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Post by awesomemixtape10 on Jul 3, 2014 18:55:34 GMT -5
Most of the other families we see are single parent with one kid-2 at the tops.
Why ?
I get that kids are expensive, but why single parents?
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Post by patriciaanne on Jul 3, 2014 19:00:27 GMT -5
Because it was a tv show and they had a budget??? Also, the storylines didn't really call for other large families. If they did focus on someone outside the Walton clan, it was usually only for one episode (other than recurring regulars like Ike and Corabeth).
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Post by gunnersmom on Jul 3, 2014 19:16:18 GMT -5
awesome: What a great gem to think about! You are so correct. I guess on some level I was aware of this, I just hadn't ever really given it much thought. Now I have something more to notice as I watch. Thanks.
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Post by awesomemixtape10 on Jul 3, 2014 22:54:41 GMT -5
This is just off the top of my head.
Marcia woolery-Implied she just had a father
The girl(forgot her name) whose father died when he set the school house on fire. he was a single dad. her mother is in the end of the episode.
Sissy Spacek- Only child. had a single mother
The kid in the "Ghost story". No siblings. Single father
The gift Seth(opie) had no siblings and his dad wasn't around a lot
The episode where Ben steals the car. the girl had no siblings and lives with her single father.
Jenny had no siblings. She lost her birth mother and then her birth father. lives with her single step mother.
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Post by daniela on Jul 3, 2014 23:36:41 GMT -5
Huh...I never noticed that before! Good observation.
I guess they maybe they wanted to show that the Walton family was different than everyone else. Everyone else had broken families, and the Walton's were always the ones helping the less fortunate. That's my guess.
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Post by clyde on Jul 6, 2014 10:21:47 GMT -5
Also don't forget Olivia Jr.- Olivia's namesake who got married on the Mountain to the jerk. I guess she was an orphan - don't remember what the story was on Dad there . . .
Speaking of orphans - that orphan home that was shown once or twice was certainly full of kids - maybe people were giving them away to keep family size down . . . .
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Post by patriciaanne on Jul 6, 2014 10:37:32 GMT -5
Also don't forget Olivia Jr.- Olivia's namesake who got married on the Mountain to the jerk. I guess she was an orphan - don't remember what the story was on Dad there . . . Speaking of orphans - that orphan home that was shown once or twice was certainly full of kids - maybe people were giving them away to keep family size down . . . . I wouldn't be surprised if some people had to bring younger kids to the orphanage because they couldn't afford to feed them or give them basic care--especially in one-parent homes. I recall someone I knew saying her mother had been in an orphanage because when my friends's grandmother died (her mother's mother), her father couldn't take care of her on his own. I guess there was no family to step in, so he brought her to the orphanage and visited her every weekend. I can't imagine anything more heartbreaking.
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Post by gunnersmom on Jul 7, 2014 13:08:34 GMT -5
My mom grew up in the 30s and 40s next to a family with 8 or 10 kids, can't remember which. The mom died and the dad packed all those kids up and took them to an orphanage. He never went back. Married another woman and had another family. I was a young teen when she told me that. I still wonder what became of those kids.
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Post by goodnight on Jul 7, 2014 18:50:58 GMT -5
Wasn't it implied that Zach Roswell had a large family. They just never showed them, I think his wife was shown once. He was playing pool at Ike's and she was on the warpath looking for him. One thing I noticed on Little House, not so much on the Waltons was this. You would have middle aged, almost elderly looking parents with young children. This thread made me think of this. And just like the Waltons, there would be lots of single child families.
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Post by JeriJet on Jul 7, 2014 20:12:47 GMT -5
I think the state of medicine as a science, and healthcare in general, affected family size quite a bit more back then.... I bet a family like the Waltons was a bit unusual -- i.e., the survival rate, for kids and parents alike....
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Post by Brenda on Jul 7, 2014 21:04:48 GMT -5
I think the state of medicine as a science, and healthcare in general, affected family size quite a bit more back then.... I bet a family like the Waltons was a bit unusual -- i.e., the survival rate, for kids and parents alike.... My mother grew up in a 2-parent family with 9 children. They were a lot like The Waltons. On the other hand, my dad was one of 6 children. He was only 4 years old when he lost his mother. She died in childbirth when his youngest sister was born, and his 2-year old brother died later that year of diphtheria, I believe. My dad and his other brothers and sisters were raised by their grandparents.
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Post by carol on Jul 8, 2014 0:22:14 GMT -5
There were many TV shows just before and during The Waltons run that were about single parent families, The Andy Griffith Show,Julia, My Three Sons, The Partridge Family, The Courtship Of Eddie's Father Bachelor Father and Family Affair.The kids were raised by their uncle in that one.
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Post by cetacea on Jul 8, 2014 3:22:56 GMT -5
I think we should not forget in which time this show was set. During the great depression many people died of hunger or where forced to move far away for work. I once read a book called "the secret gift" by Ted Gup that describes how life was during the great depression. Therefore I'm not suprised at the many orphans or single parents in this show.
By the way that books is awesome, so if you are in need of more reading material that would be a good one.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2014 6:49:51 GMT -5
It is interesting that the big family was not shown, but implied.
In the Genius, the whole bazaar was to raise money for a family having a child that they could not afford.
In another episode, JB and grandpa talk about the "blessing" or some other phrase of another mouth to feed in these hard times.
I think that just like not casting the full eight kids because of the cost of production, they simply chose to pay fewer actors rather than more.
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Post by JeriJet on Jul 8, 2014 7:01:19 GMT -5
I think the state of medicine as a science, and healthcare in general, affected family size quite a bit more back then.... I bet a family like the Waltons was a bit unusual -- i.e., the survival rate, for kids and parents alike.... My mother grew up in a 2-parent family with 9 children. They were a lot like The Waltons. On the other hand, my dad was one of 6 children. He was only 4 years old when he lost his mother. She died in childbirth when his youngest sister was born, and his 2-year old brother died later that year of diphtheria, I believe. My dad and his other brothers and sisters were raised by their grandparents.
My paternal grandmother grew up in a large farming family in New Jersey.... By the age of 10, she had already lost a sister to diphtheria, a brother (lockjaw/tetanus due to being kicked by a horse), and her mother (childbirth).... A widowed aunt stepped in to care for the six remaining children.... and then, my grandmother's father remarried soon after that aunt died, had three more children, one of whom died (diphtheria again), and then that second wife died..... man, oh, man..... Soon thereafter, my grandmother married, and the two youngest children (my great aunts "Doll" and "Weedie") went to live with my grandmother and grandfather, along with his parents !! .... So, my dad and his brother grew up in a home with their parents, grandparents, and two "half" aunts, as well as two of my grandfather's cousins who had lost both parents !!.... families took care of each other back then
It took me a long time to sort this all out.... mainly because both my paternal grandmother's and grandfather's ancestors had the habit of calling all or most children by their middle names -- I didn't know until recently that my grandmother's actual first name was Eliza, although she was always known as Caroline !! Trying to follow census records was not easy !! Thankfully, both sides of my Dad's family kept decent personal records in family bibles, etc. -- unlike my Mom's family. but that's another story
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