Waltonspalooza Part II
Or is it part III? Anyway, I'm on another small Waltons-watching jag. This time I am determined to figure out the floor plan of that amazing old house they live in. And yes, I know it's only a set, and not a real house at all, but I still love looking at all the details, and pausing when a particularly interesting scene shows up.
For instance, Mama Walton (Olivia) was just dishing up some soup, and I noticed a great detail – the soup is in a giant white and red transferware tureen, and she's serving it with a mismatched ladle – a big white ceramic one with a flat bottom and a green handle that looks like a piece of asparagus! I also noticed there's dust on the siding and a water stain under the window, and I think I've about got it figured out how that screened porch by the cellar is attached to the rest of the house (on the side, not the back – I think). Now I just have to figure out where that little door next to the kitchen stove goes, and that other door on the far wall of the front room. And do the parents sleep upstairs, or down?
There are so many good lessons to be learned from this show. For example, I just glanced up and Mary Ellen is holding a beautiful supported headstand (salamba sirsasana) on the patchy front lawn, talking to Olivia. The Waltons were into yoga! And here's this guy pulling up in an ancient old truck totally loaded up and over the top with junk – old pans, milk buckets, wheelbarrows, galvanized tubs, shovels, and other useful items. They were recycling way before recyling was cool!
I'd love to know what it would feel like to live in a society of people who thought things like that were worth saving. I was thinking about that yesterday when we were at the dump again; it's so depressing to live in a time where everybody always just wants to throw everything away. I'm not saying I want to be desperately poor – but why should you have to be poor to care about not wasting everything? Why does everyone seem to think it's so great to surround ourselves with stuff that's literally designed and intended to become garbage? I don't think it's great. I think it's deplorable.
Anyway – I know it's just a silly old tv show but it still makes me feel better to spend a little time on Walton's Mountain every once in awhile.
For instance, Mama Walton (Olivia) was just dishing up some soup, and I noticed a great detail – the soup is in a giant white and red transferware tureen, and she's serving it with a mismatched ladle – a big white ceramic one with a flat bottom and a green handle that looks like a piece of asparagus! I also noticed there's dust on the siding and a water stain under the window, and I think I've about got it figured out how that screened porch by the cellar is attached to the rest of the house (on the side, not the back – I think). Now I just have to figure out where that little door next to the kitchen stove goes, and that other door on the far wall of the front room. And do the parents sleep upstairs, or down?
There are so many good lessons to be learned from this show. For example, I just glanced up and Mary Ellen is holding a beautiful supported headstand (salamba sirsasana) on the patchy front lawn, talking to Olivia. The Waltons were into yoga! And here's this guy pulling up in an ancient old truck totally loaded up and over the top with junk – old pans, milk buckets, wheelbarrows, galvanized tubs, shovels, and other useful items. They were recycling way before recyling was cool!
I'd love to know what it would feel like to live in a society of people who thought things like that were worth saving. I was thinking about that yesterday when we were at the dump again; it's so depressing to live in a time where everybody always just wants to throw everything away. I'm not saying I want to be desperately poor – but why should you have to be poor to care about not wasting everything? Why does everyone seem to think it's so great to surround ourselves with stuff that's literally designed and intended to become garbage? I don't think it's great. I think it's deplorable.
Anyway – I know it's just a silly old tv show but it still makes me feel better to spend a little time on Walton's Mountain every once in awhile.
3 Comments:
Great post! It actually makes me want to sit down and watch those Waltons episodes frame by frame. The creators must have been pretty obsessed with authenticity. Of course, back when the Waltons were made, it wasn't hard to find people who lived through the Depression. I think Earl Hamner (That's the guy who wrote it, right?) was pretty heavily involved.
"Why does everyone seem to think it's so great to surround ourselves with stuff that's literally designed and intended to become garbage? I don't think it's great. I think it's deplorable."
I couldn't agree with you more. It's really depressing at this time of year. All that crappy cheap ugly Halloween, T-giving, and Christmas crap that's being sold. Whenever I see it, I just cannot believe that precious natural resources are being wasted to create this stuff. It's almost all plastics-based, which means that in order for it to come into existence a whole lot of toxins had to be pumped into the environment, then it had to be transported here from China (more resources wasted), and will one day soon end up in a landfill for the next zillion years. Great.
On a less depressing note. I think Olivia and what's-his-name (the Ralph Waite character) slept upstairs.
I hated "The Waltons" when it first aired...but then, I couldn't relate then to anything that wasn't about RIGHTNOW or maybe even FIVEMINUTESFROMNOW. In other words, my head was up my a**. This post makes me wanna watch it. Although we've been recycling for years, being one of the recycling coordinators at my job has made me so much more aware of the unbelievable waste we generate. Great post.
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