Posted on 09/14/2012 12:03:36 PM PDT by BigReb555
“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.”-- Grandpa Walton
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
Do you remember when John-Boy Walton asked Grandpa Zeb “Do we got something to show we own Walton's Mountain?”…. and his Grandpa replied, quote:
“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.” Unquote
Edgar Bergen, Father of actress Candice Bergen, spoke these words as Grandpa in the 1971 CBS Pilot movie “The Walton’s: The Homecoming: A Christmas Special.”
In 1972, however, Will Geer would become the wise, lovable and most remembered Grandpa Walton until his untimely death in 1978. The Walton’s reflected on God, family values and ancestral heritage of a family living in the rural community of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia during the Great Depression and World War 11.
The ambitions of the Walton children included: John-Boy who wanted to be a writer, Jim-Bob an aviator, Mary Ellen a nurse and Jason a musician who loved playing Grandma’s favorite song “Carry me back to Ole Virginia.” Olivia Walton played by “Michael Learned” could quote Bible scripture as well as Grandma Walton and raised her children as good Christians with compassion for others. Has it been 40 years since…
Dirty Harry starring Clint Eastwood and the God Father starring Marlon Brando were hot at the movies; the song “I’d love you to want me” by Lobo went to No. 2 on the Billboard chart; Richard M. Nixon was re-elected President of the United States and….
The Walton’s premiered in September 1972 on the CBS Television Network?
The Walton’s was an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr. for Lorimar Productions that touched the hearts and souls of young and old for nearly 10 years. The show was based on the novel by Earl Hamner “Spencer’s Mountain” that became a Warner Brothers movie in 1963 starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara.
One of my favorite episodes is entitled “The Scholar.” Miss Verdie Grant, played by Lynn Hamilton, learns that her daughter will graduate from college but is embarrassed that she never learned how to read and write. She asks John-Boy to teach her; on the condition he keeps it a secret. The friendship and compassion between black and white country people and a Confederate Battle flag respectfully displayed in a school classroom as seen in this episode is not politically correct but is historically accurate.
We were invited everyday Thursday night into the Walton’s home where John and Olivia Walton, along with John’s parents “Zeb” and “Esther” Grandma Walton, raise their seven children. John Walton played by “Ralph Waite” makes a living with his lumber mill.
The Walton’s neighbors included: the Baldwin sisters, two proud Southern ladies who make moonshine liquor they affectionately call “Papa’s recipe”; Ike Godsey owner of the local general store and wife Cora Beth, Verdie and Harley Foster, Yancey Tucker and Sheriff Ed Bridges who keeps the peace in fictitious Walton’s Mountain, Jefferson County, Virginia.
At bedtime the Walton’s turned off the lights and said good night and on one occasion Elizabeth asked her Momma and Daddy to sing the old song “The Old Spinning Wheel” which begins with “There’s an old spinning wheel in the parlor, Spinning dreams of the long-long ago.” It has been a long time ago but re-runs of the Walton’s, distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution in syndication, can still be seen on such channels like the “Hallmark Channel.” Good night, May God Bless and…
Ya’ll come back now, you here!
Read this about “Granpa Walton(Will Geer)” and you will NEVER look at “The Waltons” the same way again:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Geer Turns out “Ole” Will was “Light in the loafers” and SERIOUSLY RED!
Liked his role playing but in real life he was a turd to be sure.
Beat me to it!
“You can’t own a mountain any more than you can own an ocean or a piece of the sky.”
http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/crap.wav
Network TV is close to “trash” anymore.....
Kinda puts a new twist on “can you skin Griz?”
Oh snap! How do I get the image of Grandpa Walton takin’ it up the ol chocolate wiz-way outta my head?
I grew up on the “Waltons”, when there were about 7 TV channels in Dallas TX.
I borrowed a set of discs from the library a few months ago, since it had been decades that I’d seen the show.
It was so awful I took the DVDs back after watching the first show -— it was basically the same as watching “Dr. Quinn - Medicine Woman”...with the same plotlines, the same faux conservatism, the same underhanded progressivism...
BARF
Grandpa Walton was a sodomite Commie in real life.
My parents who were married during the Great Depression both loved to watch “Walton’s Mountain”. They were both very conservative and I think the reason they watched it, is because it reminded them of their youth.
I started to tell them that it often had a pro communist slant to the stories but just decided to let them enjoy it.
Pa Walton (Ralph Waite) was a liberal idiot too, tried running for Congress a couple of times (1990, 1998) but got stomped. Series creator Earl Hamner was a big-time lefty, but by today’s standards he’d be a ‘moderate’.
And YES Ole Will WAS on the “Hollywood “Blacklist””:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist
I couldn’t stomach Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman for just that reason. SO politically correct it was sickening.
Holy cow. If you follow the Wiki link on that page to Harry Hay, you can see a picture of Grandpa Walton’s boyfriend in a dress.
Geeeeeeez.......
Grandpa wasn’t the only Leftie. Ralph Waite was too, although I still like to watch him in movies and on TV.
Posters are right about the fake “Middle American values” of the show. Every episode seemed to be about how the tolerant Waltons took in a minority or Jew or some other outcast (like carnival performers) and showed them kindness while the rest of the ignorant yahoos in the town were ready to kill the outcasts. And the sympathetic characters were the ones who didn’t conform to authority — the ones boozing it up or doing other bad or illegal things. And, of course, John Boy wanted to be a journalist, which they played up as the highest calling on Earth. I’ll stick with Michael Landon for family fare.
"If I wanted them to be wussies I would have named them 'Dr. Quinn' and 'Medicine Woman'!"
Compare The Waltons to something like American Family and you have to think “Wow...how did we get HERE in just 40 years?”
Compare The Waltons to something like Modern Family and you have to think “Wow...how did we get HERE in just 40 years?”
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