Good Grief, John Boy - Part One

I suppose that an explanation for the events of the past few days starts with the fact that I do not live in Minnesota.

If I lived in Minnesota, then everyone's favorite local author of note would be Garrison Keillor. People would talk about Garrison Keillor. They'd know his works. There would be Garrison Keillor fan clubs. People would maybe go to Garrison Keillor sites, perhaps a museum or two. They'd visit his theaters, and (and this is most important) when staging productions with local flavor in their own theaters, they'd try to do adaptations of his radio monologues and of his best-selling books on that most wonderful of fictitious Minnesota towns, Lake Woebegone.

That's what I imagine Minnesota is like. I don't live in Minnesota.

I live in Charlottesville, and down here we have our own set of hometown authors. The biggies are John Grisham and Rita Dove. We just love ourselves some John Grisham and Rita Dove. But truth be told, they're transplants. Dove came here to teach at UVA and Grisham moved here as soon as he'd made enough money to afford a nice place in Albemarle County. It's not like they're really from here. No, for that you have to go a little south to Nelson County, where you run into Earl Hamner, Jr., our most famous unknown author - famous because just about everyone knows his work, unknown 'cause you have know idea in hell who he is, don't you?

Earl Hamner, Jr. grew up in Nelson County, VA. in the 30s and 40s. (He's in his 80's now.) He grew up in a large family in the shadow of a mountain that his father's father owned that got parcelled up and sold. As a young man, he wrote short stories, at least one novella, and at least one novel based on his experiences with his family and community members. He changed the family name in the books to Spencer. So his father, Earl Hamner, Sr. became Clay Spencer, and Earl Jr,, known in childhood as "Earl Boy" became "Clay Boy Spencer". In the 70s, Hamner was peddling his wares in Hollywood, and, as you've probably already guessed, his stories were developed into a television show where the family name was changed once again ... this time from Spencer to Walton.

So Earl Hamner, Jr. is the man behind The Waltons just like Garrison Keillor is beind Lake Woebegone, and the whole Waltons thing was set right next door to me in Nelson County and not, regretably, in Minnesota. The most relevant similarity between the two is that both authors put the events and people of their childhoods into enjoyable, wholesome, Christian-inflected, non-threatening fiction. The most relevant difference between the two is that Minnesota has a whole lot of white everywhere you look, and I'm not just talking about the snow. Therein lies the genesis of my tale ...