keep the characters out of the specials.

Actually, I believe John Curtis was born in 1940, as he was probably about a year old, more or less, when his father was killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941. So he'd have been in his early to mid-20's during the Vietnam era, and old enough to go. (Too bad they didn't use that as an explanation of his absence in the recent reunion movies!)

Like everyone else, I hate the episodes where Curt was found to be alive! I wish they'd never done those. I commented on soap operas before; I always felt the two-parter where Curt was discovered to be alive was more like a soap opera (because soaps always bring characters back from the dead) than like "The Waltons." I've always tried to pretend those particular episodes never happened.

I've always been impressed by the way the series depicted all the many things that can happen to a family in wartime. You had Erin losing her first love, G.W., when he was killed in the early days of the war. (By the way, how did G.W. wind up being Erin's boyfriend when he'd originally been Mary Ellen's boyfriend?) You had Mary Ellen losing her husband at Pearl Harbor and finding herself a war widow with a young baby to raise. You had the family suffering through a family member who was MIA when John-Boy was shot down, and then they found him more dead than alive, and it showed the vigil his parents kept as everyone waited to see if he would live.

You had a POW when Ben was held prisoner by the Japanese. (As a side comment - everyone is talking about hair. None of the boys had hair like a true serviceman would have! No crew cuts or anything! Especially Ben, being in the Navy!) You saw how the women - the wives, sisters, mother and grandmother - had to cope with their menfolk being away at war (I remember Elizabeth saying in tearful frustration, "I just want my brothers to come home!" And Cindy, with little Virginia, not knowing if she would be the second Walton wife to become a war widow, because after Ben was taken POW, nobody knew if he was alive or dead or would ever come home.)

There was Jason, trying to deal with his emotions about whether or not he could bring himself to kill someone, even in battle. So many aspects of wartime, all touched upon in the story of this one family. I thought it was very well done.

One last comment before I stop rambling - in "Day of Infamy," there is one scene that always moves me to tears. Earlier in 1941, Grandpa Walton had died. There is one scene, after Mary Ellen finds out Curt has been killed, and everyone is in the living room after Jim-Bob has come home with the telegram, and Grandma comes over to Mary Ellen and just simply puts a hand on her. Every time I see that, I think that they both became widows in the same year, one from losing her husband of a lifetime to old age, and the other from losing her husband of only a couple years to the cruelties of war. And now they had this new and very sad bond together, a shared grief that only widows can know. That one tiny little moment always chokes me up when I see it.

Geri Ann in Phoenix

KAREN'S COMMENT: Geri Ann I've always wondered the same thing about GW. Was there ever a show that actually showed GW transferring his affections to Erin? I seem to remember some comment about it but can't think where.

Karen,

I can confirm that "The Sinner" went missing from Foxtel's season 1 airings. We saw 22 of the 24 episodes. But, who knows, with Foxtel's random episode generator, they may still turn up later on.

Phillip K

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks Phillip. I didn't think I'd missed any episodes. I keep looking for them on the weekend repeats, in case they turn up there. For those of you who don't get Foxtel, we saw all of series one except for The Sinner and The Easter Story. Perhaps they'll put The Sinner on during a John Ritter fest!

Hello, everyone!

I saw a television advertisement (here in the States) for Honda which MAY have Erin in it. I'm not positive if it is Erin, so I thought that if some sharp-eyed Waltons fans could keep an eye out for it, that would be great!

The woman in question is literally only shown for a second. And, you don't know it's a Honda ad until the end, so let me describe it for you, so you don't miss it. The "action" takes place in a room like a board room or conference room. What is taking place is some sort of arbitration; all the members of a family have lawyers speaking on their behalves about what they want in a new family car (minivan?). The lawyer for the children says that they want sliding doors on each side. The lawyer for the father says that he wants something, and the lawyer for the mother says that she wants something else. Then, the announcer comes on (I think it's Richard Dreyfus' voice) to tell us that the Honda Such-and-such will fit the bill for the family.

Honda will never hire me, because I just did a lousy job of describing their commercial! :-) But, anyway, when they flashed over to the shot of the mother of the family sitting with her lawyer, she looked like Mary McDonough (Erin). As I said, it was only for a second, and I'd surely have to see it again (maybe several times) to be certain if it was really her. But, I thought that some Digest members here in the States might also have fun looking for the advertisement to see if I'm right...or if I've completely lost my mind, which is possible!

Thanks, Karen!

Claire

KAREN'S COMMENT: Any ideas about this? I wouldn't have thought that Mary McDonough would do it if it wasn't a speaking role though. Maybe she's got a look alike. :-)

Greetings once again from Tennessee!

A few digests back, I believe it was Donald & Erin the Cat who asked about Elizabeth's reading of the Jessica Girl Spy novels and wondered if these were based on any real book mystery series. I did a little bit of research and found there were several girls' mystery series during the period Elizabeth would have been reading them (late 30s and into the 40s). The best known, I believe, would have been the Judy Bolton series of mystery books for girls. They were written by Margaret Sutton (I don't remember if this was a pen name or not) from 1932-1967 and there were 38 titles in the series. Just thought I'd share.

Cable channel TV Land was airing up until recently Michael Learned's series "Nurse"--oddly enough it ran at noon CST, the same time as The Waltons. I watched parts of a couple of episodes--it was a good series, but not, of course, as good as The Waltons!

My mother-in-law was here over the Thanksgiving holiday and she mentioned that when she and her husband were in California once back in the 70s, they got to visit the set of The Waltons while taking a studio tour. She said they shook hands with several of the children (she couldn't remember which ones) and with Ralph Waite. She said Ralph Waite was especially friendly and nice! (Must have been the latent politician in him!)

I was watching an episode of an old series called The Young Pioneers on the Odyssey channel a few nights ago, and it was like a mini Waltons reunion. In it were the actor who played "Yancey Tucker"; Kami's younger brother Jeff who was "Pip" in The Children's Carol; the young girl who played the little sister to Jim-Bob's friend "Joe" in The Flight; and also there was David Huddleston who played "A.J. Covington" in The Literary Man. Quite a remarkable collection for one show, I thought.

Cheers,

Carolyn

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thank you for doing this research Carolyn. I must see if I can find anything further. I also wondered about the Nancy Drew series. How old are they? I know that the Hardy Boys ones have been around for a long time and they are done by the same person.

Dear Karen,

Just to let you know, I also sent a copy of my letter of complaint to Channel Four's 'Right to Reply' program, via Fax. (Tuesday)

This morning (Saturday) I received the following letter, (Via Slow Mail):

Dear Jeremy,

Thanks for your fax about The Waltons. We have had a number of calls and letters about the program since the introduction of the T4 strand (T4, by the way, is the brand for teen programming). <but I'm 28!>. Many people like you are unhappy at both the logo and the presenter's comments over the credits.

We did actually look at the question of logos on Right to Reply two weeks ago. <sorry missed it!>. The commissioning editor for children's and youth programming, <hey what about adults?>, Andi Peters, <didn't he partner Edd the Duck on the BBC?>, said he was aware that the T$ <Sorry still had the shift key pressed>, T4 logo had prompted complaints, and he plans to introduce a sepia version, <hang on where's by dictionary?< a dark reddish-brown pigment obtained from the inky secretion of the cattle fish.(eh!)>>, for the Waltons which will be less intrusive.

Right to Reply will be keeping an eye on developments over the coming weeks, but I have also passed your letter on to Andi Peters' department. Thanks again for getting in touch.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Jolly

Producer, Right to Reply.

So it looks like we are not the only one's who have complained, and it sounds like Right To Reply is the one to write too for results!

I have been given a Email address now:

IJOLLY@CHANNEL4.CO.UK

Who knows maybe Andi will switch the presenter for Edd the Duck, or even better Sooty. (For those who don't know, Sooty doesn't speak!)

Regards

Jeremy

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for the update Jeremy. I'm sure that Sooty would be a real admirer of such a fine program as The Waltons. :-))

I thought you'd like to see just what we in the UK are having to endure nowadays. This is what happened last Sunday 6 Dec, and is typical of what now goes on. --

As soon as the Goodnights finish, the picture is whipped away, and, while C4's version of the credits climbs up the right quarter of the pic (so they can't easily be read), we have this dim-witted boy on the screen saying -

"And you can catch up again with The Waltons at the same time next week right here on T4. I've been getting loads and loads of faxes e-mails and phone calls about dodgy food, this this er e-mail's come through from Gabby Sevenoaks in fact she sent us a couple she says a relative of mine drinks dishwashing liquid if he's got an upset stomach because he figures that if it can clean the dishes it can wash him out too, not something that we can recommend you try yourselves, and she also says my grandfather is really eccentric, he has Coke in his cereal every morning, rather him than me, now this one's come from Nadim Cow he says when I was younger I used to scoop up my cornflakes with raw onion then eat it then I would drink the milk after the onion had been soaked inside it I used to love it but not as much as your show, cheers for that Nadim, don't go away though we've got our Hollyoaks recap coming up in just a second".

By speaking fast he gets all that in during the ending of The Waltons....... And that load of rubbish is just a mild one.....

How low can TV stations get. What CAN we do......

Cheers,

Arthur D

www.surflink.co.uk/users/arthurdungate/index.htm

(Basingstoke Canal site = www.surflink.co.uk/users/arthurdungate/bascan.htm)