Original Airdate: March 1, 1973
Writer: Nigel McKeand
Director: Alf Kjellin
Prologue:
"Times were hard when I was growing up in the 1930s and many people tried to escape those times by living in other worlds created for them by glossy magazines and the movies. My own family was so close and we were so involved with our everyday lives that we didn't seem to need those dream worlds. So it came as a surprise when one day we discovered our mother had a dream of her own."
Synopsis:
Curtis Norton, a local blacksmith receives a letter from Ann Harris stating that she will be arriving on the one o'clock bus to accept his hand in marriage. They met at a reunion 3 months prior and since that time John-Boy has been helping Curtis write love letters to Ann. When she arrives she figures that Curtis is not the same man who wrote her such poetic words in the letters she received. She leaves and stays at the Walton's while she figures out her next step.
Secondary Story:
Olivia is frustrated by the challenges of running the family and her household duties. She fears that she will be stuck doing dishes and mending clothes instead of singing in the church choir. When John-Boy fails to do an errand for her she makes her way down to Ike's to do it herself. Olivia sees a bicycle for sale and with Ike's prodding she gives it a try. This is just the sort of release and freedom that Olivia needs. The bicycle becomes a symbol of escape from her usual routine. She is offered the lead position in the church choir.
Epilogue:
"My mother never sang in grand opera but her voice never failed to fill our house with a glad song as she went about the job of caring for us all. I can still remember when the hour grew late, I would be writing in my room and she would be working at some chore in the kitchen and her voice would drift upward."
Episode Notes and Interesting Facts:
Curtis Norton and his wife Ann appear again in "The Fulfillment" (s2-ep20) but Curtis will then be played by Victor French who incidently played one of Clay Spencer's (Henry Fonda) brothers in Spencer's Mountain.
