- Narrator: [narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Times were hard everywhere during the days of the Great Depression; but on Waltons Mountain, we were better off than most. For many, though, it was a time of wandering, of looking for some better place, a new grasp on life or a change of scene. And I remember when some wanderers came to our mountain one wild, stormy summer night.