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Post by Brenda on Apr 3, 2014 20:00:40 GMT -5
I am almost sure that the Hamner house was a company house, originally owned by the nearby soapstone factory. I think I read somewhere that Earl Hamner Sr bought the house off the company when it closed down. I may be wrong about that though. The house reminds me of the houses in Cass, West Virginia, which was a company town for a logging company that closed down. The entire town is now a state park, and the houses have been renovated and are rented out to people visiting the park. We went there last year with 3 of our grandchildren, and one of my granddaughters even commented that the house we stayed in reminded her of The Waltons. Cass, West Virginia, company house:
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Post by Marilyn on Apr 3, 2014 22:33:55 GMT -5
When Zeb and Esther were sitting on the side of the mountain talking, she mentioned she came running up there the day she found out she was in the 'family way'.
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Post by coriscapnskip on Apr 3, 2014 23:00:18 GMT -5
I am almost sure that the Hamner house was a company house, originally owned by the nearby soapstone factory. Anyone here actually slept with soapstones?
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Post by sdw on Apr 4, 2014 10:43:44 GMT -5
In the American Profile magazine we get in our local paper on Thursdays there was an an article about soapstone. It mentions Alberene Soapstone Company in Shuyler.The soapstone quarry in Schuyler reopened.It also said the population of Schuyler was 298.You can go to AmericanProfile.com and read the article.
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Post by ForeverWaltons on Apr 4, 2014 10:54:45 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2014 13:01:31 GMT -5
In the American Profile magazine we get in our local paper on Thursdays there was an an article about soapstone.It mentions Alberene Soapstone Company in Shuyler.The soapstone quarry in Schuyler reopened.It also said thepopulation of Schuyler was 298.You can go to AmericanProfile.com and read the article. www.alberenesoapstone.com/The Alberene Soapstone Company was founded in 1888 after large deposits of soapstone were discovered in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. By World War I Alberene was one of the largest employers in Virginia. The company’s holdings included 6,000 acres connected by a self-contained rail system and a network of gondolas used to transport men, machinery and product. The company’s early and long-term success were based on its claim to world’s largest supply of workable architectural grade soapstone.
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Post by carol on Apr 6, 2014 22:45:39 GMT -5
One thing I noticed is that when their phone would ring they would answer it right away. Back then especially in rural areas they would have had a certain ring pattern to listen for such as short short long or long short long short before they answered the phone. I remember my grandparents phone on their farm. When the phone would ring my grandmother would say "Wait!" and then listen and then say "Not ours" or she would go answer it. This was in the 70's so I'm sure The Waltons probably would have had this in the 40's when they got their phone.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2014 8:07:05 GMT -5
^^^^ The old party line. Anybody else remember those?
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Post by daniela on Apr 7, 2014 8:15:03 GMT -5
Ha! I remember the party line! We had one. I remember getting our own line, and it was so exciting!
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Post by goodnight on Apr 7, 2014 10:09:21 GMT -5
My parents grew up in the same time period as the Waltons. My dad was born in 1919 and my mother was born in 1923, and they both always said that the Waltons would not have been considered a poor family. Their house was too nice and they had electricity and indoor plumbing, something that was nearly unheard of in the places where my parents grew up, rural eastern Kentucky and rural eastern North Carolina. Perhaps the degree of the poverty was sanitized for the screen. In the earlier seasons the kids went to school barefoot when it was warm enough. Then all of a sudden they were wearing shoes to school and it seemed like they were wearing them even when just playing and stuff around home. Like the writers wanted them to seem poor but not too poor. About the party line phone system that someone else mentioned. I remember those when I was a very young child. My aunt that lived in the country was on the same line as her nephew that lived down the road and they had different rings. Can't you just imagine Corabeth listening in on everyone's private conversations. I don't remember her doing that, so in that respect she was better than Harriet Oleson. But I think Miss Fanny did. I recall reading a magazine article about party lines in rural settings. This one woman would get on and listen to whoever was talking, she knew all her neighbors ring patterns. And she forgot she was just listening in and started giving her opinion about something. This was in The Good Old Days magazine, does anyone remember that? My grandmother subscribed to it for years.
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Post by Brenda on Apr 7, 2014 10:58:38 GMT -5
We had a party line. Our ring was 4 shorts.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2014 13:03:34 GMT -5
We had a party line. Our ring was 4 shorts. My girlfriend, Kristi's was 5 shorts and a long. Do you think with society as rude and pushy as it is today, that the party line would work? We had phone time limits at our house growing up because we had to ""think about the other guy wanting to use the phone".
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Post by Brenda on Apr 7, 2014 13:14:25 GMT -5
We had a party line. Our ring was 4 shorts. My girlfriend, Kristi's was 5 shorts and a long. Do you think with society as rude and pushy as it is today, that the party line would work? We had phone time limits at our house growing up because we had to ""think about the other guy wanting to use the phone". Nowadays, every child has his or her own phone. They wouldn't know what to do if they had to share the phone not only with their own family members but also several other families.
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Post by ForeverWaltons on Apr 7, 2014 13:15:34 GMT -5
My maternal grandparents had a party line. The woman that they shared it with, listened in on most conversations. She also hogged the line quite a bit. You would have to wait and wait to be able to make a call.
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Post by carol on Apr 7, 2014 13:16:51 GMT -5
My grandmother was talking to a friend on the phone when she heard a click and knew someone was listening in. She had an idea who it was listening in. Grandmom said she changed the subject to something along the lines of Don't you hate nosy people who listen in on your conversations? Well both grandmom and her friend heard a gasp and a click. Never had that problem again.
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