"Whoever sees his father clearly? I believe I
often saw my father, not as he was, but as I needed him to be. Then one
difficult autumn I had a chance to glimpse the whole man and to understand him
more fully".
John and John-Boy are driving in the truck
when another truck speeds up from behind them, in an obvious hurry. They let it
pass. Ben shows a new girl, Courtney, around the house, but Jim Bob, Erin, and
Mary Ellen interrupt him. He shows her the rabbit, with new babies. All the
people around astound her. He is about to kiss her when Jason comes out of the
smoke house. He shows her the barn, and Old Blue, Chance, and Myrtle. She wants
to go on a ride on Old Blue, but Ben thinks he should do the chores. He tries
to kiss her, but Courtney thinks he should ask his mother first. John says that
the new mill has been giving them rough competition. He does have a contract
from Horace Brimley. They arrive at Horace’s place, but he tells them that he’s
going to have to cancel the rest of the order because he got a better deal from
Murdock. John understands. Ben and Courtney ride Old Blue back to the house.
Elizabeth walks up, saying that Old Blue can’t stay where he tied her because
it’s where Myrtle eats. Suddenly, Courtney says maybe they shouldn’t be dating
because she is more mature than he (even though she is only eight days older).
She kisses him on the cheek and leaves. Ben thinks about what she said.
John and John-Boy enter the house, looking
glum. They are about to tell Grandpa what is happening when Jim Bob tells them
that Ben is upstairs packing. John enters his room, wondering what is wrong.
Ben says he is going to Charlottesville to find a job. He thinks no one around
here treats him like an adult. John agrees he can go when Ben says he has to be
his own man. The girls talk about Ben leaving while in the kitchen and Olivia
overhears. She rushes up to his room. She is upset at John for not conferring
with her first. Olivia says that Ben doesn’t know about the world, but John
says it is about time he finds out. That night, the family sits on the front
porch. John wants to discuss the new lumber company that is selling lumber
cheaper than they can. Grandpa says he and John-Boy will go over there and look
around. John thinks they will have to cut prices and work longer hours. It
begins to rain, and Olivia is worried about Ben. Ben is talking about chickens
and Olivia is worried because they don’t know where their son is. She is still
upset at John for letting Ben go out on the most miserable night of the year.
In the morning, Grandpa and John-Boy drive
over to the new mill site. They find that a whole mountain slope has been
totally cleared of trees. Grandpa is upset at Murdock’s wasteful way of cutting
trees. Ben tries to find a job at a business but is told in no uncertain terms
that they don’t need a new employee. Olivia and Grandma talk about Ben while
cutting vegetables. Olivia decides to go to Charlottesville to find him, and
Grandma says she is going with her. Grandpa takes Jim Bob and Elizabeth near a
waterfall because Grandpa wants to show them proper conservation measures. He
shows them a tree with a musket ball indented in it; another tree stood there
when he charged up San Juan hill; a clump of trees (the other side of the
ridge) was started when the Wright Brothers first flew; a bunch of white cedars
was planted by him when Elizabeth was first born; and a young clump was started
when our Depression first started. Grandpa says that it takes over a hundred
years to make an inch of soil, so it is important to be concerned about soil,
and when you cut one tree you must plant another three.
Olivia is driving twenty miles per hour, and
Grandma says she doesn’t need to drive like a speed maniac. She relates the
story when her Cousin Iris’ boy ran away to Portsmouth and spent the night at a
speak-easy near the port drinking liquor. Olivia speeds up to twenty-two miles
per hour. Jason tells Grandpa that John and John-Boy went off to the Rockfish
Railroad Depot because they heard that the C & C Railroad had a washout at
a trestle last night and were hoping to get the order for railroad ties. Ben
tries to get a job at a store as a clerk, but he doesn’t have experience. He
sees Olivia and Grandma drive by in John-Boy’s car. They have already tried
most of the streets in Charlottesville, and decide to return home. John and
John-Boy arrive to find a person from Murdock is already there. Bill Cobbs, who
works for Murdock, says he already has the contract. But Frank Willis, of the
Depot, says he needs lumber from both companies. John-Boy notices that Willis
is asking for bids on a warehouse order. He suggests that first company who
gets an order of lumber to the washout site will get the warehouse order. All
agree to the proposal.
Ben hitchhikes and is picked up by a man in a
truck. (Ben doesn’t see the Murdock sign on the driver’s side.) Ben says he is
looking for a job, having mill experience. The man mentions he works in a
sawmill and they need a man with mill experience. But, Ben is already asleep.
Ike drives his motorcycle past the Murdock mill with an order of groceries. He
sees Ben working at the mill, and wonders why he is working there. The girls
talk about how romantic is it for Ben to go off because of Courtney. Elizabeth
doesn’t understand why a girl would want a boy she likes to go away. John
arrives to find that supper is not ready. Just then Olivia and Grandma arrive
to say that they have been searching for Ben all day. Just then Jason brings in
Ike to tell them that Ben is working for Murdock. John says it is Ben’s
business where he works, but the boys don’t understand why Ben would work for
Murdock, unless he isn’t aware about the competition.
Both companies work hard at filling the
order. Cobbs tells the workers that they aren’t producing enough lumber and
says that they will get an additional dollar if they get a load by tomorrow
morning. Olivia pounds bread, but has Ben on her mind. Olivia yells to
John-Boy, asking him to go get Ben. She says if he won’t go, then she will go.
John-Boy realizes how embarrassing it would be if his mother showed up to work.
Suddenly, the machinery fails. John and Grandpa have an argument. Grandpa walks
off, saying he has a plan that will let them beat Murdock. Grandpa and Jim Bob
go off. He tells Jim Bob that he knows all the curves and bends of the river,
and all the trees in the region. He sometimes thinks he knows the forest better
than he knows the family. They talk about the Murdock’s strengths and
weaknesses, and theirs, too. At the end of the day, several Murdock employees
tell Ben that Cobb really wants to beat the Waltons out of that warehouse
contract. Ben is stunned by the news. He goes over to Cobb and tells him that
he can’t work for him anymore. Just then John-Boy drives up. Cobbs gives him
his pay, saying he would never have hired him if he had known he was a Walton.
Grandpa ties up Old Blue in front of Ike’s
store. He walks in and asks Ike if he remembers that logging chain they used to
remove Minnie Brubaker’s mule out of the swamp. He wants to use the chain to
tie it around lumber and float it down the river to the washout site. Ike tells
Ike that the fellows playing pool are from the Murdock company. Zeb hopes they
didn’t hear what he just said (at least, that is what he says). John-Boy and
Ben drive up to the house. Ben tells John that he is sorry that he acted like a
jackass over a girl. He also said that he did not realize that the Murdock’s
were taking business away from him. He didn’t want to come home a failure. John
says that he had to do it, and he did it. He is proud of his son. They hug.
Ben goes inside of the house to face his
mother. She acts calmly for a while, but then says how mad she is about not
hearing from him. She then smiles and offers him a piece of pie and some milk.
They are back to work when Grandpa says he has a plan. He goes off with
John-Boy to develop his plan. Ike stops by to say that the Murdock’s just passed
his store with a full load of lumber on their truck. Grandpa says they don’t
need to rush down the mountain with their load. The Murdock truck stops where
John-Boy is standing and he tries to stop them from unloading his lumber into
the water. They unload anyway, ignoring his pleas. John and Grandpa drive down
the mountain. Zeb explains that John will find out in “three shakes of a lamb’s
tail” what he did. John-Boy looks on as the Murdock men begin to float their
load down the river. John-Boy smiles as one of the workers says, “Tell your
Grandpa, thanks for the tip.” Suddenly the Murdock load is stuck on something
under the water. John and Grandpa watch them. Grandpa yells out, “There are
only forty-four more of those sandbars left to go!”
"Like the tortoise in Aesop's Fables, like
Brer Rabbit in the Tales of Uncle Remus, my grandfather had outwitted the
opposition with his cunning. We arrived at the site a full half-day ahead of
our floating competition, and were awarded the warehouse contract. It kept us
going for most of that winter".
Mary
Ellen: Goodnight Ben.
Ben: Goodnight Mary Ellen.
Mary Ellen: You ladies man!
Olivia: Let's go to sleep now everybody.
Elizabeth: Goodnight Jason.
Jason: Goodnight Elizabeth.
John: Liv, there's something I'm going to do when this Depression is
over.
Olivia: What?
John: Put up proper walls in this house so everybody can't hear what's
being said in every other room.
Elizabeth: Why are you going to do that, Daddy?
John: Goodnight, Elizabeth....
Notes:
Murdock Wood Products Company is located at the old Daukins place.
According to the introduction by Earl Hamner, it is autumn.
The C & O Railroad is likely the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Information can be found at the website of Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society: http://www.cohs.org/history/history.htm.
Portsmouth, Virginia is a city in southeastern Virginia, and is a major seaport on the Elizabeth River and the natural waterway called Hampton Roads.
Paul Harper, who played
Grier, is David Harper’s (Jim Bob) father.
Also appearing:
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley); Horace Brimley (Wilford Brimley); Courtney (Karen Purcil); Bill Cobbs (Bill Lucking); Frank Willis (Hal Riddle) Ferris (Cal Haynes); Parsons (Tom Howard); Workman (Don Freeman); Grier (Paul Harper); Store Manager (James E. Brodhead).