I Have Walked in the Footsteps of All My Fathers..

[stldan]

"I have walked the land in the footsteps of 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 is just a beautiful poem. I first heard it watching the snippets of the Decade of the Waltons special posted on Youtube. Did Earl Hamner write this, or was he quoting someone else? I find very few references to it anywhere on the net, other than in the context of the show.

[Brenda]

That is called Appalachian Portrait, and it was part of an episode of The Waltons, Founders Day from season 7, if I'm not mistaken.

You can read all of it here:
www.geocities.com/luvacuzn2/AppalachianPortrait.html

[boatwright]

Thanks for the link, Brenda.

Such a beautiful poem.

I always thought it should've been used to conclude the final episode of Season Nine, although it was certainly appropriate for "Founders' Day."

[elrondaragorn]

From what I understand, it was written at a time whenn they didn't know if there would be a season 8, so it was intended as a finale if they didn't get renewed.

[boatwright]

Nov 18, 2008 22:21:45 GMT -5 elrondaragorn said:

From what I understand, it was written at a time whenn they didn't know if there would be a season 8, so it was intended as a finale if they didn't get renewed.

Gotcha! That explains it perfectly. Thanks for the clarification.

Oh, and I think you mean season 9.