Waltons 2.22: The Graduation

Airdate: 2/21/74

John-Boy is finally about to graduate high school, and his family takes him to Charlottesville for some new duds for the occasion and his first year at college. Bad timing: the Waltons’ milking cow, Chance, dies, and John-Boy feels wracked with guilt that his gift could have been used to buy a new cow. Secretly, he returns the items and gives the money to his parents. Grandma comes up with idea that they could alter Zeb’s old tweed suit to give to John-Boy, and they do.

It’s official: John-Boy is a graduate of the Walton’s Mountain School, Class of ’34 (putting the timeframe here at exactly 40 years before the episode aired). Another trivia note: the college he’ll be attending is Boatwright University (the same school he won the scholarship for in Waltons 2.10: “The Thanksgiving Story”). A great “time passages” episode that marks the end of the John-Boy at home years.

Best scene: John-Boy, about to graduate, talks to a young boy starting his first day at school, and offers him his old seat in the classroom. Second-best scene: John-Boy asks his father, “Who am I?” and his dad answers him, with a sidebar about being true to his country roots.