When I first felt pity (or how I sometimes get sad when I eat homemade sandwiches)
When I was little, I used to watch The Waltons* a lot. A LOT. I know, I blame my mother.
During one episode**, John Boy goes to the stay in The Big City - they didn’t call it that, but I couldn’t remember if it was *actually* a big city or some city that just happened to be close by. Before he goes, his mother packs him a supply of sandwiches (in waxed paper of course) so he wouldn’t have to spend all of his money on dining out at big city restaurants that were sure to be rife with riff raff.
So John Boy goes to The Big City and ends up staying in a boarding house. During his time in The Big City, John Boy gets robbed! They talk all of his money and give him a black eye and fat lip. So poor John Boy is left with no money, rent to pay, and a dwindling supply of pathetic, little sandwiches.
Eventually rent is due, so John Boy has to go see the owner of the boarding house and ask to stay there for free for a couple days - but of course he’ll pay the money back, he’s a Walton, not some hoodlum. When he’s asking he has to say something horribly pitiful like “I just got robbed, I have no money, and I only have two sandwiches left,” navigating his pitiful words around his pitiful fat lip. The boarding house owner says no, but thankfully some City Woman also staying at the boarding house overhears the conversation and gives John Boy some money to cover his rent.
For some reason that image of John Boy standing in the parlor of the boarding house with his fat lip and stupid little sandiwches, having to ask for a break with the rent broke my heart. It made me 1) never have to be in a position like that and 2) never want to watch someone be in a position like that.***
So thank you, The Waltons. Thank you.
*I can still name all 7 Walton children (I did have to check Wikipedia for one of them - Jason Walton, how could I forget you - you were the musician!)
**I was 8 when I saw the episode, so the details are a little hazy. But the pity I felt? I still feel it *right here.*
***I told Ross about this for the first time yesterday while we in the car on the way up to Ikea. I had packed the sorriest excuse for a peanut butter sandwich to eat on the way up. As I sat nibbling on it, the feeling I got while watching that episode for the first time smacked me in the face. So, I thought I would share this unknown tidbit about myself with my husband of 5 years. Marriage to me, the twists and turns never end.

