SusanM

That bothered me to at the time but I guess it was realistic - somewhat akin to at least one boy having to stay home and take over the farm. In my family back a few generations what seemed to happen was one girl got to be the "old maid" and stay home to run the house and look after the aging parents! Not fair but real.

Yeah, I like the line-up but I think next week is a miss for me. And if she does get the vacant chair I guess I know what is getting deleted from my PVR going forward ☹️.

This was part of the problem with keeping the show on the air as long as it did. Realistically Ben would have stayed home because he worked with his father but likely all the other sons would have struck out on their own not just John Boy. That was the reality of small town life then, and probably still is. I get, of course, why they didn't do that, but given that the actor playing Jim Bob was just not very good, writing his character off with only sporadic appearances might have been a good idea!

John wasn't choosing which of his own sons would go. He was on the draft board (I think that's what it was called) so he was making decisions about the young men in the area who were eligible to go.

Same. My husband and I were lucky enough to be living in Quebec when we reached university age and the tuitions there were significantly lower than pretty much anywhere else. We also both were able to live at home, in comfortable middle class homes at that, which meant when we graduated we had no student debt. But we both know people in the exact same circumstance who, to use that famous quote act like "he was born on third base and thought he hit a triple". If you are fortunate enough to get a decent head start into grownup land at least have the grace to acknowledge that instead of assuming this is true for everyone and it's only their own bad choices that make a difference!

Funny you post this now, I just had a conversation with my Dad on this subject. He feels bad for "the kids" today because of the economy the way it is, which is sweet if him, but I pointed out that no generation has really had it all that easy - least of all his own (he's 87). Anyway I think the biggest peeve I have right now in regard to the economy is that for cripes sake it's been one damn thing after another now for a couple of years and c'mon universe - can we please catch a break?

Yep. I totally get the argument that a few dollars a day spent on a treat is a drop in the bucket if you are dealing with a huge debt load but on the other hand spending 20-30 dollars every single day (and that's just what I was personally aware of) isn't really a small treat, That's adding up to anywhere from 400 to 500 a month.

Ben and Jim Bob were typical of a lot of kid actors. Once they got past a certain age whatever acting ability they had was pretty much gone. I'd argue this was truer of Jim Bob than Ben but I totally agree that Ben couldn't pull off the dramatic moments. At all. I think all the girls did just fine - probably Elizabeth was the least capable and Mary Ellen went through a phase where she over emoted everything but settled down.

I have friends who get really annoyed when someone accuses the boomers of ruining things for the younger generation and acting like our generation had it all and none of us struggled. Of course that's demonstrably false, but, and it's a big but - most boomers didn't have to take on enormous debt loads just to get a degree that didn't get them a decent job and even with a decent job didn't earn them enough to live on their own. I'm glad this thread reminded me of that.

I really liked The Waltons when it was still the original family with the original John Boy. I also actually liked a lot of the episodes set during the war years. For me though the "jump the shark" episode was the one when we find out that Mary Ellen's husband had not actually been killed in the war after all. Worst Plot Ever. It was embarassing to watch. And don't get me started on the movie set in 1963 where they somehow forgot about the existence of some of the Walton grandchildren and had clearly had all the characters drink from the Fountain of Youth.

Another peeve of mine is that along with not seeing too many sales like that anymore instead (at least at our local grocery) they have signs like "3 for 7.98" or similar amounts. All this does for me is make me think "huh?" Not that I might be getting a deal or that at that price it's worth stocking up. I'm convinced the store does this just to confuse the consumer. Which it does with me but it also makes me not buy that particular product at all, which I am guessing isn't what they want.

This is my peeve today. Well that but signage about that that is very unclear. The item I wanted to buy had a sign below it that read "Buy two and get one free". To me this meant if I buy two then one of those two is free. Not so fast. According to the cashier it means buy two and get a third one for free. Which does make sense but honestly my interpretation made sense to me too and especially as we're talking about a perishable item not many people would typically buy three at a time in the first place.

I've liked Ryan Reynolds as an actor since his days on Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place but what makes me love him as a person is his charitable work especially here in Ottawa.

Someone upthread mentioned Don Rickles - not sure if this is a place to talk about dead stars that we couldn't stand but if it is he is on my list along with Jerry Lewis. Probably quite a few others but these two are celebrities I've disliked for a very long time. I know both did a lot of good in their lives, and in the case of Rickles at least, seem to have been well liked by their colleagues but even so, ugh. I just never liked insult humour which was Rickles shtick and Lewis just always gave off creepy vibes to me.

I guess Mary Stewart is considered more romantic suspense than mystery but she did win an Agatha Award for lifetime achievement so I think she counts! Anyway if we're willing to expand the Golden Age time frame a bit I'd recommend her earlier books - her best stuff (IMO) was published between 1955-1965