They were like members of our family: John-Boy and Momma and Daddy. Grandpa and Grandma.
They were like the folks down the road: Ike and Corabeth Godsey. The Recipe Sisters: Miss Emily and Miss Mamie.
We saw the kids grow up during the nine years (1972-1981) “The Waltons” series was on television: Mary Ellen and Jason. Ben, and Erin. Jim-Bob and Elizabeth.
The Waltons, Earl Hamner Jr.’s semi-autobiographical family, first came into our homes and into our hearts during the 1971 Christmas season, on this date, December 19, in a CBS television movie, “The Homecoming.”
That pilot movie was sentimental, heart-tugging, and full of family love, elements we associate with Christmas cheer---and with the series it launched. The father had been working some distance away from home, and it seemed uncertain whether he would make it back for Christmas. We saw how his absence was impacting three generations of his family: his children, his wife, and his parents.
The inspiration for Walton’s Mountain is the village of Schuyler in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Located on a side road off a secondary road, Schuyler is the place where Hamner grew up in a large family. The Hamner home is still there, occupied by one of his brothers, James. The schoolhouse right across the road, where they got their education, is now the Walton’s Mountain Museum, which once drew as many as 40,000 visitors in a year.
The series was heavily criticized by some for being unlike weightier fare offered on other nights. The Waltons were said not to measure up to “socially relevant” families in that era such as those of Archie Bunker and Maude Findlay. Set in the Great Depression, “The Waltons” series was called “too nostalgic.”
But isn’t there a place alongside the hard-down gritty story lines for the softer-edged look at a family such as the folks who lived on Walton’s Mountain? Both kinds of shows are true to life, offering two different realities of American life.
The Waltons lived off the beaten path, but the world came to their door as the family faced various crises, some from within the family circle and others imported by outsiders.
The Advent season can remind us that, much like the various kinds of television shows, there is the grim, depressed world where people are thrown together, often in violent confrontations, and there is the gentler world. The close-knit Walton family can symbolize the family of God which offers encouragement and healing as family members close ranks around those who hurt. This was the purpose of the One whose advent we celebrate.
Verses for Today
“When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ---if , in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:15-17).
Each day through New Year’s Day, January 1, 2013, inspirational thoughts will appear, in keeping with Advent, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. These are from my book, Reflections for the Festive Seasons. © 2002. All rights reserved.
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