"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".
John-Boy looks for Jason while Elizabeth
tries to spell “Mississippi”. Jason runs out to find John-Boy is upset with him
for being late. Yancy comes by with a mess of fish, hoping he could stay with
them for a few days because a skunk has taken up residence under his house.
John-Boy drops Jason off at Kleinberg where he finds out from Lucy that
Professor Thaxton wants to see him. Thaxton tells him that Kleinberg is having
financial difficulties, and that the Trustees are discontinuing the scholarship
program. He will still be able to attend but he will need three hundred dollars
for tuition. Jason has no idea how he’ll come up with the money, one hundred of
it by the end of next month.
Yancy and Jason are fishing at the fishing
hole. They talk about his predicament at school. Yancy mentions his job with
Bobby Bigelow and the Haystack Gang (and his job with the Sunday Morning
Gospeleers). Yancy tells him about the café on Route 29 that needs someone to
play the piano and sing songs. Jason drives up to the Dew Drop Inn. He
introduces himself to Thelma, the owner. Jason plays a song, although Thelma is
hesitant to hire him. He plays Roll Out the Barrel, and the fellows at
the bar think he is pretty good. Thelma agrees, and he gets the job (but nothing
but ginger ale for him).
At home, supper is over with when Jason
announces a new job. Olivia is against him playing in a roadhouse, “a
gatherin’ place filled with beer-guzzlers and backsliders” as Grandma says.
Yancy says it is just a place filled with “good-ole boys” trying to have a good
time. In bed, Olivia speaks against the roadhouse, but John says hard work and
fast company won’t hurt him. Olivia doesn’t think it is very funny. Jason sings
the song Hoe-Down while Sissy serves drinks to some customers. She serves
him what looks to be a beer, and he gulps it down.
Olivia and Esther are talking with Ike about
a straw hat that costs eight-five cents. Mrs. Wilma Turner walks in. She tells
them that her husband, Red, stopped playing in his band after their son died.
Later, Olivia tells Jason that Red gave up the band, and they reminisce about
his playing days. She thinks they should get together so he doesn’t have to work
at the Dew Drop. John-Boy visits the Dew Drop, telling Sissy that Jason left his
music in his car. He runs into drunken Tom who wonders where Yancy has been.
Sissy listens on to the conversation, asking Tom where the Walton house is
located.
The next day, Yancy sees Sissy’s car drive up
and he runs for cover. Sissy Walker introduces herself to Olivia while the
others look on. She asks for Yancy Tucker, and Olivia asks Ben and Jim Bob to
find him. She tells them that Yancy has proposed marriage to her. Grandpa comes
up and shakes her hand. Ben finds Yancy in the barn, but Yancy tells Ben not to
tell her that he is there. She leaves and asks Olivia to “give that man my
love”. Grandpa thinks Yancy is showing “particular good
taste”.
Jason walks up to Red Turner’s house. Wilma
shows him in, and explains that Red is in bad shape. Wilma goes for Red, while
Jason looks at a picture of Seth. Red comes out and Jason suggests a crazy idea
about starting a band together. But, Red tells him he is no longer doing music,
and excuses himself. That night Jason is playing the recorder that Seth Turner
gave to him when John walks into the room. They talk about what Red is doing to
himself. John tells him that he’ll, “do what I can do”.
John puts on a white shirt, telling Olivia
that he is taking Red over to the Dew Drop Inn to listen to their new piano
player. John pulls up to the Turner place, and Red and him talk about Jason and
Seth. They walk into the Dew Drop as Jason plays the piano. Sissy gets two beers
for the two men. Red and John stare at their beers for a few seconds, but Red
suddenly gets up and leaves. John and Jason look disappointedly at each other.
Tom comes over to John’s table, seeing the nearly filled glass of beer. John
drives home and steps wobbly from the truck, and still wobblier up the front
steps of the house. He finds himself staring at Olivia, who is waiting up for
him. John says he is fine, with a silly look on his face.
Sissy is buying some yarn from Ike when
Olivia and Esther come in. Sissy says she is knitting Yancy a muffler. Sissy
walks out with them, thinking that Yancy is ignoring him. Grandma thinks she
should “drop him like a hot potato”. She decides to ignore him back. Jim Bob is
imagining the day when he can collect all the parts he needs to build a car when
Elizabeth walks up. She says she would rather ride on Myrtle than wait on Jim
Bob’s car.
Grandpa helps Grandma make soap, while Yancy
sits on the steps. Grandpa reminds Grandma that she says the Baptists always
find some good in everybody, but Esther thinks Yancy might be an exception.
Sissy drives up and talks with John-Boy about buying advertisement in the
Blue Ridge Chronicle. Ben tells her that the price is fifty cents. Sissy
gives John-Boy a lift to Ike’s store, all the while as Yancy looks on. Jim Bob
asks Grandpa, “Why do woman always want to get married, but men don’t.” Grandpa
reminds him that every time a woman gets married, so does a man. Ike walks in
with a present to John-Boy from Sissy Walker. The note has violets on it, and
the package is a muffler. Yancy looks on with a shocked look on his
face.
That night, Yancy visits John-Boy in the shed
as he works on the newspaper. Yancy tells John-Boy that he has noticed the
loving family of John’s. He thinks that he might like to settle down, but isn’t
sure about love and relationships. He asks about what happened to them (such as
Romeo and Juliet), and John-Boy says many of them died, all except Ulysses, who
traveled a lot, and Penelope, who waited for him.
While Jason plays My Darlin Clementine
Yancy walks in for a talk with Sissy. He tries to convince her that he’s been
thinking about her all this time. Yancy wants to talk about some arrangements.
At the Turner house, Wilma decides to go out to the Dew Drop Inn, and wants Red
to go with her. He finally agrees to go with her. At the Dew Drop, Jason tells
the audience that Red Turner is a member of the crowd. He talks about the Red
Turner Band and the gift that they gave to the community. He asks if Red would
come up to the stage and perform. Jason takes Red up to the stage, where he
plays and sings Nobody’s Darlin’ But Mine.
Yancy comes by the house with Sissy to
announce their engagement. Yancy wants a marriage in 1947 (a ten-year
engagement). Sissy thinks he is a humorous man. In the living room, Jason and
Red play their music: Beautiful Dreamer.
"It wasn't long before Red was playing again, pleasing audiences
with his old skill and a new, more mellow kind of song. Jason had earned enough
to scrape together a first downpayment at school, but making those tuition
payments remained a constant problem and a challenge for
him".
Grandma: What's
that noise?
Grandpa: Oh just Jason gettin' home.
Grandma:
Oh it must be past one in the mornin'. That Dew Drop Inn.... he might just as
well be in Sodom and Gomorrah!
Jason: Do they need a piano
player?
John: Goodnight, Jason.....
Jason: Goodnight
Daddy. Goodnight everybody.
Notes:
It is 1937, according to the
introduction.
Richard Thomas is still using a walking
stick.
Thelma, the owner of the Dew Drop Inn, and Sissy Walker,
the waitress of the Dew Drop Inn and Yancy’s fiancé, are introduced in this
episode. Cissy Wellman, who plays Sissy Walker, also played Jane Aspen in The
Chicken Thief (Season 2, Episode 6).
The lyrics to the song Roll Out the Barrel can be
found at: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/barrel.htm.
The songs Hoe-Down and Ironing Board Blues
were composed and performed by Jon Walmsley.
Red Turner first appeared in The Gift (Season 2, Episode
18), where Ken Swofford played him.
Ron Howard played Seth Turner in The Gift. The character
died of leukemia.
Red plays Nobody’s Darlin’ But Mine. Its lyrics can
be found at: http://www.luma-electronic.cz/lp/j/Wanda/wanda_lovincountry.htm.
Red and Jason play Beautiful Dreamer, whose lyrics
are found at: http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/usa/beautifu.htm.
Information about Merle Haggard can be found at: http://www.merlehaggard.com/
Also appearing:
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Yancy Tucker (Robert Donner); Sissy Walker (Cissy Wellman); Thelma (Dorothy Shay); Red Turner (Merle Haggard); Wilma Turner (Pat Quinn); Professor Thaxton (Jay Robinson); Tom (Logan Field); Lucy, the Student (Jillian Lieder).