How many of you remember the television show The Waltons? The show was about a close knit family living through The Great Depression (that would be the 1930s for you youngins). That is also the era when my own parents grew up. The Waltons are based on the life of the show's creator, Earl Hamner, Jr. Walton's Mountain is actually Schuyler, Virginia and Jefferson County is actually Nelson County.

It was to this little hamlet set in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia that Keith and I decided to take a trip after the passing of his mother. Because of the popularity of the show much of Schuyler has been retagged to match the names in the show, and you will see signs along the way as you approach Walton's Mountain.

The scenery along the way is breathtaking; valleys, hamlets, and towns rich in forests, rivers and streams surrounded by majestic mountains blue in hue. The air is crisp and clean.

When you enter this little hamlet of 400 residence one of the first things you will see is the old Schuyler Elementary School, built in 1925 but in the 90s was converted into the Walton's Mountain Museum. Here Keith and I posed while one of the kind ladies snapped this picture of us.

 The green tractor played a very important part of our day's activities. It was used to pull a flatbed trailer covered with hay. During the day the tourists would pay $1.00 for a guided tour of the entire hamlet. Keith and I got there after the close of business for the day; but to our pleasant surprise the citizens invited us to join them on their personal ride around town, as their guests, not as their customers. I found them to be very friendly and trusting. They would each point out their homes to Keith and I, not knowing really who we were. Below is the picture Keith took of us on the hayride.

It brought a great deal of comfort to me that these strangers were so trusting and open with us. You don't often find this attitude in the great metropolis, cities, and suburbs. We saw many of the sites you heard about on the tv show; Rockfish River, Ike Godsey's General Store, the two-room school house, the elementary school, the high school, the famous Baptist Church, the hamlet's hospital and home of the doctor, and many other sites. I even got a chance to poke around in a 1930s automobile: I admit that I'm no mechanic, but hey, at my age I am somewhat familiar with the workings of these old machines. We even saw an old typewriter with a copy of the local newspaper coming to life from it.

These were days before word processing and multimedia. This was the old fashion way of bringing the local news to the townfolks. While we have cell phones, touch tone, and speed dialing the Hamers/Waltons used this crude telephone to contact the outside world: Back then operators had a real purpose to their jobs. Those were real people you spoke to, not "Press 1 for English!" Also, in the elementary school/museum I had to visit the rest room; YES! the very same restroom that the real John Boy used. How many of you can make that claim? And, the boys room even has a lounge area now, with flowers. Now that is class!

I want to introduce you to a new friend I made. His name is Winston; a right friendly chap indeed. You should have seen him bobbing about in the car as he watched me approach.

At first I was afraid he was going to fall out of the window as much as he was jumping about in excitement knowing that a good petting, ear scratching and back rub was on the way.

On our hayride we traveled by the old Episcopal Church, which is now the Mennonite Church.

What actually brought the hamlet into existance was the Alberene Soapstone Company, which turned the natural soapstone of the area into tiles.

There is a local quarry where soapstone is gathered today, and the company is back in business.

You can see how crystal clear the water at the quarry is in the photo to the left. After the company closed they sold the houses to the residences. The Hamners purchased their house for $500.00 and it is being renovated even as I write this. There was a barn behind the house back in those early days, and a saw mill just
one you saw in the tv show.

One thing that struck me was the original Post Office. It was no bigger than a nice sized bedroom. Talk about cramped quarters.

The railroad is directly behind the post office as it was a major stop back in the early days of Schuyler.

Sunday morning Keith and I attended the Schuyler Baptist Church.

It has a small, lovely garden off to the left side.

The building is an old, quaint country style church.

Everything was close by, easy walking distance. The pastor, Thomas Fowler, is a very soft-spoken, gentle man. The congregation is small, mostly the elderly. I spoke with the pastor and his wife for about two hours after the service, and they were very pleasant and warm. They had to visit a member of the church who was ill, so I asked if there were a bathroom I could use before we left. He pleasantly showed me where it was, and just said to turn the lights out and lock the door behind me when we left. He invited us to use the church's property to park the car while we rode our bikes around the hamlet, and he invited us to use the church's picnic area to eat lunch and dinner. Very open, kind, trusting, and gentle people. I thought, "It would take a real vile person to betray such trust."

We once again rode by the original hospital and the home of the doctor of that by-gone time.

The Rockfish River was as clear as crystal, fish swimming happily through the gentle flowing waters.

You can actually eat the fish you catch in this river; you will not find fishes with two heads, three eyes, and other deformities.

We rode our bikes down to Ike Godsey's General Store looking at the sites marked out on the map given to me at the elementary school. We decided to ride down Rothwell Road when the proprietor warned us, "If you're fixin' on ridin' your bikes down that road--there's dogs down that way that'll chase ya!" We stopped at the store and got a little bite to eat when Travis and his sister, pushing her baby in a stroller, came by. Travis is in the military and is home on leave before being sent to Iraq. He told us that he hated city life; the traffic, the crime. He wants to stay in Schuyler when he gets out of the military--its a safe place to live, and good place to raise children. I have to agree with him.

You probably will not believe this, but as we were leaving Walton's Mountain we came across a house belonging to this family:

It is true; when we saw it we had to stop so Keith could snap this photo; and I waited to see if Marge would come stroling out with Bart, Maggie, Lisa, and Homer. Alas, it was not to be.

The time came when we had to say "goodbye" to the quiet hamlet named Schuyler, but known to the world as Walton's Mountain.

I'm not going to close by saying something silly like, "You could almost hear each member of the family calling out "Goodnight" to each other." but I won't do that. I'm not going to say, "I believe I heard someone call out, "Goodnight John Boy!" That would be silly; but I almost could.