Hi everyone,

I'm back in action after a short trip to Sydney, where I was able to indulge my other passion in life...gymnastics. We flew up to Sydney on Wednesday morning and came home fairly late on Sunday evening. While we were there we attended the Australian National Gymnastics championships, then followed that up with the Qantas International Challenge, which included 1 woman and 2 men from the USA (the men did fairly well, and Jeanette Antolin has a terrific bars routine, but didn't reach her potential this time unfortunately) and also some British competitors (one got VERY sunburnt after a day of surfing at Bondi Beach!) For our Canadian list members, Emilie Fournier did extremely well and took out the women's All Around competition. We had a fantastic time. The Athletics was also testing its venue while we were there too.

I can also report to you about the Olympic Village though, as the gymnastics was being held in the Sydney Superdome. The event was partly to test the venue and make sure all the scoring and things like that were working well. We stayed at the new Novatel hotel, which is right in the heart of the Olympic Village and walked to everything from there. It's really well lit at night, and so clean. It's all very modern and is looking terrific. There is still some work being done though, but the majority of it seems to be finished. Getting to the Village though, I think will cause some major hassles and the suburbs around the Village are dreadful. In fact the village is like this terrific place just plonked down in the middle of nowhere. It will be interesting to see how it is received by overseas visitors.

Anyway, back to matters Walton. I have recently received a set of 4 Waltons scripts and was interested to see that one of them, "The Pledge", actually has a "teaser" scripted right at the front. I don't know a lot about TV production, but I always thought that once the episode had been shot, that then several scenes would be used to create the teaser, the bit that's on before the episode starts. Silly me. Obviously it's more well thought out than I had thought. That brings me to a discussion point though...do you like the teasers or not? I'm not sure what episode they brought them in at, but what are your views.

Shirley mentioned a while ago about how she thought there may have been a version of The Homecoming around which had 8 children, not 7. Her version has the 7. I'm wondering Shirley if the person who mentioned that to you, might be getting confused with Spencer's Mountain? I received a copy of The Homecoming (the book) the other day too, and was quite surprised to find that there were 8 children listed in that. I had always thought that "The Homecoming" novel was based more closely on "The Homecoming" movie. How similar is The Homecoming (novel) to Spencer's Mountain (book or film)? Sounds very confusing but I know what I mean. :-))

I think it's about time I stopped rambling for the night. Talk to you all again next week.

Goodnight everyone,

Karen.

Karen

Just though I write to send a note about our weather, thought it might help to cool you down. I live in CT, USA and we had about six inches of snow overnight (2/19/2000) and have sleet falling right now, 9:30 am. Your letters are so wonderful, I can feel the heat and hear the birds and bugs when you write. I know that you are longing for some cool breezes and we are longing for some warm winds.

When talking about religion exhibited it was always a strong undercurrent and showed itself frequently that I remember. I seem to recall that Olivia was seen in her rocking chair at night, in her robe reading the bible in one episode, I can't recall the name. In one episode Jim Bob falls in love with a Catholic Girl who is going to become a nun. The Baptist faith is mentioned quite a few times in that episode, I believe both Grandma and Olivia make comments about their beliefs. Also the episode when Jason brings home his future wife (I can't recall her name right now) there is a big family issue at the dinner table because she is Jewish. Mary Ellen and others go on to talk about their faith.

I do not recall ever seeing the boxer episode. I am sorry that I missed it. Take Care Karen, and thanks for all the wonderful letters and hard work.

Kathy in CT

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thank you for telling me about your snow Kathy. It's been much cooler over the past 2 days thank goodness, so perhaps some of your frostiness has headed our way. (LOL) Seriously though, I can tell you that it's officially been our second hottest February on record, beaten only by 1898. This past week has been very hot again. The episode about Jim Bob with the Catholic girl is a really lovely one I think. She was such a nice girl. Wasn't Cora Beth's reaction to her funny though?

Karen on the ET program the actors told how when they were first assigned the roles, there were not the arrangements meant for their families to move out to CA for the entire taping times - so they often traveled with one parent leaving behind their own siblings for months at a time - so they adopted one another as "family" and as they worked so hard on the scripts etc they formed really close bonds.... thus, they have remained in one another's lives now due to this....

KAREN'S COMMENT: It must have been very hard for them and their families. Wouldn't it be interesting to know who was originally also up for the parts? I have recently bought a book on the making of The Sound of Music and it's fascinating to read about which famous actors were up for each role. By the way, I may have already mentioned it, but Darleen Carr (the spoilt girl who took John Boy's notebook The Heartbreaker is the sister of Charmian Carr (Liesl in the Sound of Music). Darleen also was one of the group of extra children who sang to provide a larger sound to the Von Trapp children's voices.

Yes I remember Apples Way very well. It was quite popular when it first came on but then in the fall of 1974 the format of the episodes changed and people lost interest in the show. I am sending this to you at the precise moment that 56 years ago I was born in what is now called the Big Apple.

Donald

KAREN'S COMMENT: Hope you had a fantastic birthday Donald.

Dear Karen & all,

I've never heard of this "Apples Way" When was it on? It sounds interesting, a modern Waltons.

~Marni

KAREN'S COMMENT: In a way it was a bit like a modern Waltons. I don't remember many of the storylines though. As Donald said it was on during the early to mid 1970's and only for a couple of years. There are a couple of paperback books around based on Apple's Way (well at least one that I know of) and that has been written by Robert Weverka, the same author who wrote the ones based on episodes of The Waltons.

Hi Karen!

I loved it that Shirley in Canada shared the Eric Scott article with us! Thanks, Shirley. And, how about the Cindy name coincidence?!

About Bible reading: I'm old enough to remember the end of the depression and into the 40s as a child. Bible reading was supposed to be GOOD for kids and the hope was that in all that reading they'd learn something. No one ever thought about it turning them off, the way it would now. But, then in those days, parents and other adults were always right and it never occurred to a child to question any "for your own good" directives. It was supposed to be a constructive form of teaching right from wrong. I never had it forced on me, but I'm an Anglican and we didn't/don't do things like that. 

One was expected to behave like a Christian without constant pressure from anywhere, and we looked forward to our church school classes where we learned more than we would have from forced learning or reading of bible verses.

As for the Hail Marys and Our Fathers the Roman Catholic children recited, we knew they were not really paying attention to what they were saying. It was just an easy way to get out of harsher punishment, and they'd likely do the same "sinful" thing again, say more prayers, and learn no lesson.

All this reminds me of a dear little book published in the 1960s called "O Ye Jigs and Juleps!" It is a child's actual early 1900s school essays found on the subject of religion. Has anyone else gotten chuckles from that book like four generations of my family have? Such as this gem on Everlasting Life:

"When you take it to Heaven with you, that's good, but when you have to take it along with you to Hell, that's different. Bishop Jordan told me Everlasting Life was God's precious gift, and I told him if it was just the same with God, I could think of things I would like better."

I'd be interested in how many other Sr. citizens still enjoy The Waltons, which is as accurate a portrayal of country life then as there is. It's my hour to relax each day. My teen grandkids can't believe we ever survived with few appliances and conveniences before the end of WW-II. They love to hear my stories, too. In spite of the war, rationing, black outs, etc, here in the U S we knew we were fortunate and most were not as poor as folks elsewhere.

C J

KAREN'S COMMENT: Yes I picked up on the Cindy name too. I'm sure probably a lot of other Seniors would enjoy the show. I think it's great to have a show such as The Waltons which portrays grandparents as such an integral part of the family, and such useful members too. Both Grandpa and Grandma gave to the family in so many different ways. It's interesting to see who makes the decisions in t he family too. I would have thought that Grandpa and Grandma would have had more say in really important decisions such as whether John sells the house to the developer or not, yet at this time, they both tend to step well away from it. I would have thought that if it was originally their home, that they would have had more say, but it seems that it is John who has the final say on decisions which are needed.