1964
The downstairs bedroom of the Walton house was now known as the children's room. It hadn't taken long to realise that more space was needed during family gatherings and the room was quickly turned into a cross between a living room and a bedroom.
On a lazy Sunday afternoon in April it was currently occupied by a number of Waltons.
Baby Joy (the youngest of the lot) was sitting on the floor along with Junie; playing dolls, or rather trying to protect their dolls from being run over by Jack's train set. Ginny was lying on the bed reading, doing her best at ignoring Katie's attempts to annoy her.
At the desk Sophia was working on her school project – which at the current time was a pile of wood and card and string.
"What is that junk?" Susan asked, walking past and stopping behind Sophia's chair.
"School project," Sophia replied, continuing to colour a piece of card.
"It's her family tree," Katie said.
"It looks like a pile of junk," Susan said.
"That's not very nice Susie," Joy piped up. Susan rolled her eyes.
"Have any of you seen my red jacket? I think I left it here," she said.
"It's gone then," Charlie said. With so many cousins if you put something down and someone grabbed it you never saw it again.
"Mama probably thought it was mine," Katie said.
"Can we go get it?" Susan asked.
"Yeah. After dinner," Katie said. Susan nodded then turned back to Sophia's project.
"It doesn't look like a tree. Why aren't you just drawing it? Like a normal person," she asked.
"Because it's an orchard. Our family wouldn't fit on a tree," Sophia replied. And she was also her mothers daughter – a serious over achiever – she wanted the best project in Walton's Mountain Elementary School. So why draw a silly old tree when she could do something unique.
"Right Sis. Let's get this thing together," Jay said, coming in with a large wooden board painted green. Sophia smiled and grabbed everything off the desk and knelt beside where her brother dropped the board.
The Walton cousins began to stop what they were doing and watched as the orchard took shape. Jay took the sticks of wood and twisted them into the board and Sophia tied on the strings with card attached.
Soon enough it did look enough like a forest. And even Susan was impressed. There were seven large tree shapes then from each one hung groups of leaves.
Each leaf had a name and a little symbol and date to go along with it.
"You should show everyone," Jackie said.
"Let's get them!" Junie jumped up and ran with Joy close behind her to find the rest of the family.
"Put it in the living room. There's more space," Ginny said, rolling off the bed. She threw her book down and picked up one side of the board while Jay grabbed the other.
They carried it into the living room and sat it on the table as the family gathered.
"Looks good Soph," Ben said to his niece.
"You got the book?" Jay asked. Sophia nodded.
"My Family Tree." She opened the notebook and began her presentation.
"My name is Sophia Walton. When I said to my Grandpa that we had to do a family tree project for school he said we had an orchard. Which gave me an idea." Everyone laughed.
"My family have lived on Walton's Mountain for generation. My great great great great grandfather Rome Walton was the first person to really settle here. And we've been here ever since. My uncle John says we were drawn to the mountains.
My grandpa John married Grandma Olivia in 1915 and they had seven children." She pointed the the biggest tree at the back where there were seven leaves hanging.
"The first was John Junior. But everyone here calls him John Boy. He's a famous author and works for a big television company. He married Aunt Janet the day I was born. Which was really not planned. They live in New York with their twins John and Olivia. They're 8.
Jason is next. That's my Daddy. He married my Mom Antoinette in 1946. No one but Daddy calls her that. Everyone else calls her Toni. Then they had all of us. And there is a lot of us. Tyler's first. He was born on Daddy's birthday in 1947. Jason junior or Jay next. Then the twins Gene and George. Then me. I'm number 5. Laurie's after me and the baby twins Jackie and Junie were born in 1959.
Aunt Mary Ellen was born in 1920. She had my cousin John Curtis in 1940 then his daddy Curtis Willard died at Pearl Harbour. But then after the war she met uncle Jonesy and they got married in 1947 and adopted Katie and Clay in 1951.
Aunt Erin is the middle child. She got married and had Susan, Peter and Amanda but then she got divorced.
Uncle Jim Bob is the youngest boy. He says he loves being single and free. No matter how many times Mom and my aunts try to introduce him to girls. He's a pilot for the postal service.
Then Aunt Elizabeth is the youngest. Everyone already knows her cause she teaches kindergarten. She married Uncle Drew and had Joy in 1958.
My family is very big and we all annoy each other. We can't choose our family and love each other for all our faults. And I wouldn't have it any other way."
With each member of the family she pointed to a different tree, showing off the little leaves. The family were impressed; though nothing less was expected of the Walton fondly nicknamed Little Miss Perfect.
"Well that a perfect project if I've ever seen one," John said, squeezing his granddaughter's shoulder.
"I'd give it full marks!" Olivia smiled.
"So would I," Elizabeth added.
"And that's coming from the teacher," Charlie pointed out. Sophia turned a little bashful and looked at the floor.
"And she did it all herself," Gene said.
"She's spent the past two weeks in her room with that family bible," Georgie said.
"And the work has paid off," Jason said, pulling her daughter's red braid.
"And I can keep adding to it," Sophia said. Getting over her praise she now pointedly looked at her eldest cousin who's grin disappeared and he shook his head.
"Sophia," he warned. He wasn't ready for his cousin spilling any secrets just yet.
"But.." Laurie started.
"Leave him alone," Tyler warned.
"I feel like I'm missing something," Cindy said and all the adults seemed to nod in agreement.
"John Curtis?" Mary Ellen asked.
"Is that dinner burning?" He asked and everyone laughed.
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