A NOTE TO THE READER
For Scott and Carrie
It is remembered in my family that on Christmas Eve of 1933 my father was late arriving home. That, along with the love he and my mother bestowed upon their eight red-headed offspring, is fact. The rest is fiction.
If you have seen THE WALTONS on television then you already know some of the stories about the family you will meet in this book. Here their name is Spencer, but because of legal considerations, on television they are called THE WALTONS.
Earl Hamner, Jr.
Hollywood, California
January 1973