Writer: Joanna Lee.
Director: Jack Shea.
Music: Arthur Morton.
"Growing
up with my brothers and sisters on Walton’s Mountain was a joyful experience,
but not always an easy one. Privacy was hard to come by, and as a young man
trying to write; it was the one thing I needed which I almost never had. I will
always remember that day when I left, a young boy anxious to find some time for
himself, and returned a man who had partaken of a miracle".
Activities abound around the Walton house as
Mary Ellen finds John-Boy in his room writing an article for a Richmond magazine that is trying to help new writers. Mary
Ellen needs her brother to build a pen for her new lamb, Daisy. John-Boy
finally relents, building the pen as Mary Ellen feeds the newborn animal.
Afterwards, Jason and Ben ask John-Boy for help in building a soapbox racer for
the school festival. At supper Grandpa asks for mashed potatoes as Ben
complains of not feeling well. Olivia finds her son burning up with fever.
Grandpa indicates that “considerable fever” is going around. Olivia asks John
to go for the doctor. Doc Vance says that Ben has a light case of fever, but to
keep him isolated. John-Boy agrees to give up his room, and move into the boys’
room.
John and Olivia rest on the sofa, both weary
from the day. John begins to kiss his wife, with Olivia concerned that the
children will see them. Jason and Jim-Bob talk about the color to paint their
racer while John-Boy tries to write. Unable to concentrate John-Boy walks to
the barn for some quiet, but finds Mary Ellen singing her lamb to sleep with the lyrics “And if that mockingbird don't sing, Mama's going to buy you
a diamond ring.”
John-Boy becomes angry with Mary Ellen, unable to find a quiet place to write.
He storms into the house, telling his parents and grandparents that he is going up to the old Montgomery place in the
morning to do some writing. John hesitates, knowing the bridge on the path to
the cabin often washes away during storms. But Olivia surprisingly thinks
John-Boy should go. Grandpa agrees, saying a man “should meet up with his
feelings”.
In the morning John-Boy is sent off on his
journey, with Ben feeling better, poking his head out of the bedroom window.
John-Boy walks through a meadow and on to Granny Ketchum’s place, finding her
talking with her mule Old Blue who has wandered into her sage patch. John-Boy
leads the animal out of the garden. John-Boy asks her if she is feeling poorly.
The old woman says, “Do you hear that rose complaining when it withers on the
vine. It needs to make room for the new vines.” John-Boy crosses the covered
bridge, then pauses at a stone fireplace from a burned out cabin with a storm
fast approaching. Reaching the Montgomery place, John-Boy finds Sarah Jane
Simmons appearing out from the darkened corner. She explains that she ran away
from the Kabuli’s in Richmond, after her mother made them her legal guardian,
hoping to provide her daughter with an education in exchange for work. Sarah
Jane confesses that the arrangement turned to be all work.
Back at the Walton house, the family prepares
for the upcoming storm. Grandpa tells Jim Bob that rain is good for the garden;
with Jim Bob concerned about his tomato plants after telling Jimmy Alexander
that he’s going to win a prize at the festival. At the cabin John-Boy starts a
fire while Sarah Jane tells him about her husband Riley O’Connor. She opens her
coat to show John-Boy that she is pregnant, then states that she ran off after
the Kabuli’s threatened to put the baby up for adoption. Sarah Jane says that
her husband is in Norfolk, looking for work at the WPA project after getting
laid off from his job. Sarah Jane insists on staying at the cabin, unwilling to
return to her mother who would not understand. John-Boy realizes that she is
burning up with the fever.
Ike waits on Marion as Widow Simmons enters
the store. Ike gives Marjorie a letter from the Kabuli’s. As she reads the
letter Olivia walks into the store. Marjorie admits to Olivia that Sarah Jane has
run off, and that she feels guilty, only wanting to give her daughter a better
life. John-Boy walks to Granny Ketchum’s house, needing medicine for Sarah
Jane. At the Walton house Olivia and Grandma drink tea with Marjorie as she
confesses that her daughter has “gotten into trouble”. John-Boy is given
medicine from Granny Ketchum, who says that she lost her husband and daughter
to the fever thirty years ago. The woman gives John-Boy her mule to ride back
to the cabin. John-Boy brews tea from the bark that Granny Ketchum gave him.
Unable to awaken Sarah Jane, John-Boy slaps her in the face, finally able to
spoon her the tea.
John tells Marjorie that she will have to
stay the night, unable to start the truck and the roads too muddy for travel.
The children prepare for bed. Elizabeth says a prayer for John-Boy’s safety. In
the morning, Sarah Jane awakens to find her fever has broken. While eating some
food that John-Boy prepared, she comments that, “you’ll make someone a
wonderful husband”. They reminisce about their first date, her proposing to him
in the back of the truck and her running off with the Claypool boy. Sarah Jane
returns to bed, feeling weak again. In the morning Grandpa and Jim Bob find a
tree branch has fallen onto their tomato plants. Grandpa suggests that Jim Bob
pick up the ripe tomatoes and help Grandma make some of her tomato preserves.
John-Boy awakens to hear Sarah Jane ready to give birth. He wants to run to
Granny Ketchum, who is a mid-wife, but Sarah Jane says there is little time left.
John-Boy reassures Sarah Jane that he will be able to deliver her baby, having
only recently helped in the birth of a lamb.
Over breakfast Marjorie finds out that
John-Boy is staying at the old Montgomery place. Knowing that her daughter
often visited the place, she feels that Sarah Jane may be there. At the same
time John-Boy helps Sarah Jane give birth to her daughter. John-Boy wraps the
baby in a cloth and gives her to Sarah Jane. John-Boy leads the mule back to
the house (with Sarah Jane riding on top with her newborn daughter). Olivia,
Marjorie, and the rest of the family learn that John-Boy delivered the baby.
Marjorie learns that her daughter is married and that her husband is looking
for work in Washington D.C. John-Boy wonders why she earlier said the city was
Richmond. John tells his son that Granny Ketchum died early this morning and
left him Old Blue. Later, John-Boy reads poetry to Grandma and Olivia, saying
the verses talk about Sarah and Granny Ketchum. The children run in showing
that Mary Ellen won first prize, Jim Bob a white ribbon (third prize),
Elizabeth an honorable mention, Erin a second prize, while Jason and Ben won
nothing because the wheel fell off their racer. John-Boy agrees to help the
children with their various jobs, deciding to think more about what to write in
his article.
"We
were early risers, and thus in my Grandfather's words ‘we went to bed with the
chickens’. All the lights in the house would go out, except for the one in my
room. There, I would at last find the solitude to record in my journal the
events of the day. The wind would flow gently down from the mountain, the night
birds would fall still, and the rest of the family would slip quietly towards
sleep".
Elizabeth:
Mama?
Olivia:
Yes, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth:
How do babies get born?
Olivia:
With love, darling.
Elizabeth:
Goodnight, Mama.
Olivia:
Goodnight!
Notes:
Daisy, Mary Ellen’s newborn lamb, lost her mother.
The WPA stands for Works Progress Administration. Information about the WPA can be found at: http://www.interment.net/column/records/wpa/wpa_history.htm.
Mary Ellen sings to Daisy, the lamb, the song Hush, Little Baby. Go to http://www.kididdles.com/mouseum/h012.html for the song’s lyrics.
Also appearing:
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley), Dr. Vance (Victor Isay), Granny Ketchum (Frances E. Williams); Sarah Jane Simmons (Sissy Spacek); Mrs. Marjorie Simmons (Allyn Anne McLerie).
(synopsis written by William Atkins and edited by Arthur Dungate)