The Waltons weren't poor

[Redflagsabounded]

I'm watching an episode and a neighbour comes by saying he's been living on skimmed milk and wild onions for 2 years. Grandpa sympathises and pipes up that he's lived on the edge of poverty his whole life. The show description says follow the family through the hardships of the Depression. Admittedly, there are episodes where the children walk to and from school with no boots/shoes. Generally speaking it's presented as a poor family.
But

• they had 7 kids (people then did know how babies were made and didn't have to have large families despite lack of contraception, the pull out method is not infallible but been used forever)
• they own a bloody mountain full of timber, and run a sawmill business
• they have livestock, chickens for eggs, and garden for veggies
• they own a truck
• they own a massive house
• everyone's well fed and well clothed, just maybe not always the latest 'smart' outfits when they want one

They were in no way 'poor' for the 1930s.

AIBU?

It's just a tv show

I think that’s a fair assessment of the situation, although obviously there was the depression
So whilst they did better than many
Plenty were doing better than them as well

Yes, entertainment requires what’s called ‘ a suspension of disbelief’ , otherwise you’ll pick holes in it as if it were real.

I am reminded of the episode of Big Bang where Sheldon picks apart LHOTP
bigbangtheory.fandom.com/wiki/Little_House_on_the_Prairie

Really? Shit, I thought it was a documentary

Is this “the Walton’s” as in night ma night pa night John boy?

If you want a really depressing fictional account of the Great Depression, I recommend The Grapes of Wrath. It’s bleak.

Much better dentistry than you’d expect for a poor rural family in the 1930s- what’s that about? 🤔

Beautiful book. The Four Winds is also a decent fiction book set in the Texas panhandle during the Great Depression

people then did know how babies were made and didn't have to have large families despite lack of contraception, the pull out method is not infallible but been used forever

If the man agreed. The woman would have had no say whatsoever.

It’s based on the Earl Hamners & family’s lives growing up in Virginia. He was the voice of John Boy, and John Boy is based on him.

www.earlhamnerhouse.com/the-real-waltons.html

I loved the show as a kid but watching it now, I think I'd hate them as neighbours.

They remind me of the posters on here who wail on about how poor they are as there's nothing left out of their £100,000 salary after they've paid big mortgage, new car lease etc etc.

How starving neighbour didn't twat fat, smug grandpa sitting in his son's massive property, I don't know.

The fun sponge didn't take long I see.

That's not very helpful

I mean, to be fair, Grandpa Walton generally talked a load of bollocks.

Coming from an English working class family where mum was one of 11 and dad 10. The idea that contraception was used is blown out of the water by the number of families who lost 5 or more children in the first war. Just a few years before the Walton children were born.

The depression meant that no one was building, so there was no one buying the Walton's timber.

When you say they could grow their own food, have you ever tried it...it's very time consuming, at any time a pest or too much water, or too little can ruin a crop.

Elvis Presley was born in 1935, his dad went to prison for altering a food cheque. Jerry lee Lewis was born in 38 and his dad went to prison for moonshine....both from the deep south. Elvis' dad built the house he was born in, a shot gun shack

The white farmers were known as red necks from time spent in the fields working

Appalachia is still the poorest part of the us...

So until you've been that poor...walk a mile in their shoes

I see your Grapes of Wrath and I raise you The Trouble I've Seen by the late, great Martha Gelhorn. A book of factual short stories/recollections of life during the Great Depression. The last story about child prostitution is so awful I couldn't finish it.

The Waltons had it easy in comparison, although they could have benefited from some contraception. Also, surely the most pressing thing aboug the Waltons is why the mother actresses real name is/was Michael. That used to really confuse child me 😅

So until you've been that poor...walk a mile in their shoes

Or their bare feet.

They couldn't grow enough veg to feed a family of 11 for very long and I don't remember them having 'stock'? Maybe one cow for milk, but they didn't butcher and eat meat.

I think that's why I loved it as a teen, it was working class poor as we knew it

We had a roof over our heads and food on the table, but sod all else , no money for sweets or treats

What I really loved was the love within the family

See, now I have The Waltons and LHOTP theme tunes both stuck in my head.
If I block one, the other one appears in its place. 👂 🪱

You make some good points.

On reflection, I understand them having so many children - like many rural families, they needed the labour. But people were able to control their family size to some degree. Not everyone had big families. My very working class parents born in the 1920s were 1 of 4 children, and 1 of 3 children, no sibling deaths. They grew up with very little - my Dad in particular experienced the type of poverty that meant there was zero food some days. My parents lives improved and I had a happy, normal council-house no-holidays but money for an ice-cream at the seaside 1970s working class childhood.

I've absolutely been poor as an adult - cardboard in shoes because of holes through the soles poor.

I didn't say they grew all their food, they grew veggies. They did have to buy a lot of course.

They owned a milk cow (with calf every year) and chickens - way more than most. They fished in their stream and caught enough to sell the surplus.

I'm thinking in context of the times - they worked hard, they certainly weren't rich, but they weren't exactly poor either.

TIL they’re two different programmes 😳

They may have been 'cash poor' but have good means for making and maintaining a living.
However, they were rich in a family's goodness and love, and are an example to us all in how to live on a mountain in the USA in the 1930s. Goodnight Mary Ellen 😀

Can their poverty ever compare to the slums surrounding the factories across England/Scotland? At least no-one was actively choosing to not pay enough wages, or build mansions, while children died from the slum housing they collected rent on. I never realised they were supposed to be poor, because life looked exceptionally good to what my GM described, including the death of her brother from TB.