Writer: Lionel Siegel.
Director: Alf Kjelin.
Music: Arthur Morton
The Graduation
"Being a country boy on
Walton’s Mountain, and looking like one, always seemed as natural and normal as
anything to me. But a few days before my graduation from high school, I began
to look at myself in quite a different way".
The
schoolchildren outside the schoolhouse try to catch a glance at the seniors who
are inside practicing the graduation march. John-Boy wants Marcia Woolery to
write in his Autograph Book, but she thinks it is a very private thing to do,
wanting a more private time to do her writing. Miss Hunter asks the seniors to
practice once more, against their wishes.
Later, Mary
Ellen practices the march in front of the house, and then tells Grandpa that
Chance is acting strangely. Zeb investigates the family milk cow. When John-Boy
arrives at the house, the family rushes to the supper table. Inside, John-Boy
thinks they are acting strangely when they insist he go upstairs to change his
clothes. As he changes, the family gathers at the truck. Downstairs, ready to
go, John-Boy finds Ben and Elizabeth telling him to hurry up.
They load into
the truck and drive off, not telling John-Boy where they are going. In Charlottesville,
they stop in front of a men’s clothing store. The family is buying John-Boy a
new outfit for graduation and for college. At first John-Boy doesn’t want the
family to spend the money, but when he sees an outfit in the store window he
imagines himself wearing it to college. After hours of trying on clothes and
making final adjustments, John-Boy has decided on a double-breasted navy blue
jacket with white trousers. Olivia agrees to sew the cuffs on the trousers.
While John-Boy
changes back into his clothes, the kids, Grandpa, and Grandma select
accessories. Grandma buys crepe-rubber soled shoes for three dollars,
ninety-eight cents, Grandpa selects a shirt for one dollar, ninety eight cents,
Jason buys suspenders for ninety-eight cents, Mary Ellen buys a bow tie for
forty-eight cents, and the other children buy three pairs of argyle socks. The
total comes to eight dollars, sixty cents. Two cents short, Grandpa gives the
cashier his two cents worth. At the same time, John and Olivia pay for the jacket
of five dollars, seventy-five cents and the pants of three dollars, sixty-five
cents, for a total of nine dollars, forty cents. John-Boy hugs his mother.
At home,
John-Boy tries on his new outfit. Admiring himself and his new clothes, the
family runs in with the rest of his gifts. Putting on everything, John-Boy
models his outfit in front of John and Olivia. Grandpa says the girls will be
swarming around him, but Grandma says he is going to college to study. After
everything quiets down the children worry about Chance. John promises they can
visit her in the morning. John, Olivia, Grandpa, and Grandma all look worried.
In the morning,
John-Boy finds Elizabeth crying in the tree house because Chance has died. John
tells him that Chance died of old age, as the adults and Mary Ellen gather
around the supper table. John-Boy goes to his room, knowing that the money
spent on his new clothes would buy a needed, new milk cow. Grandpa suggests
buying milk from the Logan’s until they can afford to buy a new cow. John-Boy
comes down the stairs to tell his father that he would like to return the
clothes to pay for a new cow. John refuses the offer, saying they will figure
something out, hoping to save their money until they can buy a cow.
John-Boy rides
Old Blue to Ike’s store where he turns on the radio with an episode of “Ma
Perkins”. Ike abruptly tells John-Boy to turn off the radio, upset that he was
not invited to his graduation. John-Boy says he was already automatically
invited. Happy again, Ike tries to think of a present for his graduation. He
learns that the family bought John-Boy a new suit from strangers, saying he
must look like “a dude”. John-Boy isn’t happy with the idea that his family
needs money and he has new clothes that could solve their problem.
At breakfast,
Mary Ellen serves water to everyone, although Elizabeth still wants milk. Mary
Ellen says she wants to eat supper at Loretta’s house, and Erin pipes up that
the reason is that they have milk. Grandpa suggests to John-Boy that he try some
of Grandma’s peach preserves on his bread, because it’s better than butter.
John-Boy warns the children not to laugh when the seniors march in during
graduation because it will hurt Miss Hunter’s feelings. Grandma promises to
keep them in line.
John goes to
Henry Cottle’s farm to negotiate another cow. The last cow that Cottle sold was
for twenty-five dollars. He offers twenty-two dollars to John for a cow that
looks like Chance—she’s three years old. John counters with eighteen dollars,
and Cottle comes back with twenty dollars. John offers to do repair work, but
Cottle needs cash.
At school, a
girl tells Tylor to be careful putting up decorations. Marcia asks John-Boy how
he liked what she wrote in his Autograph Book. He’s forgotten to read it, and
she becomes very mad at him. Later, John-Boy overhears his mother and father
talk bout their milk problem. He borrows the truck and drives to the clothes
store to return the clothes. Explaining the situation to the clerk, the man
asks the manager to make an exception to the “no return” policy. On the way
home, John-Boy stops by the Baldwin house, after they invite him for tea. Miss
Emily talks about Ashley kissing her under the maple tree one autumn day. She
has given Ashley a present, but was unable to give it to him, after his quick
departure. They present this tiepin to John-Boy for his graduation present,
because Miss Emily is often reminded of Ashley when she sees John-Boy. He
graciously accepts it, kissing Miss Emily on the cheek and Miss Mamie on her hand.
They both sigh at the gesture, remembering back to earlier days.
John is
cleaning trout (that he caught in the Rockfish River) in the kitchen sink when
John-Boy returns home. He puts down money on the kitchen table, saying it will
help with the problem. Olivia and John wish he hadn’t done what he did. Later
as Olivia peels potatoes, the adults talk about John-Boy having to wear his old
knickers to graduation. Grandma suggests altering Zeb’s old suit—the one he
wishes to be buried in. Grandpa walks in and watches everyone stare at him.
John says, “Pa, it’s about when you meet your Maker.”
At school,
John-Boy reminisces with Miss Hunter about all the time he spent at his desk.
Miss Hunter is disappointed that John-Boy was the only senior that didn’t ask
her to sign his Autograph Book. John-Boy thought it would have been silly. She
signs the Book as John-Boy stares out the window at a young mother who is
showing her young son where he will start school. After Miss Hunter kisses
John-Boy on the cheek and leaves, John-Boy reads what she wrote: “The
Heights of great man reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but
they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. I’ll
always remember you affectionately, Rose Mary Hunter.” Just then the young boy
enters the room (wearing horned-rimmed glasses, like John-Boy’s glasses).
John-Boy shows the young student his old desk, saying his teacher will be Miss
Hunter, “You’ll like her.”
Mary Ellen,
Erin, and Elizabeth make supper while Olivia and Grandma alter and sew the
suit. Grandma suggests that Elizabeth give Grandpa some comforting, who’s
feeling sad about not being able to be buried in his tweed suit. Jason says
that the seniors are staying at school for more graduation practice. Grandma
expects they will be up most of the night finishing the jacket. In the morning,
John-Boy wakes up to find a suit lying at the front of his bed. He can’t
believe his eyes as he tries on the jacket.
John-Boy
suddenly realizes what happened, and as he runs into the hallway, he finds the
family waiting for him. Later, John and John-Boy bring home the new cow.
John-Boy says that seeing that jacket this morning was just like Christmas.
John tells his son that they’ll still know that you are a country boy, “a poor,
country boy at that”. John-Boy has never heard his father speak like this
before. When John-Boy asks his father “Who am I?” John says, “You are the
eldest of the Walton children, son. You are loved and respected by your whole
family and by a lot of others, too. And you are held in high regard by your
teacher. If you remember all of that, you won’t have to worry about being
country.”
At the
graduation ceremony, Mrs. Brimmer plays the piano, while Ike talks with Rev.
Fordwick. John-Boy practices his speech while Marcia brushes her hair inside
the schoolhouse. John-Boy asks her if she “realizes that this moment is never
going to come again”. Marcia says she tries not to “think about those things”.
John-Boy recites what she wrote in his Autograph Book, saying “How do I love
thee, let me count the ways.” While they share a kiss Ike enters the room
with John-Boy’s present, a ballpoint pen. Ike says, “Write good.” Marcia says
“Bye” and she and John-Boy hug and kiss. They then run outside to join the
other seniors (three girls and a boy). Rev. Fordwick starts the ceremony saying
we are “all very proud of you”. Miss Hunter speaks next, and introduces the
valedictorian and the winner of the Dabney scholarship to Boatwright
University, John Walton, Jr. John-Boy begins his speech:
What an exciting time to be alive; to be venturing out into the
world; to begin an enormous journey. We the graduating class of 1934,
encouraged by the words of our president Franklin Delano Roosevelt who said
when he was inaugurated a year ago ‘This great nation will endure as it has
endured, will revive and prosper… The only thing we have to fear is fear
itself’. This is a wonderful day: a day of hope and promise for me and my
fellow students, a day without fear. New laws have been passed to eliminate
child labor in factories, man’s working hours have been shortened, and no man
can be paid less than the new minimum wage. It’s been a long time since any
banks have closed in this country. And truly, our land is a land of progress
and opportunity. As high school graduates, we will be able to take full
advantage of these opportunities.
That we are high school graduates we owe to some very special
people. Our fathers have put in hours of backbreaking labor to keep us in
school. And I know in our house my mother went without in order that books
could be bought for my schooling. But above these specifics, they have given us
their support, their guidance, and their love. And we are deeply grateful.
There is someone else that we owe so very much. She has given generously
of her time and her intelligence and of her love for learning. And it is with
sadness that we leave Miss Rosemary Hunter; but with the promise that we will
strive to maintain her high ideals as we come to this parting of our ways. This
is a landmark that we will never forget, the day that we the graduating class
of 1934 set out on this great adventure of our lives.
"We could not have known
then the great and momentous events that were to happen in the decades to
follow. But that small school and those teachers like Miss Hunter had prepared
us, and that preparation helped sustain us through those turbulent years,
through war, the death of kings and presidents, and through those lesser
day-to-day experiences whch added together make up the fabric of our
lives".
Olivia: He'll be learning so
many new things, science, biology, foreign languages.
John: That's what he's going to
College for. Find out what the world's all about.
Elizabeth: If John-Boy learns
all those foreign languages, will we still be able to talk to him?
Erin: He probably won't want to
talk to us.
John-Boy: You're all talking
about me as if I suddenly turned into a different person and making me very
nervous.
Olivia: Don't be nervous, you'll
be the smartest boy in that whole school.
John-Boy: Mama, please.
Olivia: Allright. Sleep tight!
'Night everyone!
John-Boy & Erin: Goodnight.
Olivia: John.
John: Hmm?
Olivia: He will be the smartest
I just know it.
John-Boy: Mama......
Notes:
John-Boy
receives the Dabney scholarship.
John-Boy
graduates high school in 1934.
Chance, the
family’s milk cow, dies. John buys another cow from Henry Cottle, which the
family also names Chance.
Inside Ike’s
store is the sign “Coffee percolators $1.25”.
John-Boy sits in the second row from the left,
three seats from the front.
John-Boy and Tylor Crawfut are the two boys
in the graduating class. Four girls, including Marcia Woolery, are graduating,
too.
Kami Cotler’s brother Jeff appears as the
little boy with the horned-rim glasses that John-Boy shows around the school
room.
FDR’s first inaugural speech can be found at:
http://www.hpol.org/fdr/inaug/.
Also appearing:
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley), Miss Mamie and Miss Emily Baldwin (Helen Kleeb and Mary Jackson), Henry Cottle (Gil Rankin), Marcia Woolery (Tammi Bula), Miss Rosemary Hunter, (Mariclare Costello), Rev. Matthew Fordwick (John Ritter), Mrs. Brimmer (Nora Marlowe), Tylor Crawfut (Robert Clotworthy), Three Girl Graduates (Gaye Nelson, Peggy Drier, Geri Berger), Little Boy with horned-rim glasses (Jeff Cotler). Young Man (Casey Morgan), Young Woman (Vicki McCarty), Salesman (William Lanteau), Saleslady (Janice Canoll), Tailor (Ted Lehman).
(synopsis written by William Atkins and edited by Arthur Dungate)