Congratulations to
Rebecca Irby
our first
Waltons International Poetry Contest winner

THE SONG OF JOHN-BOY WALTON

In the years of the Depression,
In the lofty Blue Ridge Mountains,
Stood the home of John-Boy Walton,
Eldest boy-child of the Waltons.

Proud behind it rose the mountain,
Rose the fragrant honeysuckle,
Rose the redbud and the dogwood;

Nearby flowed the Rockfish River,
Flowed the sparkling sunlit waters,
Flowed the slow, strong, slate blue waters.

There the lad named John-Boy Walton
Spent his boyhood, free and happy;
Fished for bass and carp and catfish,
Hunted deer upon the mountain.

Pen in hand, the young boy scribbled,
Penned each moment of his boyhood;
Wrote about his home and family,
Of his brothers and his sisters,
Of his Mama and his Daddy.

Who are they, the Walton family?
Living there, on Walton's Mountain?
John-Boy's memories are inscribed here.

Many things his Grandpa taught him,
Of the green plants in the forest;
Told him all the family's history,
Of their history on the mountain.

Grandma Walton taught young John-Boy
Of the truths learned in the Bible;
Taught his sisters cooking, sewing,
How to smoothly run the household.

Daddy Walton ran a sawmill.
Mama raised her many children:
John-Boy, the aspiring writer;
Red-haired Jason, the musician;

Family tomboy, Mary Ellen;
And young Ben, so down-to-earth-like;
Jim Bob, soaring with the eagles;

Pretty Erin, young Elizabeth.
All these children grew together,
Played together, worked together.

When those years had passed, this John-Boy,
Oft times filled with old nostalgia,
Thought about his friends and family
And his home on Walton's Mountain.

John-Boy, thrilling to the memories,
Memories harkening back to childhood,
Of the Waltons and their neighbors,
Wrote their tales for all to cherish.

And I think that as the sun sets
Every night upon that mountain
Even yet the echoes linger,
Loving words, so gently spoken,
Good night, John-Boy. Good night, Waltons.

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