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 a fictionalised version of a real family but made appealing to the audience of the time. I’ve seen a programme on the real family it was based on and things were tighter than depicted in the show. The number of children was typical in that area in that era, remember religion had a lot of influence and pastors/preachers definitely favoured larger families and women had little say in this (look at bios and listen to lyrics by country singers as to how male dominated those areas were and how many kids lived in shacks without running water).

what is considered deprived changes over time eg on Mumsnet people wrote as if kids sharing a bedroom is wrong where 100 years ago whole families shared one room in a tenement block with kids sharing beds.

A large family means more people to work on the farm.

The farm has to be big enough to support them all.

I remember one episode where cousin Rose and her dc visit and John got annoyed as her son was being faddy

also the Poltergeist episode was really scary, I did like the show

So, exactly like OP.

Watch THE MILL on, I think, Amazon Prime. Your craving for misery will be satisfied by by its depiction of a textile mill in the north.

“Papa’s recipe” I wish I had the formula too.

I always wondered what Hominy Grits were, before the internet

Is the Waltons on any of the streaming services? I would love to watch it again.

Yes its on great tv. Free streaming channel

I read the book this was based on, or possibly the book was a spin-off from the series. Anyway, it was just after my mill and mine holiday last year (Derbyshire, Quarry Bank - site of the Mill,) and mining museums. I like a good bit of industrial history.

Yes! I'd forgotten her real name was Michael 🤣🤣

Yes me too

It's definitely not me with a craving for misery.

This was a light-hearted post, that has turned into a really interesting discussion, thank you for the different points of view and recommendations.

Grapes of Wrath is grim, is meant to be about forced (internal) migration/ displacement, not simply about the Great Depression. Of Mice and Men also describes 1930s rural poverty and itinerant workers, not just about a guy with LDs.

The social portrait in To Kill a Mockingbird is better (than GoW) imho for showing 1930s southern poverty. The teacher not understanding the child who came to school with no shoes or lunch, for instance. Scout was feral but she was also grateful to live in a prosperous household & to have choices in life. Which fits with the sequel books where she follows those opportunities to escape the stiltifying atmosphere.