The Waltons

Grandpa (Zeb) Walton:
I could do another sandwich, Esther.

Grandma (Esther) Walton:
You're the one at this table who could do a little starving.

Grandpa (Zeb) Walton:
Esther, we have got to keep our strength up.

Grandma (Esther) Walton:
Strength? I think you just get weak carrying all that around.

Grover:
"Six years in grade school, five years in high school-everything I ever ran for, I was always running against the same Johnny Walton... The greatest day of my life was when I beat John Walton out for senior class president. I don't think he ever lost any sleep over it. Now I'm an ambitious man - some would say successful; probably it's all John's fault. I was always running; he was always going past me at a walk. And here it is, 25 years later-here I am, and there's John. Then look at me... and some of you... still running, still wearing ourselves to a frazzle for all sorts of things that John Walton has accumulated while he was out walking - a happy home, a fine wife and children. We're sitting here well fed at John's table, and I'm still boy enough to be graveled at the sight of him. 'John - the boy most likely to succeed.' Well, he's the boy who did."

Olivia:
Now I've got two sons working nights in a saloon.

John Walton:
I hate this draft job, Liv. I can't stand playing God to my neighbors' sons!

Grandma (Esther) Walton:
Rise and shine, you two!

Jason Walton:
I'll rise, but I sure won't shine.

Grandpa (Zeb) Walton:
Jim Bob, just where do you think you're going?

Jim Bob Walton:
I'm leaving, Grandpa.

Grandpa (Zeb) Walton:
May your favorite Grandpa ask why?

Jim Bob:
Elizabeth's never going to walk again... it's my fault.

[after a very loud and stern speech]

Rev. Matthew Fordwick:
What do you think of my sermon?

Jim Bob Walton:
Scary.

John Walton, Sr.:
Good night, John Boy.

John 'John Boy' Walton Jr.:
Good night, everyone.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Time's inexorable march brought constant changes and challenges to the people on Waltons Mountain. Happily for us, the closeness of our family seemed always to temper life's harsher moments. However, a crisp, cold Sunday morning in December of 1941 was to bring an event that would sorely test our family and the entire nation.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In our house all of us had that strong and very personal link with other generations, so that past and present sometimes blended with unexpected results. None of us knew from what ancestral source my brother Jason's love of music had sprung, just that it built up in him until it had to be expressed. As he neared graduation, Jason found himself returning to that source for inspiration, and it was nearly to prove disastrous.

Mary Ellen Walton:
[Mary Ellen is going to show Grandma John Curtis for the first time when she realizes he needs to be changed] John Curtis! Now is a fine time to give in to your biological urge!

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] A house alone has little meaning, it's the people who live there who bring it to life and give it character. All during my grandmother's absence our house and everyone in it seemed to long for her return. Grandpa never stopped hoping that she would come home, and finally there came a day when his prayers were to be answered.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was young the thought of distant and mysterious cities would send me daydreaming for hours. But cities did not beckon to my father. He was content in the woods and fields of Waltons Mountain, until 1937. That was the year my grandmother became ill, and my father ventured away from the mountain into new and perplexing experiences.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] It was spring on Waltons Mountain, and after the confinement of a long winter life burst forth with such energy that every creature seemed charged with it, including the two young stallions in our house, Ben and Jim Bob.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] A different sound, an unfamiliar shape or shadow instantly alerts the creatures of the wild. Growing up on Waltons Mountain, seldom traveling far from the place we were born, we came to share this immediate awareness of something different, something new. It seems now in recollection that one of the milestone events of my nineteenth year followed the appearance in our community of something decidedly different, something none of us had ever seen before.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] It came as a coincidence that just as I finally completed my first novel, Elizabeth, for the first time, became enthralled with a book. I wondered if what I had written would ever be published and read half so avidly.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, I used to dream of all the faraway places I would one day visit. New York City captured my imagination most completely because it was a mecca for young, aspiring artists and writers. I wasn't to stray that far from home for several years but I was due for a special preview. One day, without any warning, a New York hurricane hit our peaceful community.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The peace and beauty of the land and sky around Waltons Mountain was a source of constant comfort to all of us during those difficult Depression years. Some of the changes that were going on in the world did eventually reflect themselves on our mountain, like the increase in the number of airplanes that spotted the sky. In particular, I remember an airmail plane that used our mountain as a landmark. My mother especially liked to wait for the plane to go over and, sometimes watching, she'd get the look on her face people have when they watch wild geese winging their way south to warm, sunny days.

Mary Ellen Walton:
[while helping serve dinner] It must be awful to be somebody's wife and have to do this every day of your life!

'Grandma' Esther Walton:
Well, if you don't learn to be a little more pleasant, you won't have that problem to worry about!

Olivia Walton:
[after John Boy has read her a poem for her birthday] John Boy, those words were just like listenin' to music. [pauses] I don't really understand what the poem meant, but I think those were just about the most beautiful words I ever heard.

John 'John Boy' Walton Jr.:
Well, I think the poem has a meaning, um, to me, it means that some things which may seem too simple, or unimportant, or even just downright plain, those things are really every bit as important and every bit as beautiful as the most magnificent things in the whole world.

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
[after Todd admits to having forgotten what it's like to be a kid] It's a mess! Everything you touch turns over. Everybody hollers at ya. Y'don't even get a chance to holler back. Everybody blames ya for everything even when you didn't do it.

Todd Cooper:
I think it's beginning to come back to me now.

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
It's awful, isn't it?

Todd Cooper:
Terrible.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Between two people in a good marriage there develops a kind of silent communication. Each knows what to expect of the other, when to offer strength, where to step lightly. It is this kind of predictability that makes the occasional surprise shine all the brighter in memory. As my parents' Silver Anniversary approached, my father was to reveal a side of his nature that years of hard work and sacrifice had kept secret, and in doing so, he made it an anniversary that none of us would ever forget.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] For as long as we could remember, Ike Godsey's general merchandise store had been the social center of our community. Friendships were forged over loaves of bread. The place was a clearing-house for news, rumor, and often as not, gossip. Adventure in those days was having a nickel to spend and time to gaze into the candy counter for as long as we liked before making a selection. Little did we know then, how much that store and its occupants meant to us until one terrifying day in 1942.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Many times when I have tripped across those events in one's life called milestones, I have thought about how they so often catch us unawares. There was, for instance, that unforgettable spring many years ago when, in the same week Grandma had to face growing old, Mary Ellen had to face the feelings of a woman.

Olivia Walton:
I don't think you should call Grandma "Old Woman".

'Grandpa' Zebulon Walton:
Well, why not? She'll be 68 on her birthday coming up this Saturday.

Olivia Walton:
That's why not.

Mary Ellen Walton:
[when Olivia asks how she met Kevin Sturgess] Well, I was wading in the lake, just cooling off. I turned around and there he was. Tall and handsome. Sun makin' his hair shine. It was just like a movie!

Olivia Walton:
Sounds like it.

Mary Ellen Walton:
And it all happened so fast! He thinks I'm lots older than I am.

Olivia Walton:
And you didn't bother to correct the impression.

Mary Ellen Walton:
Oh, Mama, I just couldn't! Well, when it was happening, I wasn't 14. 14 is just a kid. Well, I don't really know how to explain it. Well, lots of times lately, I just don't feel like a kid.

Olivia Walton:
I know. Your body's saying one thing and your emotions and experience are sayin' somethin' else and they don't always talk together.

Mary Ellen Walton:
That's right. That's it exactly!

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] We were a religious people on Waltons Mountain. The church was the center of our social, as well as our spiritual lives. Each year there would come a great religious revival when each of us would be called upon to examine our conscience and to receive salvation. It was a time of joyous reunion, of intense religious fervor, and it was looked forward to with great anticipation by everyone except my father.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] While the war in Europe continued to spread, a deceptive calm lay over Waltons Mountain. In this 'quiet before the storm' our mother turned to painting, losing herself in it as if, somehow, she could preserve those tranquil days for ever.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] It is always a special moment when you find something you thought you had lost. But my grandmother had mixed feelings when she rediscovered a childhood friend she hadn't seen for almost fifty years.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The pattern of our lives was broken by the war and the old ways of the past became less a part of us when we returned home. So long as our mother and grandmother were there to shepherd us, the church was central to our lives. But without them on the scene, some of the family found it easy to backslide, and as interest in the church slipped away, it didn't seem possible that events would join to bring them back again.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I recall the young years on Waltons Mountain, I remember the pleasure of ordinary events and the ordinary people who shaped them. But there were other times when neither the events nor the people were ordinary, and our lives were altered for a time.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As much as every member of my family loved our day to day life, we all had moments when we were prone to consider what life would be like if we had a million dollars. Most of the time those moments of avarice were short-lived and quickly replaced by the real values that made up our lives. But, one day, a letter came which pushed every member of the family toward a new appraisal of what was really important in life.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] On Waltons Mountain every Christmas was memorable. Each New Year held some special surprise or delight that set it apart. But I think the one we all remember most fondly was what was planned to be our mother's best Christmas. It began with the quickening sense of wonder and astonishment that always accompanied the first snowfall.

John Walton, Sr.:
It's always nice to take on the impossible now and again.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Times were hard when I was growing up in the 1930's and many people tried to escape those times by living in other worlds created for them by glossy magazines and the movies. My own family was so close and we were so involved with our everyday lives that we didn't seem to need those dream worlds. So, it came as a surprise when, one day, we discovered that our mother had a dream world of her own.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Being the oldest in a large family was in many ways a blessing; in other ways it could be a burden. For one thing, it meant I gave up earlier some of the carefree and irresponsible joys of being young. It wasn't until I was spending some extra time at home during a break between semesters that I realised I was not only being big brother to my own family but to the world at large.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The spring of 1935 was a particularly good one on Waltons Mountain. Peach blossoms exploded in a pink mist and the mallards built their nest early along the Rockfish River. Spring's arrival was so magnificent that it left us unprepared for anything that might in any way deny the beauty of life.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In those grey and grinding days of the Depression we often found comfort in the old familiar proverbs. We knew that in unity there was strength, that blood was thicker than water, that to err was human, and to forgive, divine. Usually we never examined these truths too closely, but in the autumn of 1934 I discovered, through pain and remorse, just how profoundly true they were.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Of all the people who visited Waltons Mountain during my growing to manhood years, I remember one especially. He was a man who brought new ideas to an old way of life. For a brief time his presence stirred the Walton household, and threatened the time-honored traditions of our quiet community.

Porter Sims:
[explaining his understanding of what a boondoggle is to John Boy Walton] John, not long ago some reporter was trying to describe a WPA project that didn't make much sense to him, so he... he called it a "boondoggle". You know what that really means? It's just a... an expression the pioneers used. It simply means anything that's made up out of leftover scraps.

John 'John Boy' Walton Jr.:
[trying to convince Porter Sims not to write a damaging expos? on Judge Baldwin] Mr. Sims, what you're doin' here may or may not be a "boondoggle". But I've known Miss Mamie and Miss Emily Baldwin ever since I was a little boy and they've been very kind to me. Now, their lives may not seem to you to be as real as yours and mine, and they may be made up of scraps of memories, and some recipe, and a little bit of fantasy. But their feelings are real, and when they feel hurt, and when they feel shame... that's real.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Most of the time when strangers appeared on Waltons Mountain they were people who had taken the wrong turn from the main highway and had gotten themselves lost. But the coming of World War Two was to bring many strangers who were actually looking for the mountain, and while we didn't exactly have a traffic problem, we did have traffic. And that's what gave my brother, Ben, the idea for the boldest venture he had ever attempted.

[first lines]

Narrator:
There was beauty on Waltons Mountain at any time of the year. But, looking back, the time I treasure most is spring when the days were growing longer and the promise of summer was ahead. They were the kind of days made for dreaming. But being the oldest of seven children during the Depression didn't leave much time for daydreams.I remember a morning in the 1930's when I'd been sent to the store to oversee the buying of a pair of shoes for my youngest sister, Elizabeth.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There were times on Waltons Mountain so filled with peace and contentment that I might sit in my room writing and never once be reminded that I was part of a large and boisterous family. It was on such a day that Jim Bob took time out to watch the grass grow and Hobie Shank came back into our lives. I wasn't to know much peace and contentment after Hobie's arrival.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Suffering in silence was not a popular past-time with me nor my brothers and sisters. Feelings good and bad in the Walton family were customarily laid out for everybody remotely concerned to see and hear and, hopefully, to adjust to. Sometimes, of course, we did hide our true feelings out of hurt, and once, in the case of my brother Jason, out of a refusal to believe he could have such bad feelings against his older brother.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Along with the rest of the country, 1942 brought great upheaval to Waltons Mountain. Each day the news from the battlefronts grew more grim while here at home defense plants worked around the clock to produce the weapons of war. In our home we suffered a personal tragedy, for our mother was away recovering from a serious illness. It was a time of great trial for each of us, but especially for Jim Bob.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As with most families everywhere, on Waltons Mountain we were faced with all kinds of troubles, large and small, some growing out of personal weaknesses, others thrust on us by our changing world. Mostly, when troubles struck we drew together, united against the common enemy, and came out of the struggle closer than before. But one year, my family suffered a loss which, rather than bringing us closer to one another, scattered us and threatened to destroy the fabric of our lives.

Ben Walton:
Hey, Jim Bob.

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
Hmmm?

Ben Walton:
[referencing numerous hair ribbons given to Jim Bob by girls in his school] How many hair ribbons you got now?

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
I haven't got any.

Ben Walton:
Well, what happened?

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
Well, I traded 'em all to Shorty Larabee for a genuine shrunken head!

Ben Walton:
Good night, Jim Bob.

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
Good night, Ben.

[first lines]

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Waltons Mountain was an everlasting presence in our lives. Whenever I could, when I was growing up there during the Depression years, I would climb its slopes. Up there I could get lost in dreams, dreams of becoming a writer, of becoming a man. I knew no writers, so I had no writer to model myself after; but as a boy aspiring to manhood, I had only to follow the footsteps of a remarkable father.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Our years of containment as a family unit were growing to a close in 1941. Everywhere there was a new mobility. New and different people found their way to Waltons Mountain to touch and shape the lives of our family, bringing customs and beliefs that were foreign to us. One such encounter had a special meaning for my brother, Jim Bob.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the autumn of 1941 the harsher realities of the world beyond Jefferson County seemed remote from the ebb and flow of our daily lives. Although our isolation would soon be shattered, my family, particularly my sister, Elizabeth, would find the small joys and sorrows of life on Waltons Mountain reality enough.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In every town or village there used to be the hidden people, those who for one reason or another are shut away from life, or who for some strange reason shut themselves away from the world. My quest for a car in which to drive back and forth to college was eventually to lead me to two of those hidden people.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] It had been my father's dream that each of his children received at least a high school education, and for a good many years there was a Walton in every graduating class of the Waltons Mountain school. So it was in 1937 when it came time for my sister, Erin, to leave behind the security of high school and to face an uncertain future.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia we never heard the words "generation gap", yet, such a separation developed shortly after my grandfather recovered from an illness, and for a while it was to threaten the unity of the entire family.

[first lines]

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Few strangers ever came to Waltons Mountain. We got our news of the outside world from the radio or from an occasional copy of a magazine. But I remember when I was about seventeen, four visitors arrived and gave me my first unexpected glimpse of the other world beyond our mountain.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When we were growing up we always knew we would be safe and warm and dry, here where we were raised by loving parents and grandparents. We knew who we were and where we came from. So it was hard to believe that someone close to us could suddenly discover that her past was obscure and shrouded in mystery.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Nature, I think, intended my father to be a dreamer and a poet. Instead, he became the head of a large, hungry household. The one thing he feared and despised was debt, and yet it clung to him as devotedly as it clung to all of his neighbors. He tried never to borrow, never to buy anything on time, and never to fall behind on things like taxes and doctor bills. As careful as he was, there came a day in 1940 when he looked at his finances and was astounded by what he found looking back at him.

Narrator:
When I was growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia during the Depression of the 1930's, times were often difficult and unsure; but I don't think any of us ever realized how safe and secure our lives really were until that summer when a family arrived in Waltons Mountain from Germany.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The approach of a birthday in our family has always been a time of excitement and joy. But there was one notable exception. On Elizabeth's thirteenth birthday it seemed that she wasn't quite sure whether she wanted the clock to turn forward or backward.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I look back on Walton's Mountain, I remember that our parents, by word and by example, took some pains to teach us the practical lessons of life and its virtues. But, though I had been well taught, there came a time when I doubted my own honesty and questioned its true value.

Narrator:
This is Earl Hamner, creator of "The Waltons". This year we bring you a different kind of Christmas story. World War II literally comes to Walton's Mountain in the form of two English children seeking safety from the London Blitz. It's a story of courage and faith and the victory of the human spirit over the shattering impact of war. After this Christmas, never again will the world be the same. I invite you to enjoy a remarkable special broadcast.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] I remember that Christmas when all the sounds and events of the world spoke against the holiday. London was being bombed, the evil of Nazi rule was spreading across Europe and, on Walton's Mountain, Indian summer held off the snows of winter. It was a year two young English children were to seek refuge on the mountain and it was a year when my mother's faith was put to its severest test.

Narrator:
There is a special niche in memory where a child places his parents, a place in time where they are never younger, never older, a time when they are changeless. For me, that memory is of many years ago, and no matter what came after, they are forever young.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] One of the things that I find distressing about life today is that people don't really seem to enjoy their work anymore. When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, my father and my grandfather loved their work and they instilled a respect for work in each of us. But I recall one time when my brother Jason had to make a choice, a choice that was difficult for him, but even more difficult for my father.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The mountain had been our home ever since the first Walton put his ax to a pine tree and built his cabin on a plateau near the summit. Since then, each Walton child had been instilled with a regard for the traditions of the land on which we lived. Ironically, it was I who violated those traditions and exposed our mountain to a danger unforseen, and literally unknown in our sheltered community.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Though the early years of the Depression were difficult on Waltons Mountain, we still felt a sense of security in our isolation from a troubled world. The building turmoil of the times, it seemed, lay beyond the mountains and across a distant ocean. Then, in 1936, we became aware of Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy. A war was being fought in Spain. Historic events; yet all of them were overshadowed by my acquisition of an old printing press and the prospect of publishing my own small-town newspaper.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] While the Great Depression was a time of constant trial and struggle on Waltons Mountain, those were in some ways, easier, more simple years, for we knew what the challenge was and what we had to do to meet it. But one time in 1937, when my brother Jason faced an unusual situation, he found that the answers were not quite as simple as they seemed.

Elizabeth Walton:
...ississ... ,

John-Boy Walton:
You trying to spell Mississippi?

Elizabeth Walton:
I know how to spell it. I just don't know when to stop!

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, I had a tendency to think of myself and my immediate family as the only Waltons, but that wasn't true, we were part of a great clan. There were other mountains and many other Waltons who lived farther up in the Blue Ridge. They were part of the family whose way had scarcely been touched by the passing of time. We were a family born to share a kinship with the seasons, always gratefully accepting that which the land gave, but living in the knowledge that weather and misfortune could take it away. One summer we were to learn that man also could take away what the land had given.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The weeks that followed the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor affected our family deeply. It was a time of great anxiety and uncertainty, and like all Americans we wanted to contribute to the war effort as best we could. My brother, Jason, was particularly troubled during this time. He wanted to serve his country, but doubts of conscience forced him to face one of the most difficult decisions of his life.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] It was spring on Waltons Mountain, that special time when all of life seeks and finds its own renewal and strength; a time when the season, like the mountain, calls back those whose lives have taken them so many miles and years away from the land. One of those who was called back in that spring of 1933 was my mother's uncle. His name was Cody Nelson and he'd come all the way home from Cinncinnati, Ohio.

Radio News Announcer:
[on the Walton's radio] And now for the seven o'clock news. As the nation's banks remain closed with no word yet as to when they might open their doors again, a grim, determined president assembled the 73rd Congress in an extraordinary session.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] I like to think back on my boyhood because, though the times we lived in were hard, the life we lived was good. We were never hungry for food was plentiful, we took it from the land; but still, there was a lack of material things and I remember with wonderment the way my parents wove a magic around us that kept us from ever feeling poor.

John Walton, Sr.:
[after Olivia complains that supper smells awful] It's not like your Momma to get sick over the smell of food.

'Grandma' Esther Walton:
It's happened twice before.

'Grandpa' Zebulon Walton:
When was that?

'Grandma' Esther Walton:
When she was carrying Jim Bob and when she was carrying Elizabeth!

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Waltons Mountain had been in our family since long before I was born. It was a mountain that gave of itself. We took trout from its swift streams, quail and venison from its high meadows and we took from it constantly the lumber and firewood which provided our family with income. My grandfather used to say that the land was alive, that, if you knew how to listen, you could hear its voice. But, at seventeen, I did more talking than listening. I remember one morning during the Depression hiking with Grandpa, searching for trees that were ready for harvesting.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] By the Fall of 1934, people were beginning to hope that the worst of the Depression was over. Some jobs were opening up and there was an urgency in the country to get up and get going again. There was a restless feeling to life, we all felt it, and my father was no exception. The fall of that year brought him the first real discontent we ever knew him to have.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The intermingling of what had gone before and what lay ahead was a never ending process that touched our lives on the mountain. My father was not a man to live in the past; he honored it, but it was his way to live the time at hand. One early morning in 1943 the present was awaiting my sister, Mary Ellen, and the past was ready to catch up with our father.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Whenever I look back to those days when I was growing up in the Great Depression, I'm always convinced that I came from a remarkable family. It wasn't that my brothers and sisters and I were sheltered from the realities of those difficult times. It was simply that our mother and father had a way of making more of what we had and less of what we didn't have.

Mary Ellen Walton:
Ohhh, I'm gonna be thirteen forever! It's absolutely the worst possible time in a person's whole entire life!

Olivia Walton:
You'll live through it. C'mon.

Mary Ellen Walton:
Ohhh, some days I just hate to face the world! I'd like to just sit up in my room and not have to say a word to a soul.

Olivia Walton:
That's natural at your age.

Mary Ellen Walton:
I'm gonna die on Waltons Mountain and never see anything of the world but Charlottesville!

John Walton, Sr.:
Now, sugar, I think it's time you found out. The world is flat. Twenty miles past Charlottesville, it just drops off into nothin'.

Mary Ellen Walton:
Oh, Daddy, it's not funny!

Yancy Tucker:
[discussing the Walton's shiftless cousins] Ain't that just like John and Livvy Walton, take in kin, house and feed 'em when times are like they are?

Ike Godsey:
Yeah.

Yancy Tucker:
I sure hope that business about breadin' cast upon the water's true.

Ike Godsey:
Yancy, there are times, sad to say, when "bread upon the waters" comes back good for nuthin' except a soggy sandwich.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When we were growing up on Waltons Mountain, Sundays were very special. Six days a week overalls and sneakers were the family uniform, but on the seventh day we got out our "Sunday go to Meeting" best, shined and scrubbed, and brushed and polished. Getting ready to go to church was as much of a ritual as the services once we got there. I remember one February Sunday that began like any other, but ended in the gravest crisis our family ever faced, a crisis that threatened the sheltered life we'd taken for granted, and tested our belief in God's mercy.

John-Boy Walton:
[Elizabeth is sucking her thumb] Elizabeth, I thought you gave that up for good.

Elizabeth Walton:
I thought so too.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Of all the people whose lives touched ours on Waltons Mountain, my sister Erin remembers most vividly a young forestry student who visited us briefly in the summer of 1936. He was her first love. In the spring of 1937, with the blossoming of the dogwood, Chad Marshall returned.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In 1935 life on Waltons Mountain began to change. Our activities took us more and more away from home and it was only knowing most of us would all be there again at night that helped us keep the family ties that had always been our strength. To help pay back the money we had borrowed from the bank, my father had taken a job in Norfolk and, when possible, he returned home on week-ends. My mother, under the additional pressures of being a substitute teacher, found her life changed, and these changes took some getting used to for all of us.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] For as long as any of us could remember our house had stood in the shadow of Waltons Mountain. We counted time by its seasons, growing up and growing old, and even those of us who went away never really left it. It was a fitting place for my grandfather to be buried, and in the six months since his death we had learned to live with our grief. We never looked up at the mountain without feeling his strength. We were to need it. The year was 1941 and there was a tension in the air that threatened to pull us apart.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Sometimes people's lives would become entwined with ours for a brief time and then, because of change or growth or the passage of time, their lives would take different paths and we would never see or hear of them again. But there were occasions when people we had known in the past would reappear. I remember one such occasion, and it took us completely by surprise.

Verdie Foster:
Your family owned mine!

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As the 1930s became the war years of the 1940s, an awakening came to our small community, an awareness of the world beyond our Blue Ridge Mountains. There began a reaching out to touch people and places and knowledge we had never considered before.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Waltons Mountain seemed especially beautiful to my brother, Ben, and his wife, Cindy, during the months they awaited the birth of their first child. But the war made its demands. Ben had to work harder than ever before, leaving Cindy alone at the time when she needed him the most.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As close-knit and self-sufficient as our family was, still, neighbors were very important in those days when we were growing up on Waltons Mountain. There were families like ourselves, struggling to keep the land we owned, and there were tenant farmers at the mercy of the weather, crop prices and absentee landlords.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Most of our memories of growing up on Waltons Mountain are good ones. But there did come a time when a dark remembrance from Elizabeth's childhood rose to haunt everybody in our house.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Spring on Waltons Mountain was always a welcome and celebrated event. Everything that had been dormant during the winter came to life. My grandfather said it was a time of beginning, when every living thing was given the opportunity to renew itself. In the spring of 1940, when the world was on the brink of war, our lives were to change drastically.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up during the Great Depression, I often marveled at the road which connected us with the rest of the world, and which brought us friends and strangers. The road afforded us our isolation, and at the same time provided a link wth the rapidly changing cities. Here on Waltons Mountain, there was a "Y" in the road where a fateful decision was to be made by a new friend, a decision that was to involve the entire family.

[first lines]

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Most of us on Waltons Mountain prided ourselves on our friendly hospitality, our family's good name and our dignity as individuals. But in a remote hollow lived a man named Lutie Bascomb with his daughter, Lois May. If Lutie prided himself on anything, it was his cussedness.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The quiet strength of Waltons Mountain always seemed to shelter our house from the rest of the world. In 1937, it was hard for our family and neighbors to believe that we could ever be touched by the trouble that was reaching out from Europe.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the fall of 1939 the people on Waltons Mountain were becoming increasingly affected by the spreading war in Europe. In our family and others, despite our rural isolation, it was to cause immediate and profound change.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When you're growing up, Septembers have a special feeling; another carefree summer is all too quickly ended and a new school year is about to begin. There was an extra excitement for me in the September of 1934. My years at Miss Hunter's school on Waltons Mountain were over, and I was ready to take those first faltering steps into the strange world outside. How vividly I recall the edgy excitement, the awful exilaration of preparing for my first day at Boatwright University. It was a day which showed me how little I knew about some things, and how well my parents had prepared me for others.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] I believe that in our family all of us children were sparked to do our best, whatever we tried, for two reasons. There was the personal satisfaction we felt, of course, but, just as important, we knew that the whole family would take pride in the success of any one of us. But then a day came when I had to face the fact that a goal I had set for myself was threatening to disgrace and divide the family.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Looking back down the years to the Great Depression, I realise now that our family was much more fortunate than most. Many things were in short supply, but we had the advantage of being able to live on the bounty of the rich Virginia country. And even more important than the gifts of the land, our family remained intact. We stayed together under one roof and were never deprived of the comfort and closeness of our mother and father. Those feelings easily made up for what we often lacked in material things.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The year 1936 was a momentous one in the history of the world. It was the year a king gave up his crown for the woman he loved. It was the year Adolf Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles, and it was the same year that Benito Mussolini, encouraged by Hitler's daring, overran Ethiopia. But none of these historic events was quite so important with our family as the struggle by one of us to attain an impossible dream.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] With each passing year on Waltons Mountain our growth was sparked by learning and change. In fitting together the pieces of our developing personalities, there came a time when my youngest brother, Jim Bob, had to make a decision which was to affect the rest of his life.

[first lines]

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up during the Depression, I lived with my red-headed brothers and sisters, my parents and grandparents, at the foot of a mountain which had been in our family for generations. My father used to say that in our house there was always room for one more and I remember a morning when his hospitality was put to a challenging test.

Ben Walton:
You gonna marry Marcia Woolery?

John-Boy Walton:
You want me to?

Ben Walton:
She makes good gingerbread!

Elizabeth Walton:
Daddy, where DID you find me?

John Walton, Sr.:
Well, hiding behind one of your mamma's smiles, honey.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the days of my boyhood on Waltons Mountain it was not only home to me, but to the wild animals roaming the woods, and though they were not always welcome guests in our house, they were reasonably free and without fear. Sometimes, though, a threat to their lives would appear.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The Depression years were hard ones for just about everybody in the country. Our family had little money and few luxuries but we did have food on the table and clean clothes to wear, even if they were mostly hand-me-downs, and a bountiful supply of love to sustain our household. Other families were not as fortunate as we were and I remember how my mother and father occasionally invited a child from the Jefferson County Orphanage to share our life on Waltons Mountain.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There were many homecomings in my life, but the one I remember best followed a long spell in the hospital during World War Two. A visit home would be the final step in my recovery, and I looked forward to the comfort of those familiar surroundings. I never dreamed that I would bring the war with me, and that it would haunt me, even on Waltons Mountain.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In those trying years of the Depression the achievements of any Walton family member were a source of pride for all of us. But the visit to our home of an extraordinary young man gave us all a new, and perhaps more balanced perspective in our views toward academic brilliance. It happened on a weekend when we were getting ready for a church bazaar.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] I suppose at one time or another, in the course of our lives, many of us have experienced an event or occurrance which could not be explained and, at the same time, was shrugged off as a coincidence or a trick of the mind. I remember a series of such events and, even today, many years later, I still can't help wondering just how much of it was coincidence. It all started one afternoon in late fall...

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Living on Waltons Mountain, we were always in touch with the motion of life. Growth and change, loss and gain were natural and expected. We saw the green leaves turn to gold and then fall to the ground, crumpled and grey. But, all of us knew that when spring came again life would renew itself. But, one summer we were faced with an unexpected kind of change that made us all wonder if the future was really a thing to look forward to.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the spring of 1938, I began to feel the burden of publishing The Blue Ridge Chronicle and finishing my novel. It would be the newspaper which would create a crisis affecting the entire family.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] During his long absence from the mountain, Rose rarely spoke of her beau and dancing partner, Stanley Perkins, but I suspect she thought of him often, especially when the radio played an old dance tune.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Being a country boy on Waltons Mountain, and looking like one, always seemed as natural and normal as anything to me. But, a few days before my graduation from high school, I began to look at myself in quite a different way.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] With each passing year of the 1930's we reached out for the hope that times were getting better, and that the Depression which had marked our lives was fading. But in hard truth, things remained much the same. There were changes, though, in our family. We didn't seem much different to each other until something would happen that made us look and see that time was surely changing us.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Times were hard everywhere during the days of the Great Depression; but on Waltons Mountain, we were better off than most. For many, though, it was a time of wandering, of looking for some better place, a new grasp on life or a change of scene. And I remember when some wanderers came to our mountain one wild, stormy summer night.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Early in September of 1939, shortly after Hitler invaded Poland, England delivered an ultimatum that Germany withdraw her troops. And while war clouds were building over Europe, our family was to face a disturbing conflict over the arrival of a new and controversial figure in our community.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There was a growing independence in our family as we grew older. With the years we became more individual, often holding firm and differing opinions, approaching life from diverse directions. But let joy or sorrow come to one, it always came to us all, to be faced, to be shared, to be experienced together. When the Waltons needed to be a family we came together as one.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] On Waltons Mountain the marriage vows, once pledged, usually remained in force until the contract was ended by the death of one of the partners. Divorce was a taboo word spoken in whispers. And then one day, a young woman who had left her husband appeared on the mountain, with serious consequences for my brother, Jason.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When we were children we never thought of the house we were born in as beautiful or plain or anything special except it was our home and it was there. But there came a day when we were faced with giving it up. It crept up on us, as so many crises do, through the normal routine of living.

John 'John Boy' Walton Jr.:
Can you see our Daddy takin' tips from tourists?

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] It had been my grandmother's idea to bring out the first commemorative issue of The Blue Ridge Chronicle, but she was still in the hospital, and the job of organising the event came to rest on my shoulders. If I had expected wholehearted support from the community and my family, how wrong I was!

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Although the years of my boyhood and youth on Waltons Mountain were a time of uncertainty and desperation for millions, somehow, in our home we were sustained by a sense of being safe and secure. And then, a visitor came into our world, and though she tried to close the door against the storm that was sweeping across Europe, the force of it was felt even on Waltons Mountain.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] It was one spring day during the war that our mother came back to us, and with her arrival it seemed that everything began to look brighter. In Europe and North Africa the Allied forces were gaining strength, giving new hope to those of us on the home front. There were dark days still ahead, but for now it was peaceful on the mountain and my family rejoiced in being together again.

Jim-Bob Walton:
What's the matter with Mary Ellen?

John-Boy:
Well, she's just crazy, everybody goes crazy when you're thirteen.

Mary Ellen:
The world is a big round ball! Eight-thousand miles smack through the middle! Waltons Mountain is just a tiny speck on it!

Little Girl:
Thy two breasts are like two young rows that are twins which feed among the lilies. Solomon Song Chapter 4:5.

Missionary:
Er... Thank you.

John-Boy:
CALM DOWN NOW! JUST HOLD IT!

Olivia:
You watch your temper! You're the oldest, you make them mind!

John-Boy:
Well I am tired of being the oldest! I feel like an old mother duck!

Olivia:
Can't do a thing about that now. You're stuck with it.

John-Boy:
[Quietly, to the kids] All right next - the next one of you that moves is gonna get a spanking!

John-Boy:
Grandpa, do we got something to show we own Walton's Mountain?

Grandpa:
You can't own a mountain any more than you can own an ocean or a piece of the sky. You hold it in trust. You live on it, you take life from it, and once you're dead, you rest in it.

John-Boy:
I'd just as soon not think about that part.

Grandpa:
You're not ready for it yet.

John-Boy:
Are you?

Grandpa:
Never!

Grandpa:
There's your tree, Boy!

John-Boy:
Woo-hoo! She's a dandy, Grandpa!

Grandpa:
It's the one I've watched grow all the time of its life.

John-Boy:
You sure know how to pick'em!

Claudie:
Got another one?

Mary Ellen:
[Quoting a Bible verse] What has man profited if he gains the whole world and loses a soul.

Claudie:
Too hard to remember.

Mary Ellen:
Jesus wept.

Olivia:
What are we going to live on this coming week?

John:
Love, Woman.

Ben:
John Boy, did you go crazy when you were 13.

John-Boy:
I didn't have time. I was so busy taking care of YOU CHILDREN!

Elizabeth:
Mary Ellen called us piss ants.

Olivia:
Well you know better than that don't you, Elizabeth?

Elizabeth:
I don't feel like a piss ant.

Olivia:
There, you see?

Olivia:
If John doesn't get home soon with money, all we'll have for Christmas dinner is my applesauce cake. We won't even have that if I don't get a move on.

Olivia:
What were you doing up there?

John-Boy:
Nothing, Mama.

Olivia:
Then what's the door locked for?

John-Boy:
I reckon it just got locked.

Olivia:
A door don't get locked all by itself. Now what were you doing up there behind locked doors?

John-Boy:
Sometimes I like a little privacy, Mama.

Mary Ellen:
Let Erin help you, she's such a prissy-butt.

Erin:
I am not a prissy-butt!

Olivia:
Would you girls stop arguing and get busy? GO!

Grandpa:
This is fought-for land.

John-Boy:
Battles right here?

Grandpa:
More than one: flood, fire, freezing weather, diptheria, scarlet fever, whooping cough, loneliness, hard times.

John-Boy:
I thought you meant wars.

Grandpa:
Them too.

John-Boy:
Santa Claus is gonna take one look at that bird poop and he's gonna head right back up the chimney.

Mary Ellen:
I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.

Grandma:
If this depression get's any worse, you may have to.

Ike Godsey:
Sheriff, why don't you wait until after Christmas to lock Charlie up? He's a man of his word, he won't run out on you.

Sheriff Bridges:
You double dog right he won't. He's going to jail.

Charlie Sneed:
Christmas ain't no time to be locking a man up in that old, drafty jail of yours. I could die of pneumonia before morning. You want that on your conscience that I died of pneumonia on Christmas?

Sheriff Bridges:
You should've given that some thought while you was stealing them turkeys and hams.

Charlie Sneed:
Ike, you got any Christmas cheer in this place?

Ike Godsey:
I got a little of Miss Emily and Miss Maime's recipe for snake bite.

Charlie Sneed:
[Pretend a snake bit him] Hot doggies! I believe he got me just now. Looky there.

John-Boy:
You know what's in that tablet, Mama? All my secret thoughts. What I feel and what I think about. What it's like late at night to hear a whipoorwill call and hear it's mate call back. The rumbling of the midnight train crossing the tressel at Rockfish, or just watching the water go by the creek and knowing some day it will reach the ocean, wondering if I'll ever seen an ocean and what a wonder that would be. You know, Mama, sometimes I hike on over to the highway and I sit and watch the buses go by and the people in them and I'm wondering what they're like and what they say to each other and where they're bound for. Things stay in my mind, I can't forget anything and it all get's bottled up in here and sometimes I feel like a crazy man. I can't rest or sleep or anything until I rush up here and write it down in that tablet. Sometimes I think I really am crazy.

John Boy [Narrator]:
Christmas is the season where he give tokens of love. In that house we received not tokens but love itself. I became the writer I promised my father I would be asnd my destiny lead me far from Walton's Mountain. My mother lives there still. Alone now for we lost my father in 1969. My brothers and sisters, grown with children of their own, live not far away. We are still a close family and see each other when we can. And like Miss Maime Baldwin's fourth cousins, we're apt to sample the recipe and then gather around the piano and hug each other while we sing the old songs. For no matter the time or distance, we are united in the memory of that Christmas eve. More than 30 years and 3,000 miles away, I can still hear those sweet voices.

Elizabeth:
Good night, John Boy.

John-Boy:
Good night, Elizabeth. Good night, Daddy.

John:
Good night, Son. Good night, Mary Ellen.

Mary Ellen:
Good night, Daddy. Good night, Mama.

Olivia:
Good night, Mary Ellen. Good night, Jim Bob.

Jim Bob:
Good night, Mama. Good night, Erin.

Erin:
Good night, Jim Bob. Good night, Ben.

Ben:
Good night, Erin. Good night, everybody.

Charlie Sneed:
Ike, the keys to my car are in my pocket right over here. Now you take them and drive that boy all over town.

Ike Godsey:
Oh Charlie you know I can't do that until the law finishes his pool game.

Grandpa:
It'll never come to that. Franklin D. Roosevelt is gonna put this country on its feet again. You mark my words.

John-Boy:
[Imitating F.D.R] My friends, and you are my friends...

Grandma:
Now you hush with that disrespect. He's your president.

Radio Announcer:
Lucky Lindy, a former aereal mail man himself, has been in Europe surveying the possibility of air mail service between the old and the new world. He suggests that air mail service between Europe and America is practical, and predicts that in the distant future, freight and even passengers might cross the Atlantic by airplane.

Grandma:
Cross the ocean? Why I wouldn't fly from here to Rockfish in one of the things.

John-Boy:
Nobody ever gave away anything worth keeping, I guess.

John:
[John-Boy had just received a bunch of tablets from his father] I wonder how word got all the way to the North Pole that you wanted to be a writer.

John-Boy:
[Near tears] Well I guess he must be a right smart man.

John:
I don't know a thing about the writing trade, son. But if you wanna take it up, you gotta give it your best.

John:
You won't be having another day like this one. I'm not going back.

Olivia:
You quit your job?

John:
I think hard times are almost over. I think the country is going to get better. Until it does get better, I'll make a living here on Walton's Mountain.

John-Boy:
Is Daddy home yet?

Olivia:
Not yet. Who was that that let you off down by the gate?

John-Boy:
That was Miss Mamie and Miss Emily Baldwin. They gave me a ride home in their pappy's sleigh.

Olivia:
What am I gonna do with you, boy? I send you looking for your daddy and you end up joyriding with two old lady BOOTLEGGERS!

John-Boy:
I wasn't joyriding, Mama. They took me to look for Daddy. We got right far but there a tree down in the road stopped us dead.

Olivia:
What's that you got in your hand?

John-Boy:
It's a present, Mama, from Miss Mamie and Miss Emily.

Olivia:
Bootleg whiskey. Don't those crazy old women know I don't allow whiskey in this house? I've got young children in this house! What sort of example do they think we set here? You take it out yonder and pour it on the ground!

John-Boy:
It's not whiskey, Mama, it's egg nog.

Olivia:
[after pause] I ought to be ashamed of myself.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Growing up on Waltons Mountain during the Great Depression, we learned early to concentrate on the essentials of life. With many of the necessities so hard to come by, we had little money to squander on extravagances. But there came a time when my father decided another kind of survival was important and, to nourish the human spirit, it was necessary to indulge in extravagance.

Elizabeth Walton:
What's a honeymoon?

Mary Ellen Walton:
It's something you're supposed to take after you get married.

Elizabeth Walton:
Like medicine?

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The post war years brought great social change and progress to our community. But for the hill folk living above us on the mountain, it was as though time had passed them by. They held on rigidly to their old ways and customs, even if it meant breaking the law.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The end of World War Two brought a period of readjustment for the men who had served in the armed forces. Restless soldiers returned home to towns that looked smaller than they remembered. And families found their sons to be different from the boys who had marched off to war. Some of them were eager to assume the responsibilities of life, while others floundered, determined to make up for the years they had lost.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] On Waltons Mountain the changing of the seasons marked the rapid, day-to-day growth of the younger members of our family. With all the process of change there were lasting values in our lives, as enduring as the mountain itself. But there came a time when our values were tested by events which came upon us without warning.

[first lines]

Narrator:
A mountain has no need for people, but people do need mountains. We go to them for their beauty, for the exhilaration of standing closer to mysterious skies, for the feeling of triumph that comes from having labored to reach a summit. And I remember a day in the 1930's when I went to Waltons Mountain in search of manhood.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In each of our lives, if we're lucky, we encounter a few extraordinary people who forever alter our perceptions and color our thoughts. They become the touchstones of our lives. In the spring of 1944 my sister, Elizabeth, came to know one of these special people.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In my family one of the earliest truths we learned was the inevitability of change. We saw this in the march of the seasons across the land, and in the sometimes bewildering growth of our brothers and sisters. As World War Two edged closer to us all, the patterns of change accelerated, carrying some of us far from home, bringing others back to the mountain with painful consequences.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There are events in our lives which would best be forgotten, moments out of the past which have a peculiar way of thrusting themselves into the present. Ike Godsey had always been a man of integrity, someone we could all count on, but even Ike had skeletons hidden away in the closet and it was inevitable that Corabeth would come upon them sooner or later.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the spring of 1937 my family and I were totally unaware that a truly catastrophic event was about to take place, and that I would be there to witness it.

Elizabeth Walton:
Erin, are Curt and Mary Ellen ever gonna have a baby?

Erin Walton:
Well, I think that's their business, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Walton:
I hope she has a girl so I can be Aunt Elizabeth.

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
If it's a boy, are you gonna be Uncle Elizabeth?

Elizabeth Walton:
No, silly, you will.

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
I'll be Uncle Elizabeth?

Ben Walton:
No, you'll be Aunt Jim Bob.

Jason Walton:
And you'll be Auntie Ben.

Ben Walton:
Good night, Uncle Erin!

Erin Walton:
Good night, Aunt Jason!

Jason Walton:
Good night, Uncle!

Elizabeth Walton:
I'm sorry I asked! [laughter from everyone]

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Although we were thousands of miles from the bombs of World War Two, every day there were reminders that the tranquility of our lives had been shattered. As the fighting continued my mother became increasingly restless. She yearned to be active, to make some contribution that would bring peace again to the world.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] On Waltons Mountain we treasured our neighbors. Everyone knew everyone else and we shared together in the joys and the sorrows of the people around us. We were all deeply alarmed when we learned that Miss Mamie Baldwin had developed an affliction, one that might forever confine her within her home.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Whoever sees his father clearly? I believe I often saw my father, not as he was, but as I needed him to be. Then, one difficult autumn, I had a chance to glimpse the whole man and to understand him more fully.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As a family living on Waltons Mountain during the '30s we were largely self-sufficient and had little dependence on cash money. Still, as I ventured out into the larger world, I realised that making ends meet was going to be a far greater problem than I had anticipated. I set about looking for a part-time job, one which would pay me an adequate wage, and at the same time, not interfere too much with my studies.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There is something in a mountain which gives strength and stability to those who know it well. Its timeless slopes make troubles seem smaller. We were to draw on that strength many times during the anxious years of World War Two. But those years brought troubles of a kind we had never known before. The pain of separation from loved ones who were sent overseas and who might have become casualties or prisoners of war. The agony of waiting.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Growing up in a family as large and as close as mine made it hard to realize that there were many people who lived in loneliness and solitude. However, the realization of that sad truth also brought me close to a remarkable woman and sent me on a journey that I was to remember for the rest of my life.

Mrs. Maggie Mackenzie:
[referring to the 20 dollar goldpiece, given to her as a wedding present] Aye, and I'll never spend it. Even last year when President Roosevelt said we had to hand in all our gold coins, I just couldn'a bring myself to part with it.

John 'John Boy' Walton Jr.:
Well, I'm sure Mr. Roosevelt would understand.

Mrs. Maggie Mackenzie:
If not, I'm sure Mrs. Roosevelt would!

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The arrival of spring was always a welcome time on Waltons Mountain. During the war it was a reminder that life did renew itself in spite of the tragedies our family had suffered. My father's business was booming, my mother had recovered from her lengthy illness, and there was a feeling that the family could brave the dark days ahead. That strength was tested one day when our cousin, Rose Burton, came to visit.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] According to my grandfather, legendary creatures once lived, and some still existed, on Waltons Mountain. There were tales of a bear so huge he had no fear of anything, a snake as big as a railroad tie, and a mythical white deer which could be spotted at the edge of a wood on a snowy evening. One creature we thought was legendary, we went searching for and found.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As the Second World War raged on in Europe and the Pacific, those of us on Waltons Mountain were adjusting to the quickened pace of wartime living. Our family was enjoying a degree of prosperity previously unknown, but our changing fortunes were bringing changing values. And so it was to my father, whose strength had always been an unquestioned source of assurance, that the pain of doubt and uncertainty would come.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In all our lives there are moments we are meant to remember forever, in every small detail and shading. To my family on Waltons Mountain such a moment came in the late summer of 1945. The war in Europe was over, the worst of the Japanese war still lay ahead. On that hot Sunday in August, an unexpected visitor came to Waltons Mountain, brought by the notion that something was wrong with my brother, Jason, who was waiting to be shipped home from France.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In early 1942, with the advent of a war, the world was taking on a different character, seemingly becoming a stranger to itself. At the same time our family was to witness similar changes in the personalities of some of those we were close to on Waltons Mountain.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Usually each family has its own special folklore, stories and anecdotes polished smooth with the telling. The setting for most of our legends was Waltons Mountain. But one favorite part of our folklore took place far from the mountain when my father had served overseas in what was then called The Great War. To us children, my father's stories of the places he'd seen and the men he'd known were endlessly fascinating. And then, one day, a legend came to visit us.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] During the time when I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, I heard whispers and rumors about a woman named Victoria Madden. Some claimed that she was dead, others said that she had simply run away from a bad marriage. Whatever happened to Victoria, she left behind a daughter, her name was Nancy, and when my brother Ben became attracted to her, he had no idea of what the consequences would be.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Growing up on Waltons Mountain in those Depression years when times were lean and money was scarce I learned early that hard work was a central fact of life and a key to survival. I wasn't afraid of work but, above everything else, I wanted to be a writer. Gripping a book, reading and re-reading the wonderfully colored sentences... this was as close as I could get to another writer; until, one afternoon, I met someone who showed me the way I must take to be a literary man.

Olivia Walton:
[Jim Bob says he doesn't feel well] His forehead feels clammy. I wonder what it is.

'Grandma' Esther Walton:
Well, it's too late for spring fever and too early for summer doldrums. I'll brew him some tea.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] It has always seemed to me that 1938 was the springtime of my life. I was engrossed in completing my novel and, as the words poured out, I felt as if the whole world was unfolding. It was a time of rising hope, not only for me, but for my grandfather.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Sometimes life goes on in peaceful cycles like the seasons, a gradual blending of time and events that we scarcely notice, and just as we think we may have learned all there is to know about life, fate conspires to show us just how little we do know. Such was the case one especially beautiful day in early fall. Our parents had told us that Olivia Hill had lost her husband in an accident and that she was coming to spend a few weeks with us.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The second World War changed forever the course of our country and its people. Some of those changes were immediately clear; others gradually seeped into our lives and left lasting, sometimes painful impressions. The whole world was in a great hurry and its frantic pace was most often reflected in the young men returning from battle.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Waltons Mountain by day was friendly but, by night, ghosts seemed to hide in every shadow and a feeling of something old and mysterious flowed downward on the cold night wind; and, if you were walking homeward past a house that was known to be haunted, you couldn't help but be a little apprehensive.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As the memories of war began to fade, our lives took on the more natural rhythms of daily life. Spring came to the mountain and the dogwood and the redbud blossomed beneath the evergreen pines. Erin's heart had been sorely tried by the war and for a long time she carried a secret wound. When love did come to claim Erin again she welcomed it with her usual spirit. It was the rest of the family that was left breathless.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Entering Boatwright University in 1934 meant that I was also entering a whole new phase of my life. Although exposure to the outside world brought excitement and challenge, it also brought changes and conflicts which neither I nor anyone in my family had been able to foresee.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When you're part of a family where eleven people live under one roof, you're not likely to spend much time thinking about loneliness; you're more likely to be looking for ways to have even a few minutes by yourself. But, I remember a visitor who showed us all the face of loneliness, not only her own, but that of a man close to us, a man we had, until then, taken for granted, but had never really known.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] They came from the mountains, from the plains, the east coast and the west. During World War Two, America was a nation on the move. People from all walks of life and different sections of the country were coming together, learning about each other's customs, exchanging ideas, and sometimes falling in love.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There is a special niche in memory where a child places his parents. A place in time where they are never younger, never older-a time when they are changeless. For me that memory is of many years ago, and no matter what came after, they are forever young.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up back in those distant, Depression years, I always seemed to be a year or two younger than I wanted to be and a year or two older than my parents thought I was. It tried my patience for a long time until, one day, something happened to my sister, Mary Ellen, that helped me understand those feelings in myself.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] I well remember my grandfather speaking of the two ideals he felt so much a part of the human spirit. They were, he said, love and loyalty. During that autumn of 1941, his ideals were to be well tested by those people fate and the changing times would return to Waltons Mountain. It was a time when our brother, Jason, most keenly felt the loss of our grandfather.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] It was a time when our family world seemed to be in constant motion. The movement of people to and from the mountain contrasted sharply with the serenity we had known there for so many years. Perhaps because we were so close to it we didn't recognise the certain signs that an old era was ending, and a new day we couldn't even envision was in its dawning.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Storytelling was an art in our family. It was not only entertaining but a way of preserving family history, local legends, and a few tall tales. Stories of ghosts and nameless things that moved in the night were told by my grandfather in the warmth of the fireplace. But they lived only in our imaginations until one quiet, moonless night, it seemed that something was watching us.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The joy and pain of growing up came to each of us in different ways, but no one endured the experience alone. And so it was when Mary Ellen tried her first searching steps away from her childhood. It was a time of joy and pain for her and for the rest of us as well.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The war in Europe brought to Waltons Mountain a renewed awareness of the frailty of human freedom. We realised that an ocean away people were fighting and dying for independence. In the fall of 1941 our family was to witness another fight for freedom. It was a fight that would reveal to all of us a new kind of courage.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the spring of 1942, the war that engulfed the world beyond Waltons Mountain touched our family in many ways. It was a time of farewells and reunions, shortages, and news of battles and places with exotic names like Bataan, Corregidor, Wake Island and Midway. It was a time when my family was to come face to face with the cruelty of war as well as the courage it inspired to overcome its aftermath. It was also a time when Americans everywhere united to contribute to the war effort in any way they could.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Growing up with my brothers and sisters on Waltons Mountain was a joyful experience but not always an easy one. Privacy was hard to come by and, as a young man trying to write, it was the one thing I needed which I almost never had. I will always remember that day when I left, a young boy anxious to find some time for himself, and returned a man who had partaken of a miracle.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] By the spring of 1945 there were no young men left on Waltons Mountain, though with the Allied forces close to victory in Europe, hope grew that soon they'd be returning home. The cost of defending our freedoms ran high, and in our patriotic fervor we sometimes failed to realise that those freedoms were too often not evenly distributed.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the early months of 1942 it seemed as if the only thing that didn't change was Waltons Mountain itself. The mountain was the one thing that endured in a time when all else was in turmoil. Old friends went into the service or into defense work. America was on the move and newcomers came and went. One such stranger set off a series of shock waves in our house, with the first one coming at about three o'clock in the morning of a fine spring day.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] My parents were used to being together. My father's work kept him close to home when we were a young family so there were always times in the day to share a smile, or a touch, or a special look between them. Now those times were nearly gone. Work took my father away from home more often and for longer periods of time. The separations were hard on them both.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Like most adages it is tried and true that fate makes our relatives, choice makes our friends, and it calls to mind a time when a relative of Corabeth Godsey swept through Waltons Mountain like an autumn hurricane, leaving both destruction and alike in her wake. All of this took place during a difficult period for Elizabeth who was entering womanhood, but feeling at times like a lost and lonesome child.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In 1942 the coming of spring to Waltons Mountain brought a keener appreciation for all living things than ever before. With the rest of the world in chaos, here we felt a sense of life renewing itself. For my sister, Mary Ellen, it was a time when she was emerging from a painful winter and struggling to achieve a renewal of her own.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In those last months of the war, though death and destruction continued, it was possible for the first time to think of a world at peace. There would then be the small, personal wars to be reckoned with, such as my sister Mary Ellen's adversary role with life, always heading into it, never conforming to its patterns. She was wife, mother, widow, nurse, and not any or all of these things together brought her peace of mind. Something within her still fought, still searched. And for those of us overseas, even though the war was winding down, it was far from over.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the summer of 1937, it seemed as if Waltons Mountain was reborn. The blue misted mountains, the tall stands of evergreens and the wild flowers that grew everywhere gave a fragrance to the air and a spirit to the soul. It was also the summer that Martha Corinne Walton came to visit, and that made it a summer to remember.

Derek Pembroke:
We must forget Paris!

Derek Pembroke:
Some people paint beauty, others are simply beautiful.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the fall of 1941 the war raging in Europe still seemed remote to most people on Waltons Mountain. But its horrors were growing every day. Occasionally someone would bring the war home to our family by touching our lives in a personal and disturbing way.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The war with Germany had ended, but the fight raged on in the Pacific where our younger brother, Ben, was still serving in a combat zone. Our family was especially concerned about Ben's wife, Cindy. As the rumors of an upcoming invasion of Japan grew, so did her fears about Ben, fears which took on a chilling significance.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Sunday afternoon on Walton's Mountain was a time of quiet contemplation. We took it easy, or else worked at a slower pace, and enjoyed a brief respite from the cares that beset us during the week. After we came home from church and had dinner we permitted ourselves the luxury of play and relaxation. I remember one such Sunday in August.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As my grandfather used to say, "everybody looks at the world through his own knothole". My brothers and sisters and I, and the two cousins who came to live with us, were all brought up in the same house and in pretty much the same way. But the world looked a little bit different to each of us, and there was a day, a beautiful, bright, sunny day, but it looked very bleak to my brother, Ben, and even bleaker to my cousin, Jeffrey.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] My father was a gentle man. One of the small things I always remember about him was a little trick he had of spinning a half dollar with one hand, usually without even thinking about it. One summer day almost forty years ago, he suddenly found he couldn't do it. As it turned out, it was a traumatic day for both of us.

Jim-Bob Walton:
[Jim-Bob rides to the house with a letter for John-Boy, sitting on the steps, writing "10,000" in the sand] Ten thousand what?

John-Boy Walton:
Huh?

Jim-Bob Walton:
I said, "Ten thousand what?"

John-Boy Walton:
Ten thousand unemployed writers in this country today.

Jim-Bob Walton:
That's silly.

John-Boy Walton:
What's silly about ten thousand unemployed writers?

Jim-Bob Walton:
Just because you're nineteen years old, doesn't mean everyone else is dumb.

John-Boy Walton:
I never said you were dumb.

John-Boy Walton:
Well, the way you tell it, a writer is somebody who's supposed to be somebody who thinks things up and puts 'em on paper.

Jim-Bob Walton:
Well what's that got to do with anything?

John-Boy Walton:
Somebody like that is working for himself, isn't he?

John-Boy Walton:
Of course he's working for himself, he has to work for himself.

Jim-Bob Walton:
If he's working for himself, how can he be out of a job?

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Though peace had finally come to Europe in the summer of 1945, America was still faced with the considerable task of bringing the war in the Pacific to victory. It was a time of uncertainty, both for those on the home front and for the troops still overseas. During that summer my brother, Jim Bob, was to face a personal crisis at home, while my brother, Ben, fought for his very survival as a prisoner of war.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] On Waltons Mountain, as our parents had before us, we grew up taking for granted the traditions that shaped our lives. When my sister, Mary Ellen, took a stand against a solemn mountain custom, it was a rebellion that rattled the complacency of generations. She was seventeen, but the custom was older than even my grandmother could remember.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The years brought many changes to us on Waltons Mountain, but when change did not come often enough to suit my mother, it was her way to seek it. She would search for change, reach out to it, and welcome it when it came.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As the news of war in Europe grew increasingly grim, we could feel a tension here at home, a charge of electricity in the air as we looked to the outside world with new interest and concern. It was a time when my brother, Ben, was reaching out for new horizons, and for my family, the long Depression years were coming to an end.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] On Waltons Mountain, as everywhere else on earth in the later years of World War Two, there was a constant feeling of dislocation and change. Until one weekend in 1944, in the midst of the chaos and confusion, we unexpectedly found a bright, sturdy link between ourselves and the way of life we were so swiftly losing. A rich reminder of who we were, what we were, and where.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the early times of separation from my family, I kept in mind a clear picture of the scenes of my boyhood. But the times were changing, and my memories were far removed from the realities. The turbulant state of the country in the year before we entered the war was especially felt in our remote little community, and particularly by my father.

John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr.:
[as Grandpa Walton rides off in a huff on Blue, the mule] Now where do you suppose he's goin'?

John Walton, Sr.:
All I know is I keep hurtin' his feelins'.

John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr.:
Fathers are kinda hard to raise, aren't they?

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Waltons Mountain had been in our family for generations, a silent witness to all the bright and wonderful days I knew as a boy. If mountains remember events then, surely, it must treasure, as I do, the memory of that day during the Depression when my sister, Mary Ellen, got into a fight after school and the events that followed.

Emily 'Miss Emily' Baldwin:
[while reminiscing of former beau, Ashley Longworth] He had such lovely cheekbones. Do you remember Ashley Longworth's cheekbones, Mamie?

Mamie 'Miss Mamie' Baldwin:
No. I don't remember Ashley's cheekbones, sister. He had nice eyes, though. One was green, the other was blue.

Emily 'Miss Emily' Baldwin:
Think of it. If I'd married Ashley, this place would be overrun with a whole passle of children with blue-green eyes.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] On Waltons Mountain we marked time by the passage of the seasons. In autumn we'd build fires in bee trees to gather honey. Our lives ebbed during the winter while the earth slept. Spring crocus brought the first blossoms foreshadowing the abundance of summer with its sweet corn and lightning bugs. Generations of living on the mountain yoked us to the rhythm of the land, a touchstone to the strength each of us carries within ourselves. I was to discover this when I left my home full of expectations, only to find that my destiny was not where I thought it would be.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal in the final closing quote of the series] I had returned to the mountain once again to find the inspiration I needed to write. Soon I was back in New York City laboring over another book, and because of the renewed courage they brought me, I would never forget Miss Mamie and Miss Emily and their zest for life. I hope that you'll remember this house as I do. The mystical blue ridges that stretch beyond it into infinity; the sound of warm voices drifting out upon the night air; a family waiting, and a light in the window. Good night.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was a boy I dreamed of what I would make of my life when the time came to leave the mountain. My journey took me to New York City where I became a reporter for a press service, began work on my second novel and fell in love. I knew that the days of my life would be played out elsewhere, but as always, the events that took place on the mountain would shape and change the rest of my life.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Sometimes, when we were children, all the love and attention we got at home just wasn't enough. For each of us there came a time when something from the outside was needed to give us a sense of self-confidence. It was a need of this kind that got my sister, Mary Ellen, into a lot of trouble, and gave me a whole new way of looking at women.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Life on Waltons Mountain never seemed more stable than when I was eighteen and in college. It was comforting to know that the family was always there, knowing exactly what they were doing, and accepting it as the right and necessary way to live. Each of us has a secret life, private dreams and aspirations and fantasies that we are hesitant to share with others. I had always associated my mother with our home, and thought the boundaries of her life were within the walls of that house. Then, one day, I happened to stumble across my mother's private dream.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, the Great Depression cast its shadow over us as it did over everyone but we were more fortunate than most. We were a close-knit family and the house we lived in was as solid and secure as the mountain itself. Because I had always lived in it, I took our house for granted. Then, one hot summer afternoon, I met others less fortunate. Through them I learned the real meaning of home.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In memory now I think to that time in 1940 when the war was in Europe, wide miles across the Atlantic from the Blue Ridge. A time when its treachery rarely reached as far as Waltons Mountain. Still, the seeds of distrust and suspicion were everywhere. They were there for my sister, Elizabeth, when she began to keep a journal, such as I had done as a boy. Her imagination, always vivid, had been joined by a genuine gift for exaggeration. So when the rumor began, Elizabeth was among those who passed it along, bigger than when she had received it.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In today's troubled world, it isn't unusual to hear that a member of a family has packed up and left, gone off on his own, feeling rejected and misunderstood. When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, it never occurred to us that such a thing could happen in our family, and yet, it did.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, the Great Depression touched our lives in many ways. Jobs were scarce, new clothes were rare, food was simple and mostly homegrown. What we had, we shared. My father taught us by his quiet practice that sharing was our first duty and happiest privilege and on one occasion I had the opportunity to share an unforgettable experience with a lady who was trying to hide a secret.

Elizabeth Walton:
[after Jim Bob's appendectomy and Erin's tonsillectomy] Everybody gets to go to the hospital, get something tooken out except for me!

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
Daddy?

John Walton, Sr.:
Yeah, Jim Bob?

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
Will you wake me when you get up in the morning?

John Walton, Sr.:
Sure thing. Big plans for tomorrow?

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
Um hmmm. Elizabeth and I are gonna dig a hole straight through to China and I wanna get an early start.

John Walton, Sr.:
Good night, Jim Bob.

James Robert 'Jim Bob' Walton:
Good night, Daddy.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] We lived close to the land on Waltons Mountain and we felt a natural kinship with the forest which surrounded our home. It was our playground, a source of food and shelter, and a livelihood for our family. In the lore of our mountains there were stories of travelers who had been lost in the forest. One summer's day that legend became a terrifying reality.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In the late spring of 1940 our world on Waltons Mountain was very quiet and uneasy. For the first time ever people stopped work in the daytime to turn on the radio. The war in Europe had seemed to be hibernating until, suddenly, on the 10th of May the Germans invaded Belgium and the Netherlands and Luxembourg. By the 10th of June, they had enslaved all three and driven the British and French forces into the sea, and were marching into Paris. To all purposes, the free world in Europe now consisted only of the British Isles. And just as suddenly, at least it seemed so here at home, there were no more pacifists, no isolationists. The little ocean between us and the Nazi terror was not very wide any more. People were beginning to feel that the time had come to help whatever allies we had and to be ready when the attack turned on ourselves.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There comes a time in a young man's life when he begins to wonder how he fits into the world around him. When that time came for my brother, Jim Bob, it brought the unfolding of a long-kept secret.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Whenever I think back on Waltons Mountain and about my family, I remember mostly the feeling of love and a happiness we all shared. But, though the mountain never changed, there were times, rare times, when those we thought the closest found themselves at odds. It happens in all families, I suppose, and it happened one day in ours.

Olivia Walton:
[after the power company man has shut off the Waltons' electricity] I've been so fearful that the day would finally come when we couldn't pay our bills.

'Grandma' Esther Walton:
You fear a thing enough, you're askin' fer it.

Narrator:
[as John Boy writing in his journal after the barn dance] We are all dancers. In each of us there is a need to move to the beat of music, to circle, to tempt, to embrace, and finally to move together in pairs. And when all else of 1934 is forgotten, I will still treasure this house, this year, and this night.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] So much of what we learned in those early years was rooted in that small schoolhouse on Waltons Mountain. I remember it warmly, and well, along with our teacher, Miss Rosemary Hunter. And long after I left her school, Miss Hunter figured prominently in a special time of learning for my mother, and for me. A time when each of us searched for that most elusive of persons, one's own self.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] People coming to Waltons Mountain for the first time may have been surprised to find that we had such a good life. More often than not, outsiders' impressions of hill people are formed by comic strip characters or jokes about hillbillies. We were neither, yet, we did have our rituals and our customs which must have seemed odd to outlanders. I remember a time when one of our Blue Ridge customs caused a great deal of discomfort to a visitor and almost broke up a marriage that had just barely gotten under way.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As World War Two continued, more and more American families felt the pain of separation from their loved ones. With no end in sight they could only wait and pray for the day their friends and relatives would come home safely. During this time my brother, Jim Bob, eagerly waited for his chance to join in the fight, and while he waited, he fell in love.

[first lines]

Narrator:
I remember a day in a hot summer back during the Depression when we all wished Walton's Mountain was a mile higher so its cool shade would reach us sooner. Growing up in those long-gone days, I took for granted the discomfort of a hot summer; but as a novice writer I took it as my duty to question other things, like sin and what made a sinner. Trouble was, no one seemed to agree.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] We were a close family growing up on that mountain, but as we grew older and were faced with the problems of finding maturity, conflict sometimes developed between us. I remember a time when my brother Jason's pursuit of fame as a musician, and my brother Ben's pursuit of a young lady brought them into a bitter misunderstanding.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] My own memories of that Christmas in 1943 are vague and clouded, but those of my family remain vivid in the extreme. For the first time ever my mother would not be home for that most special holiday. She, who'd taught all of us the meaning and spirit of Christmas, would spend it at the hospital with me. And though they all agreed her place was there, it put the season in a strange light. How strange, how unique and unreal it would become, no one could even imagine.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Sometimes the future tries to warn us by casting a shadow over the present. Such a warning came to us one morning in the form of a scent of smoke borne by the wind.

[first lines]

Narrator:
Walton's Mountain is as old as the earth itself. For countless centuries it has quietly shouldered the sky above the land on which our family settled, built and flourished. Through all its seasons, through all the great and small events of our lives, the mountain was changeless, as fixed and as permanent as the glittering stars above. And then there was an evening in the 1930's which started all of us wondering how fixed or permanent anything is... even a star.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As World War Two ranged around the globe, the peace and quiet surrounding Waltons Mountain seemed even more precious. Throughout the nation Americans worked together to maintain freedom and a way of life that had made our country great. Holding down an important job in a defense plant was my sister Erin's contribution and she highly resented anything that interfered with it.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] For as long as I can remember I never wanted to be anything but a writer. Nor can I remember ever thinking of giving up writing, although, at times, the agonies of being rejected were painful and frustrating. I recall one Saturday morning when I had gone to pick up my usual batch of rejection slips. It was a day which was to mark the beginning of a new plateau in my career.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Looking back to 1939 on Waltons Mountain, I had to span a chasm far deeper and wider than nearly 40 years of time. Customs and prejudices that were acceptable in those days have gentled into a greater justice today. But they *were* part of that time, and to remember them any other way would be false. It was then, too, that my youngest brother, Jim Bob, entered a phase designed to drive the rest of the family to exasperation; a time when nothing stayed in his head for very long.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain in those years of the Great Depression, for me and my brothers and sisters it was a time of making do with the little there was; a time of stretching a nickel 'til it bought a dime's worth; often a time of doing without. In such times, keeping children in school was just too much of a strain for many families but, for my father, educating his children had almost the same importance as feeding and clothing us. I remember one day when the regular routine of our school life was threatened.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up on Waltons Mountain, the word "honor" was hardly ever used, but its meaning was well understood. Honorable behavior was something that was expected in my family. Therefore, I found it strange when, like every other freshman at school, I was told that honor was a tradition, and that the heart of it was to be found in a system that governed our lives as students, and one that, if ignored, could end our days as members of the student body.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Although my brother, Jim Bob, loved the mountain as much as the rest of us, since childhood he had dreamed of heights beyond its summit. Now, in the spring of 1942, as those dreams appeared to be within his reach, it seemed that he was finding new energy and purpose. If we were disappointed, it was only because Jim Bob was quietly building to a crisis that would turn his life in a different direction.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] A chill settled on Waltons Mountain that first autumn after the conclusion of the Second World War. Mary Ellen had been caught up in a whirlwind love affair that seemed certain to add a new member to the family. But a storm was brewing to the south, a storm that ended her romance and called her to a distant part of the country in search of a man she believed to be dead.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There was one daily reality to our life on Waltons Mountain, and that was the Depression and our constant and continuing need for money. I count it remarkable that we, and others like us, were not totally defeated by hard times. The credit for that, of course, must go to our parents and their unique strengths, strengths that were tested almost daily.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Next to Christmas, I suppose you'd have to say that Thanksgiving was our favorite time of the year. We may have been poor in worldly possessions but, at Thanksgiving, more than any other time, I think we knew, we really knew, how great was our abundance. It wasn't until the cold November of my eighteenth year, however, that I fully understood what abundance meant. It was a time of terrible questioning for all of us and when it was over we all knew a bit more about Thanksgiving.

Mamie 'Miss Mamie' Baldwin:
Jason, you know about the Depression, I judge. And you know who has taken the burden of leadin' us out of it.

Emily 'Miss Emily' Baldwin:
And is doin' a splendid job!

Mamie 'Miss Mamie' Baldwin:
Well, to show our appreciation for all that he has done for us, we are sendin' President and Mrs. Roosevelt a jar of the recipe for Thanksgivin'!

Emily 'Miss Emily' Baldwin:
You will help us, won't you?

Jason Walton:
Well, I guess it's be downright unpatriotic not to!

John Walton, Sr.:
Liv, sometimes you can be as sweet and cool and welcomin' as a brook in springtime. But you can, without decent warnin' to me, change into the most stiff-necked, hard-edged, prideful woman I ever saw!

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Looking back across a span of forty years, the sharp edges of the Great Depression have worn away. In memory, the period seems a happy time. Yet, when we lived them, they were trying years and I remember a time when our family's pride and our integrity were challenged in a manner that was new and shattering to all of us.

Mary Ellen Walton:
[referring to a magazine ad] Well, if there's really a Depression, who could afford to buy things like these? Look, a 1934 Nash Sedan. $760.00! Who can ever save up that much money?

'Grandma' Esther Walton:
Jim Bob! Jason! You're playing cards in this house?

Jason Walton:
Well, it's not a gambling game Grandma.

John 'John Boy' Walton Jr.:
Well, I don't see anything too evil about Go Fish, Grandma.

'Grandma' Esther Walton:
Go Fish today and Poker tomorrah! The evils of gambling can put down roots in shallow ground!

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Waltons Mountain meant many things to my family. It was a source of food, for we took game from its forests and fish from its streams. It was a refuge in time of trouble and a link with the history of our family's past. And once, it became the setting for a race that none of us would ever forget.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The post-war world is an era of innovation. We stood upon the threshold of a new age which was ruled by sudden change. Technical advancements in medicine, science, and electronics had a profound effect on the way we lived and thought. None of us dreamed how deeply we would be affected by those advancements even though we were close by when it all began.

John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr.:
I've read alot about television. I never thought I'd see it right here in Jefferson County.

Elizabeth Walton:
John Boy? Were you nervous on television?

John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr.:
Not once I got started.

Elizabeth Walton:
Maybe you'll have your own television show one day.

John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr.:
Hmm... I'd like that, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Walton:
What would you call it?

John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr.:
I don't know... since I write best about this family, I guess I'd call it "The Waltons". Good night, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Walton:
Good night, John Boy.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The absence of a loved one can make the days seem endless and the nights all the darker, especially in spring when the weather is gentle and moonlight stirs the heartstrings. During my mother's illness our family sorely missed her presence, and without her my father was a lonely, vulnerable man.

[first lines]

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] I will never forget the first time I took a girl to a motion picture show. Her name was Sarah and she lived on the other side of Waltons Mountain in a little back-woods hollow; and what happened was more astonishing to me than anything I could have imagined if I tried to write a story about such an innocent pleasure.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There were times when the war seemed further away and life on the mountain went about its ordinary business. My father often said that he didn't have to sail the seven seas, or swim the Hellespont, or soar with the eagles if he wanted high adventure. All he had to do was wake up in the morning and his family, or his friends, or a total stranger would ride up the road and hand it to him.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] When I was growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia during the Depression, many of the things we take for granted today, back then were luxuries, like going to school. Many boys my age had to quit school and find jobs to help support their families, but my father and mother were determined that each of their offspring would graduate from high school.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In 1945 on Waltons Mountain with the coming of summer, buds became leaves and wildflowers painted the hills and fields as no human artist could. It was as if nature was defying the war that consumed the world. On the home front there were shortages, rationing, and a deepening war-weariness that only victory could ease. But the greatest problem of all for my family was coping with the anxiety about those of us who were in the service. One brother was stationed nearby and three were overseas, one of whom, my brother, Jason, was fighting on the frontlines somewhere in Germany.

[first lines]

Narrator:
From the very beginning, when I thought of writing, it was about my family, our home and Waltons Mountain. This was my world, the only kind of life I knew well enough to tell people about. I remember a day in the 1930's when I finally felt ready to show one of my stories to someone for the very first time.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The battlefields of World War Two were thousands of miles from Waltons Mountain, but those times brought about many changes for my family on the home front. My brother, Jason, was training recruits at nearby Camp Rockfish and, like all servicemen, forming the close relationships that became so important during the war. For the youngest members of our household the changes were not too drastic. There were still chores to do, school to attend, and the joys or sorrows that went with such events as bringing home report cards.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Sometimes it seemed as if we'd always been at war. The quiet of our lives on Waltons Mountain was interrupted daily by headlines and bulletins that took us to far off deserts and island outposts with impossible names. Our days swung between hope and despair, but somehow we went forward, meeting the demands of life in a troubled world, proving at home what the war was proving on every front, that a crisis can make leaders of the most ordinary of men.

Olivia:
I'm so sick of this damned depression!

'Grandma' Esther Walton:
Olivia!

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Late in 1935 there came a time of excitement and anticipation on Waltons Mountain. Big things, we felt, were about to happen. Like the rest of the country, we were inching out of the worst of the Depression, and on a single day three of us attempted to take giant steps. I was applying for my first job on a newspaper, my father was attempting to expand his milling operation, and Jason was only a hair's breadth away from winning a scholarship at the Klineberg Conservatory of Music. We were all convinced that in the months ahead we would see the return of prosperity and happier days.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] With the war over, my family settled down to a more normal routine of life, but occasionally this was to be interrupted by echoes of the war. Such was the case when we encountered a young man who was still struggling with war wounds, not to his body, but to his spirit and mind. Though he crossed our lives for only a short time, that memory would remain fresh with us always.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] I remember so well the carefree, designated crossroads of my life, the points where one could stop and thoughtfully consider which road to take. But there were those other particles of time in which decisions were made more quickly, and in one snap judgment irrevocable forces were set into motion. I especially recall such a time affecting my grandmother and my sister, Mary Ellen.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There was hope in the air that second autumn after Pearl Harbor. The Allied forces were finally on the offensive, and in Winston Churchill's words, those who had sowed the wind were now reaping the whirlwind. But in our home, as in millions throughout the nation, there was also anxiety for loved ones away in military service. Some of them would never return, and there were others whose fate was at that time unknown... the missing in action.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Old friends were treasured on Waltons Mountain and it was a pleasurable time when people who had moved away would come back to visit or to remain. I remember a time when friends, both real and imaginary appeared in our village and how those friends affected our lives.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In 1939, when the threat of war hung over our country, it seemed to me that our lives altered much in the same way that winds moved down Waltons Mountain, changing sharply sometimes, but more often gentling us so gradually that it took a length of time to show the change had come about at all

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] The second World War brought women by the millions out of their homes and into the factories, doing jobs that normally would have been reserved for men. Attitudes changed as women found themselves to be every bit as capable as the men they replaced. All of Jefferson County watched with wonder when my sisters, Mary Ellen and Erin, decided to venture even farther into a man's world.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Joy and tragedy walked hand in hand during the dark days of World War Two. When good news came it always seemed to be tinged with sadness. The words "your son is alive" were too often followed by the phrase "he is badly injured". When those words came to my family it meant that the long wait was not over, it had just begun.

Narrator:
[a narration that John Boy Walton, Jr. is reading, from his journal] Most of us tend to be convinced of the rightness of our heritage, our traditions, our way of life, until some event happens that shakes our deepest beliefs to their foundations. On a day in 1939, two strangers came to our mountain. As a consequence of their visit we were to learn that others had roots there which reached deeper than our own.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] On Waltons Mountain our family ties were strengthened by hardship. The walls of our house protected us from wind and weather, and we managed somehow to survive grief, and illness and disappointment. Who, then, could have believed we would find ourselves so defenseless against romance?

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] As World War Two was gradually consigned to the pages of history books, life on Waltons Mountain began returning to normal. Store shelves bulged with food and other goods that had been scarce during the fighting, and families were reunited as the young men headed home. But peace didn't necessarily mean an end to turbulence. Life would always, somehow, manage to keep us off balance.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] While we were walking the green meadows of Waltons Mountain, daring flyers were conquering the beckoning blue skies. We had come to know an airmail pilot who would fly slightly off course just to say "Hello" to us, and especially to Jim Bob. Jim Bob's head was in the clouds back in those days, dreaming of machines which he hoped one day to fly.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] It was hard to think of my mother and father's marriage in terms of years. As far as we children were concerned, they'd always been married. But, of course, there had been a beginning to their union, and when their 20th anniversary was approaching, we decided to help them celebrate it in a very special way.

Narrator:
[narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] There's a fine moment in our lives when we are young and innocent and our hearts first awaken to the mystery and pain of love. At such a time we can give our love freely, without fear of hurt or pain. The arrival of a new, young minister in town caused my father to witness such an awakening in the heart of my sister, Elizabeth.

I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth.

The quote that I would like to share is one that I would love to remember the exact context of, but I only remember the one line. It has always stuck with me, and I would love to know the name of the episode and how to watch it so I could really experience the context. It is as follows:

John Walton, Sr.:

[while counseling John (John-boy) Walton, Jr.] Take advantage of no man, and let no man take advantage of you.