When I was 10 years old I was an avid reader. I’d often order paperbacks from book drives at school so I could read more books! One of the books was “The Homecoming” by Earl Hamner Jr.. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the book had been made into a 1963 movie called “Spencer’s Mountain” starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara. In 1971, when I bought and read the book it was made into a TV movie, the same movie that I had playing on in the background as I was going through all these boxes. There’s a good chance that I hadn’t seen this movie since I first watched it nearly 50 years ago!

By the way, as I note in the comic, this movie was the pilot for the TV show “The Waltons”. The entire cast was the same except for the roles of father John Walton (played here by Andrew Duggan) mother Olivia Walton (played here by Oscar winner Patricia Neal) and grandpa Zebb Walton (played by Edgar Bergen).