Growing up in rural Southern Illinois, you hear stories about how tough the Great Depression was on farm families. If you stick around into adulthood to call it home, you continue to hear how bad it was on farm families, and if you paid attention, you learned how bad it was for your own.
Over the years, I’ve complained about the TV show, The Waltons. It takes place in rural America around the time of the Great Depression and World War II, but, from what it looks like to me, it takes place in an alternate universe where poverty is disguised as plentiful bounty. I mean, the Waltons have a large home, a working truck, and from what it seems, a thriving family business where every day is either picking berries in the forest or taking a hike up a mountain to philosophize on life.
Well, lately, I’ve started to think differently of this show. It is slowly becoming, not there completely, a story about a family living the best they can through a difficult time by choosing to remain totally oblivious to what’s happening in the world around them. It reminds me of something writer Hunter S. Thompson said when he ran for sheriff of Aspen, Colorado. To paraphrase, he said something along the lines of, “We know how to run our lives better than Washington D.C.”
Thompson lost the election, but I totally get where he was going with that. As a journalist, he wasn’t oblivious to the problems of the world. There’s plenty of writing and footage of him speaking to show he was acutely aware of social problems, but I feel, what he meant was, everyone needs a place to call home, a place to relax, to take a break, and enjoy life even if it means turning on the blinders for a while to get some peace.
I kind of feel that’s what The Waltons represent. Metaphorically speaking, the farm represents a communal experience by which everyone helps each other and likewise leaves each other alone to live as they choose. For example, John Boy’s allowed time to write without anyone making fun of him for wanting to lock himself away with his books. In one episode, a younger son opens a tavern, and nobody cares. They even show up to find him drinking alone because he feels like a failure for not opening the tavern and the family pitches in to help him get it open. And, then there’s Grandpa who walks around sharing his wisdom from a lifetime spent on the mountain with a bottle of Daddy’s “special” recipe. Even when the sheriff shows up on the show, he quite often walks away without a person in handcuffs as a friendly conversation among neighbors tends to resolve the situation.
Anyway… I just wanted to share that.