The Walton's The Homecoming A Christmas Story

There is an old television Christmas movie by the name of 'The Homecoming A Christmas Story' that I found on YouTube. I remember watching this movie when I was child with my parents. This was the very beginning of the television series 'The Walton's that appeared on CBS in 1972. I remember watching this movie when I was a small boy and asking my parents this question "Was that what it was like when you were little?" My mom and dad always shared what their childhood was like with all their children.

To get back to the movie it was about Earl Hamner's childhood during the Depression of the 1930's in a small town in Virginia. This movie as mentioned is the original movie that introduced all the characters of the series children wise. The parents were portrayed by Patricia Neal and Andrew Duggan as Olivia and John Walton. There were a few character actors that were part of the movie, but not part of the series as the actors that played Ike Godsey, Sheriff Bridges, and the Baldwin Sisters. The main plot of this Christmas moview was planning for Christmas and the wait for John to come home from where he worked miles away.

Lessons learned from this movie could be that we all need to have patience in all things. One lesson was when John Boy was writing up in his room with the door locked and not telling any one what he was doing. He did this several times in this movie till Olivia goes up to John Boy's room and confronts him about the reason he is in his room and states that he just wants some privacy with the door locked, but she thinks that he may be smoking cigarettes. He thinks about it and then he says that he just has to come up here and write down all his feelings and ideas down before his head just busts. He describes what he writes from listening to a whipporwill to whatever else is happening around him. This is a lesson on understanding others on how to understand growing up for the other children during the movie and all others as well. John Boy after confessing to Olivia about his 'private' writing she tells him it is time to step up while giving him his Christmas present telling him to go out and find his Daddy. He does and his adventure begins. John Boy starts his search at a small local church, which happens to be a negro church having a Christmas service and he asks the minister for help, but after the service is over. They both run over to the general store and ask for help and he and a family friend borrow another friends' automobile till it runs out of gas and they go searching for gas. During this time (The Depression Era) this was an economic commodity (gas0line) that was hard to pay for when needed (money was scarce), so they both headed over to a neighbor who happen to be to old women who make bootleg whiskey for at this time was illegal, but they call it the 'Recipe' so the sisters thought it was okay to make this 'recipe'. Help comes in all forms from here in the form of a horse-drawn carriage and off they go till they run into a fallen tree in the middle of the main road. This is where important decision-making skills come into becoming an adult. John Boy wants to continue looking for his Daddy even if he has to walk, but he listens to his friends and they all turn around and head home. After they all head home it is now that it takes patience and the wait begins for Daddy to come home somehow and Christmas.

Another lesson from the movie could be to have be happy with what you are and try to accept the various circumstances that arise during our lives. This is shown when the youngest child Elizabeth and the other children come upon a woman giving out toys when sharing a Bible verse and the one that Elizabeth receives is a baby doll that she really wants, but when she opens it the doll has a broken face and she says it's dead and cries for it scared her. It was a lesson in disappointment, as many people learned during this time or anytime in history has to learn. Thanks to this movie I learned how to accept myself as well as my talents that came about as I grew up. This is a great old Christmas movie that allows us to learn what we need to learn to be good human beings.

Still another lesson that this old Christmas movie shows us is to have trust in our neighbors, as John Boy and all involved do with Ike Godsey and Sheriff Bridges, and even the Baldwin Sisters especially when they gave John Boy a jar of Egg Nog, but Olivia thought it was the 'recipe' and chatised him till she actually heard what he said it was and not the 'recipe'. Neighbors in time of need even today like to help if given a chance.