The Waltons

[vacerator]

Thaty was it I'm sure

of, the tax bypass issue. It was a poor coal mining community in western Pa.
No indoor bathrooms until after WW2 even. The houses were owned by the mine until then, and heated by a wood/coal stove in the kitchen.
Not unlike the Waltons, but on a smaller scale. Two adults and 8 children in a two bedroom four room house.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I have to admit

My Daddy bootlegged well into the 50s. In Kansas up until about five years ago you could not buy alcohol on Sunday, so you either stocked up the night before, crossed state line, or bought from a runner. We were after all a Carrie Nation state. So he ran hooch, said his biggest customer was the Baptist minister in Ferdonia, Daddy's hometown was Nedosha.

Even after he married my mother, who was against it, he still made his own until the house burned down and the still blew up. Mom tells about the volunteer firemen passing around one of the bottles after the fire was out. The still did not cause the fire, it was just a victim.

After that he still made his own wine, that was legal after 1970. He made some of the best wine in the basement between the furnace and water tank. Funny story, my grandmother, my mom's mom, would come for a visit,and just before bed she would say "You know, I would give a pretty for a glass of wine, just to help me sleep." The ladies at the Rock Mount Southern Baptist church would be a fluttered.

 

[vacerator]

Cute story Harley!

I'm sure there were many, many speakeasy's during prohibition. It was a failed conservative law the depleted the tax base even worse than already had from the onset of the depression.

 

[rpms]

I found Ronnie Claire on Face Book. I like to think I actually chatted with her a few times?
Both her books are very good and I was lucky enough to get them autographed before she died a few months ago.
According to Ronnie,Grandma Walton's sneer of a smile was the result of one too many bad face lifts. Ellen and Ronnie were not friends on the show or in real life.
I had forgot Ronnie was on Designing Woman a few times. Ronnie and Dixie Carter were quite close after the show.

 

[vacosaurus]

CFZ 2882 wrote

zenith radio

i liked the ~1935 zenith radio they had with the green-glowing "eye" tube
The radio is actually a 1938 Zenith radio. It has long been nicknamed (the Walton radio ) It sells from $1200.00 to over $4000.00 on eBay because of the popularity of the TV series. I always get a chuckle as the original movie "The Homecoming " that the series Waltons was developed from was time based in 1932 and had the family sitting around a 1938 radio in 1932.

 

[miele_ge]

"The Testicals in the Whirlpool"....

Sounds like an episode of "Bones."  Seriously, I would need some concrete facts on that.  How low did those suckers hang anyway?  There was a very odd movie about a young man who stuck his penis in a hot tub jet and was mangled... just a weird movie overall.  Don't remember the name.  Scott put it on the Netflix queue a while back and he promptly fell asleep.  I wasted an hour because I wanted to see how the train wreck ended. 

 

We watched the Walton's all the time.  Dad grew up in the coal towns of West Virginia in the 30's, 40's and early 50's so it resonated with him I think and we kids liked all the old stuff. 

 

And the sisters and the "recipe" were a hoot.  I think they knew all along what they were making but were too genteel to let on.   Dad would occasionally get a jar of 'shine from someone passing through.  I remember smelling one after he died and dumping it down the drain!  Rather awful stuff.

 

 Does anyone remember a 1970's TV show called "The Snoop Sisters"?  They remind me of them,

 

 

 

[cfz2882]

1938 zenith radio

yeah,that was a pretty fancy radio for 1932 I had a 1936 zenith radio kinda similar to the waltons radio(did not have eye tube)but it did have two power options:could run off AC wall current or a 6v automotive battery via a built in vibrator power supply.I have a 1937 Zenith with the same setup.