Walton Thoughts

I grew up watching the tv series, The Waltons. 

I was addicted, actually, and the addiction lasted into my adult years.

It's funny the different reactions you get when you mention The Waltons. Anything from an instant smile and a dreaminess in the eyes to disgust or even anger.

When the show first aired in 1972 the producers were deluged with thankful mail from thousands of viewers who appreciated the stirring up of memories from their own pasts. People loved the wholesomeness and the hope splattered over each hour-long episode.

But other letters came, too. Ones which condemned the whole project as being pure make-believe and unrealistic. Too sentimental and manipulative of viewers' feelings. Reviewers sat high on their thrones and tried to rip The Waltons apart from its seams. They'd watch an episode or two and then dismiss the whole thing.

You can read more about both sides here.

I guess I get tired of people who, from their own frame of reference, judge what is real and what is not. It bothers me that those who had lousy childhoods now try to convince us that all people have lousy childhoods and that, if you spent time in every home, you'd find some form of dysfunction. And that the Good Old Days are over and children today are automatically doomed because of how this world has evolved.

It's the simplest thing on Earth to be negative, especially as you grow older and see myriad bad things happen. It's easy to rain on people's parades and pop all their balloons and expect the worst. 

Any moron can do that.

But it takes a brave and strong person to swim upstream. A courageous person listens to a lot of blathering negative naysayers, then just goes about his life looking on the bright side. You know, being led by the God of all hope.

The world is bigger than each of knows and there are, even today, real families who resemble The Waltons. I knew many while I was a child in the 1960's--you know, those years when, if you believe just what you saw on tv, were full only of violence and free love and hippies and drugs. But no, even then we had Walton-esque families who said grace before meals and who got along and had fun, even though they had very little money.

I know, because I was in one of those (imperfect, ok, but still good) families and lots of my friends were in those kinds of families, also.

And even later after I married and had Naomi, newspapers and books and tv cried loudly that you just couldn't have The Good Old Days in your home because they were long dead.

But Tom, Naomi and I went ahead and had them anyway.

And maybe that's why, yesterday, I ordered the first season set of The Waltons DVD's. Perhaps I ordered them to stir-up the memories I have experienced first-hand for the last 46 years. You know, those types of experiences many movie and tv reviewers say never, ever happened in the first place.

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"But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound..." Romans 5:20


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