[mommy22]

Please don't laugh....I just thought some of you might find this interesting.
Do you remember the TV series "The Walton's" ?
I was at the library, and the series is now on DVD and so I thought that I'd take it home and relive some childhood TV. Well, I watched the shows with Peak Oil in mind, and what a treasure trove for learning bits and pieces about living close to the land, community, and family cooperation....not to mention self sufficiancy.
OK...go ahead and laugh.

[I_Like_Plants]

They were far richer and better fed than I was as a 1970s kid, it's takene me years to realize they were supposed to be poor. I'd say 80% of American kids are growing up with less human feelings, security, regular nutritious food, etc than the Waltons did. The other 20% come from families that own everything and like nowadays just fine.

[Roccland]

night john boy...

[Mo_Oil_Dave]

Hello there...

Nope, I ain't laughin'. I remember that show because my grandma watched it religiously.

If I remember correctly... the mountain they lived on was called Walton Mountain. Which probably means everyone living on it paid the Waltons some kind of rent or payment in kind (share of their crops).

Thats' the way to do it!

They were rich beyond the dreams of avarice; For the times.

Get out of the john...boy!


David

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')orn won't grow at all on Rocky Top.
Dirt's too rocky by far.
That's why all the folks on Rocky Top get their corn from a jar

[Pops]

Not laughing here Mommy. We have all the Little House books and read them to the grandkids whenever we get the chance.

The key thing in my mind is to understand the salient points and stop reading and talk to the kids about making butter, rope, why they drove a team instead of a minivan, etc.

Wisdom is where you find it...

[RonMN]

I'm not laughing. I've been watching the waltons, little house, gun smoke Etc., to learn how things used to be...how things WILL be.

Once on Gun smoke...there was a serious drought...and all of dodge city was close to death for lack of drinking water...(men giving up their water rations to help a woman with an infant)... too bad i can't get that idea thru to my bro's & sisters :/

[Daculling]

I saw the pilot episodes of Little house a couple months ago. Never saw them before... Hilarious!! Hunting rabbits while being cased by wolves and then Pa gets back to the house... Indians had come and threatened the family... made it look like they were there to rape and steal. Pa didnt care much. Then he said.. "I'd like my pipe now after the hunt". And Ma said... "The Indians stole your tobacco". And he was crazy mad. Hilarious!!!

[Ludi]

My husband has mentioned several times how his dad would often talk about how rich the Waltons were! They had a farm, truck, big house, etc...


Poor! *snort*

[WildRose]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'T')hey were far richer and better fed than I was as a 1970s kid, it's takene me years to realize they were supposed to be poor. I'd say 80% of American kids are growing up with less human feelings, security, regular nutritious food, etc than the Waltons did. The other 20% come from families that own everything and like nowadays just fine.

[horsestoaster]

True story:My Mom and her 2 sisters each got an orange and a hankerchief for Xmas one year.The three boys got an orange and a home made wooden top. For me,the Depression was as real as yesterday and surviving it was something folks just did without alot of thought ahead.They were lucky cause the 6 kids could work in the garden and they even had a cow and some rabbits.

[Waterthrush]

I gotta tell ya, the one episode of the Waltons that made an impression on me was one where Mom Walton dared to start singing in the church choir ... she learned the error of her ways when her fellow women were revealed to be gossips and rumormongers. Well, Mom Walton soon gave up that idle idea of doing anything outside the bosom of her family, and I remember the final line about how they were all brightened with her song.

Sure, John Boy got away, became a writer, lived the urban life with a little dacha back on Walton's Mountain, but Mom wasn't even allowed an hour out with the gals, even if it were the worthies in the church choir. Sheesh, I remember thinking, rather she than I!

Still, Mommy22, there is nothing to prevent you from beginning to bring in parts of that lifestyle to please yourself. Would you like to get out into nature more often? Have a garden? Be closer to non-nuclear family members? Slow down?

One key thing that most parents seem unable to do is to focus less on the kids - do they really need athletics at age 7? Group birthday parties every single year? First consultation as to family activities? I think one key for all this is to reduce the time simply spent driving the kids around.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Waterthrush', 'O')ne key thing that most parents seem unable to do is to focus less on the kids - do they really need athletics at age 7? Group birthday parties every single year? First consultation as to family activities? I think one key for all this is to reduce the time simply spent driving the kids around.

[theozarker]

I loved the Waltons and the Little House series, maybe because they reminded me of my grandparents who raised 12 kids on a hardscrabble farm in Oklahoma - having moved there from the Ozarks while Oklahoma was still the Indian Territory.

My parents went through the Great Depression. My dad was a minister in a small town in rural Oklahoma. They kept a big garden and some chickens. The congregation, mostly local small farmers, tithed in veggies, bread/grain and, once in a while, meat. (My dad received $150 a year from the Methodist diocese - to keep up the church and parsonage and feed a wife and two kids.) The train ran by the parsonage on the edge of the town and men would jump off and come by asking to work for a meal. Mom kept a big pot of soup and lots of loaves of homemade bread on the stove and my dad would let them spread their bedrolls on the church pews to sleep out of the elements.

Once my mom asked him how the men always knew to come there for a meal. He took her outside and showed her a mark of some kind on the side of the house that faced the railroad line. He said it was a "hobo mark" and the men could see it from the railroad. It meant they could find a hot meal there.

The church and parsonage were small and rundown - my dad could barely keep ahead of the mice and snakes that lived there. But they both felt they were better off than most people back then in that they actually had food and shelter with some to spare for those that didn't.

I think that was the way it was for most of rural America at that time. Even the people in town kept a garden and chickens or some small livestock. Some still do in small towns around here. In fact the city ordinances here in Springfield still allow for that - as long as they're well kept and the neighbors don't complain.

If we're lucky (really lucky!) maybe the descent will be slow enough that enough people can get back to that. I hope so.

Linda

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')orn won't grow at all on Rocky Top.
Dirt's too rocky by far.
That's why all the folks on Rocky Top get their corn from a jar

[syrac818]

OMG...this thread is awesome, on so many levels. Only here would you find such a discussion.

[clueless]

I too have been watching the Waltons and allready wached all the Little House series (netflix) has them all.

In all reality they are pretty unrealistic in the sense that they really don't mirror what life was really like duing those times.

Little House had a documentary done later about what life on the prarie was really like and it was much different where they were buring straw to stay warm becasue they ran out of firewood.


There is also PBS series called "Frontier House" where they took some families and put them on the prarie that is much more realistic, and did not look like much fun either. The Waltons and Little House spoke about "hard times" quite often but the actual events depicted did not reflect that.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('clueless', 'n') all reality they are pretty unrealistic in the sense that they really don't mirror what life was really like duing those times.

[clueless]

Yeah, I have heard that. My problem is I have no less than 15 books stacked up to read and no time, I have a 1 and 2 1/2 year old (future farm hands !)

[Pops]

No time like the present to start reading to them!