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Ep.23 - Founders' Day

 
  Original Airdate: March 22, 1979
Writer: Kathleen Hite
Director: Ralph Waite

Description:

  Jason struggles to finish his final composition before graduating from music conservatory. The Baldwins create a plan to hold a Founder's Day on Walton's Mountain.

Intro scene:

 

Jason is warned by a professor at the Kleinburg Conservatory that he may not pass his course but he needs to to graduate.


Prologue:

  "In our house all of us had that strong and very personal link with other generations, so that past and present sometimes blended with unexpected results. None of us knew from what ancestral source my brother Jason's love of music had sprung, just that it built up in him until it had to be expressed. As he neared Graduation, Jason found himself returning to that source for inspiration, and it was nearly to prove disastrous."

Synopsis:

 

Jason works on a composition for school called “Polyphonic Overture” but he is having troubles. His professor comes in and tries to give him guidance. He says that this composition is not supposed to be easy, it is the culmination of his four years at the conservatory. Jason says that if it were a country music he’d have been done long ago. His professor replies that he wouldn’t be in the class if that were the case.

At home, Jason struggles to work on his piece, Elizabeth, Grandma as well as Ben and Cindy disturb his ability to concentrate. He leaves the house to find another place to work.

The Baldwin sisters work on where to store their important papers and memoirs to prepare for when they are gone. That even includes their plans for the “recipe”. Jason arrives and ask if he can practice at their home. They happily agree and they sit down as if they are to hear a concert. They whisper to each other each time he stops playing the piano to write down a few more notes. He stops and tries to get them to return to their own activities. They then describe their desire to make something of all of their past history and realize that maybe they need to hold a special event to do so. They ask Jason for his help to bring items down from the attic.

At Godsey’s store the Baldwin’s reveal their plan to hold a Founder’s Day for all the residents of Walton’s Mountain. Corabeth quickly takes over in delegating plans and creating a committee to organize the event.

Jason has now resorted to composing on his guitar in the barn. His father comes in and suggests that he starts listening to his own voice instead of his professor’s.

Jim-Bob comes down from the attic with an old musket that he wants to trade in at Buck'd for some parts for his plane. The family disagrees with his lack of respect for his heritage. They come up with ideas of items they can display at the event.

The Baldwin sister’s find a letter that reveals that their ancestors settled on the mountain before Rome Walton and therefore should be named after their family.

Late that night while Jason continues to struggle on his composition Elizabeth sneaks downstairs to get John-Boy’s book she left in the living room. Jason hears her and says there is no point in trying to be quiet, he isn’t making much progress. They talk a bit and she says that John-Boy kept things simple and wrote what he knew about. He sees her point and begins to simplify his composition, He changes the title to “Appalachian Portrait”.

The next morning the family talk about the plans for the Founder’s Day event. They discuss what special activity they should do and Grandma comes up with the idea that Jason should perform his composition. The family loves the idea but Jason in just overwhelmed.

At the store Ike fills up John’s truck with gas. He is just about to tell John that his Great-Great-Great Grandfather was the first to settle on the mountain when the Baldwin ladies arrive and ask John if he can help them to decide to whom if any they should leave the “recipe” to. They had planned to give it to his father Zebulon but now that he has passed on they look to his counsel.

The sisters go inside to meet with Corabeth and Mary Ellen to discuss the plans for the celebration. Miss Emily and Mamie want to see a hall built someday to hold all of the important documents. The group can’t decide where to hold the event, each of them what to do it at their own place. It then becomes a battle as each family representative claims to have been the first to settle the land.

At home that evening Mary Ellen informs the family of the disagreement. Grandma gets her feathers ruffled and gets Rome Walton’s diary that she has kept in safe keeping and gets her son to read 2 different passages which claim that Rome was the first on the mountain and greeted both Fitius T. Baldwin and Isaac Edelbert Godsey when they first arrived into his home. Mary Ellen is pleased that she will be able to tell Corabeth that the event will be held at the Walton house.

The next day Elizabeth asks her father if he will take her to talk to Jason’s Professor. She believes she can convince him to come to Jason’s Founder’s Day Recital but she is worried that her father will lose his temper. They go and discover that the professor is as stuffy as the room he teaches in. The professor doesn’t have any patience for Jason’s work. Even a fellow student tries to be supportive of Jason’s composition but the professor wants to hear no argument. Elizabeth gives him her copy of John-Boy’s book explaining that

The community sets up various displays for the celebration in the Walton’s yard. Corabeth begins the ceremony by inviting the Baldwin sisters to address the crowd. They announce that they will bequeath their home to be used as the museum to hold all of the possessions on display after they have passed. Corabeth asks John to address the crowd. He says that his father would be the one to talk if he where still with them but he continues by saying that what is important is that many of the families on Walton’s Mountain go back many generations and that is what matters and not who was the first to arrive. He then turn’s it over to his son Jason who plays his new composition for the crowd and his professor who had a change of heart and arrived just in time to hear him perform.

Epilogue:

 
 

"There is something within us that tells us all we will ever know about ourselves. There is a destiny that tells us where we will be born, where we will live, and where we will die. Some men are drawn to oceans, they cannot breathe unless the air's scented with the salty mist. Others are drawn to land that is flat, and the air is sullen and as leaden as August. My people were drawn to mountains, they came when the country was young and they settled in the upland country of Virginia that is still misted with a haze of blue which gives those mountains their name. They endured and they prevailed, through flood and famine, diphtheria and scarlet fever, through drought and forest fire, whooping cough and loneliness, through Indian wars, a Civil War, a World War, and through the great Depression, they endured and they prevailed. In my time I have come to know them.

(Visual of Grandpa) - Grandpa, in memory I touch your face, a distance from me now, I feel you near. The Coyote will disappear from the earth, and the whooping crane will follow the passenger pigeon, but you will endure through all of time.
(Visual of Grandma) - Grandma, I touch your hand, and when I do I touch the past. I touch all the small ships that brought us to this country, and all the strong brave women who faced a frontier and made it home.
(Visual of Olivia and John) - Strength and love came together here, so not the same they did not seem a pair, bound together they were so much one, all I ever want is what they've had so long, and lived so well.
(Visual of Jason) - A brother with an alien name, the ancient Jason went searching for the Golden Fleece, our Jason makes voyages every day, and never leaves the mountain.
(Visual of Mary Ellen) - A first baseman grown to wife and mother, soft and stronger as she grew.
(Visual of Ben) - A temper always at the ready hides the best of him, but I know my brother as my friend.
(Visual of Erin) - A pretty girl deepens into beauty, impatient for time to pass and bring her love.
(Visual of Jim Bob) - His head most often in the clouds causes the rest of him to stumble, but seldom really fall.
(Visual of Elizabeth) - A little sister full of wonder and far enough behind to be a joy.
(Visual of Ike and Corabeth) - And closest family were our neighbors, linked to us in ties as strong as blood.
(Visual of The Baldwins) - Gentility and graciousness lived there too, the past flowing into the present, the present blending with yesterday.

I have walked the land in the footsteps of all my fathers, back in time to where the first one trod, and stopped, saw sky, felt wind, bent to touch mother earth, and called this home. This mountain, this pine and hemlock, oak and poplar, laurel wild and rhododendrum, home and mountain, father, mother, grow to the sons and daughters to walk the old paths, to look back in pride, in honored heritage. To hear its laughter and its song. To grow to stand and be themselves one day remembered. I have walked the land in the footsteps of all my fathers. I saw yesterday and now look to tomorrow."

Episode Notes & Interesting Facts:

 
 
  • This episode was directed by actor Ralph Waite.
  • The Baldwin sisters say their Papa's great-great-grandfather Fitius T. Baldwin settled in the area, but later it is learned from Rome Walton's diary that his name was Fitius Lewis Baldin.
  • Ike says his great-great-grandfather Isaac Edelbert Godsey was the first Godsey to settle the Mountain.
  • The Walton's say Rome Walton was the first settler on the mountain, arriving sometime during 1765.
  • Elizabeth reads John-Boy novel "Walton's Mountain"
  • Creator Earl Hamner wrote a CBS Playhouse television script entitled "Appalachian Autumn”.

Additional Cast:

 
 

 


Joe Conley (Ike Godsey), Ronnie Claire Edwards (Corabeth), Lesley Winston (Cindy), Helen Kleeb (Miss Mamie), Mary Jackson (Miss Emily), Dean Jagger (Professor Bowen), Michael and Marshall Reed (John Curtis), John Dayton (Music Student), Hank Stohr (Radio Announcer) Special guest: Ellen Corby (Grandma)

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