[honking]
Whenever I look back to those days...
when I was growing up in the Great Depression...
I am always convinced that I came from a remarkable family.
It wasn't that my brothers and sisters and Iwere...
sheltered from the realities of those difficult times.
It was simply that Mother and Father...
had a way of making more of what we had
and less of what we didn't have.
Have more, Grandpa.
No, thank you, daughter. I had my full share.
I'll have more, Mama.
You just wait till the others get theirs.
-There won't be any left. -I made plenty for everybody.
Hot biscuits! You can smell them all the way out to the barn.
The honey's almost gone.
One of you men will have to go out and look for a bee tree.
I saw an oak tree just buzzing with bees
up in John-Boy's Meadow the other day.
Why call it John-Boy's Meadow? He's never going to farm it.
Be too busy being a writer.
I named it John-Boy's Meadow the day he was born, that's why.
Besides, writers can be farmers, too, can't they?
Y'all going after that beehive, Grandpa?
I like to get an early start smoking out them bees.
You're too old to go traipsing around that mountain.
Ever since we got married, my sweetheart
just can't stand me out of her sight!
What do you think you're doing, you old fool?
[laughing]
You rattletrap woods colt.
Don't you quit on me now.
Anywhere near there yet?
It's a ways out.
If I remember, we come to a country store first.
Look out, Ham!
You slug-bellied sod buster!
You slab-headed ridge runner.
I tell you there ain't nothing on God's green earth dumber...
than a back-country sorghum lapper.
[engine starting]
Set the spark, Cora! Set the spark!
[explosion]
And with these it comes to $1.29.
-You're in luck, boys. -Why is that?
'Cause this week, I'm giving two free jawbreakers away...
every time a grocery bill hits $1.25.
We better not take the peaches, Ike.
Why's that, John-Boy?
Mama must have miscalculated. She only gave me $1.
You can forget it this time.
Your mama can pay me when she comes in...
and you get the free jawbreakers.
Thanks all the same. But you know
how she feels about buying on credit.
Yeah.
You've got some change coming from your $1. I'll refigure it.
Here you go.
-Howdy. -Morning.
-Morning to you. -Howdy.
Sure are friendly folks.
Yeah. They're not from around here. That's for sure.
No, sir.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Howdy.
What can I do for you?
Well, sir, you got some cheese
and crackers, you can sell us our lunch.
Don't forget Mama's orange soda.
Orange soda.
Better make that two, my boy and I will share the other.
You're strangers hereabouts.
Yeah, just blowed in from Kansas.
Blowed ain't the word for it.
In a cloud of dust.
Yeah, I heard things got pretty mean up there.
Mean ain't the word, mister.
-How much cheese you want? -A dime's worth will do.
Okay.
Had me a farm till I plowed it.
Wind blew it clear into Missouri.
Okay, here's your dime's worth of cheese.
And here's a nickel's worth of crackers, coming up.
And then we're going to be adding to that the two sodas.
-Anything else? -No.
That's 34 cents.
That's kind of steep, ain't it, mister?
Nine cents for the apples in your boy's pocket.
Some folks will do almost anything
nowadays to help their family.
Some will.
I'm paying, and I'm apologizing, mister.
I'm sorry.
34 cents.
I'm sorry I took them apples, mister.
I truly am.
Fair enough.
Air here smells good, don't it?
Hadn't smelled honeysuckle for a long time.
-You clumsy idiot! -I am not either.
Alright. Tell your ma you saved up.
Old Silas Gully-Jumper ain't as smart as he thought he was.
Mama, can I go visit Aunt Bea in Washington this summer?
We can't afford the train fare, Mary Ellen.
I'm going to be 13 forever...
and it's absolutely the worst possible time
in a person's whole entire life.
You'll live through it. Come on.
Some days I just hate to face the world.
Like to be in my room and not have to say a word to a soul.
That's natural at your age.
I'm going to die on Walton's Mountain...
and never see anything of the world but Charlottesville.
Now, sugar, it's time you found out the world is flat.
Twenty miles past Charlottesville,
it just drops off into nothing.
Daddy, it's not funny.
You oughtn't to tease her like that.
It's going so fast, Liv.
Turn your back, and they're grown up.
I'm thinking of giving this up.
Tobacco's so expensive, anyway.
Good idea.
Daddy! Somebody's coming.
And wait till you see what they're coming in!
Well, let's just take a look.
[explosions]
What in the world....
It's gonna rattle apart before it gets here.
Howdy, Olivia, John.
John, it's Cora and Ham.
And that must be Job.
Come on, children, and meet your cousins.
-Hello, Cora. -Hello.
-It's good to see you. -Same here. Look at you.
And Job and Ham, come on in, you must be exhausted.
Hi, John.
Look at you. You're getting to be such a big girl.
It's that old jalopy we saw at Ike's store.
Yeah.
Wonder what they're doing here.
It ain't all that much, but we couldn't come empty-handed.
Oh, how nice.
But you didn't have to bring anything.
Of course not. You're family.
Well, it'll only be till the end of the month.
Two weeks at the most.
Will you stop apologizing?
It's wonderful to have you stay with us.
Thank you.
Won't be long, though.
We got a job promised in Newport News...
they're going to write us here.
You're lucky, Ham. Jobs are hard to find these days.
Losing the farm, there's no other place to have them...
write and it's been my heart's craving to see home again.
You can have our room.
John will move in with the boys, I'll sleep with the girls...
and, Job, you can bunk in with John-Boy.
And we can always put another bean in the pot.
John-Boy, Jason, I want you to meet your Cousin Cora...
her son, Job, and her husband, Ham.
-Howdy, nice to meet you. -Good to meet you.
The size of them boys.
This back country's sure the place to raise them.
Where you folks from?
We've come all the way from Kansas.
Boys, Hamilton here lost his farm in the drought...
and him and Cousin Cora will be staying with us for a spell.
I'm sorry about your farm.
It sure is a bitter thing to see land you've worked...
go swirling off in a cloud of dust.
Last Sunday, the preacher told us all to say a prayer...
that the farmers out West would get rain soon.
You should've waited a little while longer.
Son, it's long come to mind that if God wanted to make it rain...
he don't need us to ask him for it.
Well, let's get your things off the car and stored inside.
-John-Boy, everybody help. -Yes, ma'am.
-Sorry to be putting you out. -You're not putting me out.
Come on, get the car unloaded, and I'll show you the room.
Just take either side of the bed you want.
Makes no nevermind.
I guess I'll just clear out a dresser drawer
here for your things.
What things I've got, I wear.
Don't need a whole drawer for what extras there is.
-You've a long trip from Kansas? -Long enough.
You must be pretty wrung out?
Look...
you don't want me here no more than I wanna be here.
So forget the friendlies?
That's not so. You're welcome here.
Ah-huh.
Job, Mama said to bring you this towel.
Is that somebody's way of saying I need a bath?
I haven't got that close to you. I wouldn't know.
But if you do, help yourself. It's down the hall.
John-Boy, Mama wants you to help
bring in string beans from the garden.
Sure.
Hi.
Mama said you moved around a lot.
Pa's worked here and there.
It must be wonderful to see a lot of places, different people.
Yeah, I reckon.
Ever been to Snowflake, Arizona?
Never even heard of it.
She said you lived in Pittsburgh once.
And in Chicago.
Des Moines, outside of Wichita.
Few other places, too.
Gosh, you've really been around.
Yeah, I reckon.
I've never been any further than Charlottesville.
I've never met anybody who has traveled as much as you.
Like you said, I've been around.
-Cousin Job. -Yeah?
Uncle Ham says for you to come help cut some wood.
Maybe you'd better wait to take that bath.
Which one are you?
I'm Jason.
-How old? -Fifteen.
How old is she?
She's 13. Why?
Jim-Bob, what's kin?
Getting hatched from the same family.
Are you and me kin?
No. We're just brother and sister.
Kin's people you gotta kiss even if they have a mustache.
Oh!
When we get settled...
I'm going to plant me a garden.
Put in...
tomatoes...
and squash...
string beans, and some cucumber.
Seems like it's Ham's place to work the garden.
Well, Ham's trouble is he can't put down roots...
of any kind.
When John worked over in Waynesboro...
he spent so much time there and traveling back and forth...
we just never did see him.
He doesn't make as much money now,
but we're more of a family.
That's the secret, isn't it, Livie?
Secret?
The deciding what's really important in life...
and then working for it.
Poor Ham.
My heavens, would you look at this Christmas cactus
It was covered with blooms up until a month ago.
I had one with me when I went West...
but it died along the way.
They're a plant that don't need much attention.
Easy to grow...
if they've got the right soil.
Maybe that was the trouble.
Do you know where Daddy left his pipe and tobacco?
I think they're beside the radio.
Remind him what time it is.
He'll miss Burns and Allen if he doesn't get in here.
Could be this line's got dirt in it.
Yeah, the carburetor probably needs cleaning, too.
Man in St. Louis tried to sell me a set of plugs.
Well, well.
We'll check them out in the morning.
Yeah, just as long as this old heap gets me to Newport News.
For Cora's sake, though
I'd like to find something around here.
Here's your pipe, Daddy.
Mama says to remind you what time it is.
We'll be right in, honey. You go warm up the radio.
Okay.
I tell you, John, you're blessed in a lot of ways.
This house, all this land.
How much acreage you got?
I got about 12 acres. Grandpa divided it equally.
You're sure privileged to have it handed
to you on a silver platter.
The rest of us got to scratch and claw and bite.
If a man don't reach out and take...
he gets what goes over the fence last, every time.
I tell you, Ham...
there's plenty of land for those willing to work shares.
I tell you, John, it tears at a man
to see his family do without.
Plenty are saying that, nowadays.
Say, Gracie, if only the world
would recognize my singing voice.
Well, it does, George.
Everyone recognizes your singing voice.
-Really? -Well, sure...
it's after they recognize it that the trouble starts.
For some reason my voice just doesn't seem to sell.
Lots of people think it does.
-Think it sells? -Oh, sells!
What fools they are. You have a beautiful voice.
-You really think so? -Oh, yes.
You sound like a nightingale....
But I never get a chance.
I know, dear. Just like that....
Seems to me that using past failures
as the seed for tomorrow's defeats...
is a poor waste of the garden of life God has given us.
They tried to drown you out.
Only it's worse than it sounds...
they tried to drown you out in the swimming pool.
Thank goodness, Jack....
He's just wandered from one place to another...
and never made a go of it anywhere.
And Job's just following right in his footsteps.
[whistling]
It's just rabbit tobacco.
Just don't set the place on fire.
You're gonna tell?
Mary Ellen, why don't you just learn to use your brain?
John-Boy, don't go. Help me scrub some potatoes.
I'll get them, you don't have to.
You get those berries to Grandma.
Mary Ellen, you will go to your room
and learn 10 verses of the Bible before supper.
But, Mama--
Any backtalk and you will learn 15.
And put on something decent.
You watch your step, young man.
You snitch!
-I didn't say a word. -Fifteen Bible verses!
Won't do you a bit of harm!
Hi, Mr. Godsey.
Hi, Yancy.
I want you to meet Ham Denby.
This is Ike Godsey and that's Yancy Tucker.
-Howdy. -Howdy.
-Ike and me, we met. -Had us a transaction.
That bacon was yours, I thought so.
Nobody smokes bacon like Ike Godsey.
Bacon?
You're wrong about that, Cousin John.
I picked that bacon up coming through Kentucky.
Somebody must have your smoking secret in Kentucky.
Are you kin to John?
He's married to my cousin Cora. You remember Cora, don't you?
Cora. The pretty little thing that went off to Kansas to live?
Ham here is expecting a letter from Newport News, care of us.
We were hoping you can keep your eye open for it.
Glad to.
-Yancy, how've you been? -Good, thank you.
Sure had me a nice meal last night, thanks to you all, John.
How's that?
Shot me a mess of quail up at John-Boy's Meadow.
Sure be a shame when he builds up there, chases that covey off.
Ain't going to happen for years, he's still a young squirt.
Him wanting to be a writer, it'll likely never happen.
It's a shame, too. That land is just begging for seed.
Ike, could I see you for a minute? Excuse us, Yancy, Ham.
Seems to me I've seen you somewhere.
No, I'm spanking new around these parts.
I don't think so.
Guess you just remind me of somebody I've run into.
What were you saying about that John-Boy's Meadow?
Prettiest piece of land the Lord ever made.
I understand old man Walton...
divided that up amongst all of his boys.
I believe that's what happened, yes, sir.
I wonder what happened to Cora's daddy's portion.
I don't rightly know.
I guess you'd have to ask old Mr. Walton about that.
Remember you said you needed rewiring done a while back?
Yeah, I've still been wanting it cared for.
Well, I'm going to have some free time the next few days.
How about the day after tomorrow?
Good.
All same to you, we don't have to have money change hands...
I could take it out in groceries.
It's okay by me, John.
That way I can...
pay for some bacon we've been eating.
I seen you was out of tobacco. It ain't nothing.
I picked it up while you two was inside talking.
I gave the money to that Yancy fellow.
Say, he's quite a character, ain't he?
Ain't that just like John and Livie Walton?
Take in kin, house and feed them when times are like they are.
Yeah.
I sure hope that business about
bread cast upon the water is true.
There are times, sad to say...
when bread upon the waters comes back
good for nothing except a soggy sandwich.
Split a cookie with you.
Hey, Ben.
Hey, you think that's going to get off the ground?
Sure it is.
Would you show a fellow the lay of the land around here?
Any place you want to see special?
Place called John-Boy's Meadow.
Come on, I'll show you.
-I'm sorry, I should've knocked. -Not at all.
I aired this quilt out today, and I thought I'd....
Why, Cora, you have such beautiful hair.
Why, thank you.
You should wear it loose.
-Do you really think so? -I do.
I've pinned it up for so many years.
Ham never liked it down loose.
Said it got in the way of work.
You should just gather it and tie it at the back.
When did you quilt that Grandmother's Flower Garden?
I finished this one last winter.
It's lovely.
I'm going to throw away all those old quilts...
I brought from Kansas, and when we get settled...
I'm going to quilt me brand new ones.
I recall a Jacob's Ladder you had.
You ought to. You helped me do it. You and Maggie Collyer.
Do you remember that?
I'm beginning to remember a lot of things.
-John-Boy? -Yeah?
I saw somebody do something wrong
and then tell a lie about it--
If you're going to be a tattletale, don't wanna hear it.
-But it's Cousin-- -I don't care who it is...
why don't you just go and talk to them
and let them set it right?
Leave me out of it.
Thanks for the use of your truck, Ham,
parts for mine should be in soon.
I couldn't see you walking clear down
to Godsey's place by yourself.
Besides, I can't help with the rewiring job,
I'm all thumbs on a thing like that.
It's a one-man job, anyway. See you tonight.
You must be thinking somewhat the way I'm thinking.
-Jason. -Ham.
Doing some hoeing?
Yeah.
If you'd like something to do,
I have a chore or two you could help out with.
Surely.
Livie's border there needs some manure.
Her petunias are doing poorly.
You come along, I'll show you the manure.
Getting any bites?
Wrong time of day, I guess.
Kind of nice being here.
Just the two of us.
It's a pretty spot, isn't it?
Nobody for miles around.
What are you getting at?
I don't know. Fool around, maybe?
You come near me, and I'll bash your head in with a rock.
No need to be so touchy.
-Uncle Ham? -Little lady.
If somebody does something wrong...
the important thing is for them to set it right.
Wrong been done?
I saw you snitch that tobacco from Ike Godsey.
You saw wrong.
Yancy Tucker was standing right with me
when I put that dime on the counter.
Yancy was on the other side of the store
when you took that tobacco.
Well, now, you are a real disappointment.
I never thought I'd see a child of John and Livie's sass back...
question their elders, same as call them a liar to their faces.
-But I-- -You go on and clear out.
And you're just lucky that I don't tell your pa.
Now go on, clear out of here.
Go on.
-Who are you writing that to? -Nobody.
Then what did you put it down in that tablet for?
It's none of your business.
-You were writing about my pa. -I was writing about a lot of--
You were writing about me and Ma and Pa!
Okay, have it your way.
You ain't got no right to say them things.
I've got a right to think anything I want.
What have you got to back it up with?
-What? -You heard me.
Come on, cut it out!
-Show me how tough you are. -I didn't say I was tough.
Show me how right you are about what you wrote in that tablet.
I'm not gonna fight you.
I could have figured.
You pantywaist.
Hello, sweetheart.
What have you got there?
I got 10 hours of rewiring Ike Godsey's store.
Everything alright around here?
Something's wrong with this house, John.
Mary Ellen's in the worst mood she's ever had...
Erin cried herself to sleep...
and John-Boy hasn't said a word to anyone.
What if there is no letter?
I've been thinking about that the last day or so.
I thought about it after the first week.
Well, we should know soon enough.
He said it was coming by the end of the month.
That was the day before yesterday.
That letter should have been here by now.
I laid awake half the night knowing that.
You said they told you the end of the month at the outside.
Can I help it if they ain't sent it?
Have you given thought to the possibility they never will?
It'll come.
But if it doesn't?
If they don't ever write?
There's land right here we could work.
Place called John-Boy's Meadow.
No.
Now don't say no, Cora.
If we work it right, we just might get it.
-If you was to ask Olivia.... -No, Ham.
The boy ain't gonna use it. I heard him say so.
No.
Cora, I had my share of bad times. More than my share.
I'll not ask for a foot of this land.
Cora, listen, what if you're right?
What if they don't send that letter?
What if they don't mail it from Newport News?
We'll find someplace somewheres and start over.
Find someplace? Like where?
There's all kinds of land we can work on shares.
Shares? I want my own place.
Shares, and this time we say "no moving on."
When the times get hard, we stay and work harder.
No.
-Ham, listen. -No, you listen.
I say what goes in this family. I say what we do.
All I need is a little more time.
Now, you just see to it your sweet cousin
stays as soft as always.
You just see to it that we stay here until....
Just see to it that they don't chuck us out.
Now you understand?
Well, you two slugabeds finally get up?
Morning, Uncle Ham.
Old bright eyes has been up for hours. Haven't you, John-Boy?
You bet.
Come on, pick some berries with us, Uncle Ham.
Listen, something going on between you two?
-He's a pantywaist. -Now listen.
This is not the time to start any trouble, you understand?
Yes.
Good morning!
Sit down, Ham, let me fix you some breakfast.
It'll be dinnertime shortly.
I'll just have some coffee. I'll fetch it myself.
Oh, boy, that supper you two whipped up last night!
That can last me easy till noon.
Where's John got to?
-Speak of the devil. -Good morning, Ham.
Let me give you a hand. What's on the fire?
-Fire? -Yeah.
Anything I can help with?
No need for that.
There's gotta be a chore or two.
I had such a great night's sleep, I'm just raring to go.
Come to think of it....
If you'd like, you can pick up things for me at Ike Godsey's.
I'll be glad to, Grandma.
You can check on the mail while you're there.
You just write up the list and I'll crank up the old flivver.
Now, Ma....
There's been nothing said that wasn't thought by both of you.
Would having done something made you believe more firmly...
-in whatever it was you wrote? -No, sir.
Would it have made your cousin Job believe what you wrote?
Not likely.
Then fighting wouldn't have been the answer, then?
Well, now he's got me marked down as a coward.
It don't make no difference what he thinks. Are you a coward?
What's the worst he could do to me? Break my nose?
I guess that's some kind of an answer.
I'm not afraid of him.
Then what difference does it make
what he's got you marked down for?
There's some things you've got to fight for, aren't there?
You bet there are.
Well, then?
That's something that everybody has to decide for himself.
But once he's decided, that's it.
I wasn't sure which of these Grandma wanted for dinner...
so we just shot right back. I'm gonna take them on inside.
-No letter. -Mail hadn't come yet.
-You gonna go back for it? -No.
There's not gonna be any letter. You know that.
How about you and me have a cup of coffee?
Ben, take these in the house.
Grandpa, I'm going to milk the cow.
You can scare a person to death jumping out at them like that?
Scaring you wasn't what I had in mind.
Now don't! Quit that!
The marines to the rescue.
Get in the house, Mary Ellen.
Don't fight him, John-Boy.
Don't let my being bigger than you stop you, pantywaist.
I won't.
[intense music]
You two better come up with something
special to account for the way you look.
Of all the time to pull something like this!
Get out.
What in the world could make you do a thing like this?
I'll help you clean that cut.
I'm alright. Let me do it, okay?
You're going to tell us what this is all about?
No, sir, I'm not.
This is more than two youngsters fighting.
Job, you got anything to say?
I reckon not.
It had something to do with what we was talking about...
in the strawberry patch. Wasn't that it?
What it was you wrote?
What are you talking about?
It seems Job took exception to something
John-Boy wrote in his tablets.
It was all about us, Pa.
About how he didn't think you were carrying your part of...
the load and how you and me and Ma were a burden to everybody.
How he didn't think there was any letter
coming at the end of the month at all.
Am I leaving anything out, John-Boy?
No, I reckon you just about said it all.
We'll be leaving.
Cora, not just yet.
I want to bring up the subject of a little piece of land...
that these folks call John-Boy's Meadow. Shut up, Cora.
I've been talking to people here about this...
and I came up with an interesting fact.
When that mountain was divided up, a share of it...
including John-Boy's Meadow...
was given to Matt Walton, your pa, Cora.
When he died, it should've rightfully passed on to you.
I want you to go start packing the truck.
You help, Job.
Listen, are you out of your mind?
I'm not going to let you turn your back and run off.
This is your land!
Matt Walton was a wanderer, Ham Denby.
He had sand in his shoes, like you.
That was his land for a while, his birthright...
but he sold it back...
and it's Grandpa's now...
to do with what he will.
It's not mine. It's John-Boy's to do with as he pleases.
-John-Boy? -No, Ham.
We're through begging...
crawling...
failing...
making excuses...
running away...
giving up.
Cora, we're at the end of the road.
Not quite.
Out there in that Dust Bowl, in that hot Kansas wind...
my pride just blew away.
But now I got it back...
and we're going on to some other place...
and we're gonna make it on our own.
Aren't we?
By Harry, I said, to the end of the month when we came...
and end of the month's just gone two days.
No way I'll wear out my welcome. No, sir.
Cora?
I don't know how many slips I've cut from this cactus.
It's sweet of you to give it to me, it really is.
It'll be nice having a plant again.
Oh, Cora.
Everything's gonna be alright.
Ham can be the man he used to be...
and Job's young.
There's time.
Yes.
I know the life I want.
I don't know where it will be.
But it will be as much like it is here as I can make it.
You better get a move on before Pa blows his top.
Tell your father I'm coming.
Yes, ma'am.
Bless you, John, for everything.
Cora, we didn't do much.
You did more than you know.
Jim-Bob, get down off there.
We heard from Cora a few times after they left.
They settled finally in upstate New York,
in a place called the Mohawk Valley...
and they did alright farming.
Grandpa used to say that Ham must have learned...
one of the Walton's secrets in spite of himself.
That the world wasn't, like the song said,
just a bowl of cherries...
but that you had to go out and climb the tree...
and bark your shins a few times doing it
and pick those cherries yourself.
-I'm much obliged to you. -Goodnight, Mary Ellen.
Tonight, I stuck my pin in my geography book...
and it came down on Larkspur, California.
Wouldn't that be a fair place to see?
I guess so.
-Goodnight, Mary Ellen. -Goodnight.