Homeward Bound...The Walton's...

We picked two places on the way home to visit which we had never seen before in our travels in Virginia. Both I found by searching tourist stuff in Virginia. The 1st was Walton's Mountain.

Several years ago while in North Carolina we saw Mayberry RFD and really enjoyed it. So we felt a visit to another old favorite television show would be a good idea.

In a little town (I mean really little) called Schulyer, Virginia is an old school that has been converted into a museum. Schulyer, Virginia is the hometown of Earl Hamner. He is a writer. The character on the Walton's, John-Boy, is patterned after him. He has written many things just about everyone would know. He wrote the story 'Spencer's Mountain' which was made into a movie staring Henry Fonda. Then he wrote another story that was made into a TV movie called "The Homecoming". This was the movie that precipitated the creation of the TV show "The Walton's". He also wrote "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and "Charlotte's Web". He wrote several of the "Twilight Zone" shows. His family is the basis for the Walton family on the TV show. He used his siblings to pattern the kids in the show. His family home was the basis for the design of the Walton's home on the TV show. A lot of Earl Hamner and his life is in the Walton's television series. This is the story of a family of 8 kids, a mother & father, and a grandmother & grandfather that all live together on Walton's Mountain. They have a sawmill that helps finance them in the depression era. John-Boy is the oldest of the kids and was played by Richard Thomas. His hearts desire was to be a writer and the beginning to the show had him sitting at his bedroom window writing. There is a general store owned by Ike Godsey who eventually marries Cora Beth (a VERY strong woman). There are also 2 sisters that make "the recipe" in their home. They actually had a still and used their father's recipe to make their beverage. I purchased a quarter jar with a label on it for the top of my shelf in my kitchen. It was an excellent show with a lot of good moral training in it.

The town has taken the old school and converted it into a museum. They have tables set up in the gymnasium/stage. You pay a fee to enter. The walls of the gym are lined with boards displaying lots of pictures of the cast and of Earl Hamner and fellow Schuyler residents. In the Kindergarten room you see a video narrated by Earl Hamner about himself and the making of 'The Walton's". Then you can tour the classrooms at your leisure. Each has been decorated as a scene in the TV show.

The first room we saw was actually the script room. An actual script was open in a glass topped podium. Other scripts are stored in the bookshelves that line the room.

Then we saw the living room. A lot of the series was set in this room.

Then we saw the kitchen. Probably the most photographed of all the rooms in the home. In this room they also had a movie camera and platform that were used in the making of the show. The platform has the word 'crab' in its name. It literally rolled side-to-side and back and forth like a crab would walk. On it was mounted a movie camera used to film the show. Each of these pieces of movie making equipment also were used in the making of some famous movies like Close Encounters.

Then we saw Ike Godsey's store. He was a good friend to the Walton family. He really ran everything through this store. The post office was here. The only phone in town was here. It was the hub of the community. I purchased my Christmas ornament here. It is a patchwork heart with the words "Walton's Mountain" cross-stitched on the front. It was made by local ladies for the store. I also got Claude some homemade peach salsa.

We saw John-Boy's bedroom. Claude pointed out to me that the window air conditioning unit was not a part of the TV show.

We saw a replica of the 'recipe room'. The still in this room is a real still.

It was fun to visit this place. It is a beautiful drive to get to it. It is south of Charlottesville, Virginia and very rural. By the way...there was not really a mountain named Walton's Mountain. That is fictional in the show. The Hamner Family did have a relative that owned land that included a mountain and Earl got the idea from that but there isn't really a mountain there named Walton's Mountain.