- Erin Walton: Mama, what did you say the name of the painter you were telling us about was?
- Olivia Walton: Paul Gauguin.
- The Grandfather: He was a Frenchman. He ran away from his wife to paint natives without much on on an island off somewheres. Tahiti.
- Esther Walton: Some heathen place. I told you no good could come from this paintin' business.
- The Grandfather: You're wrong Esther, he was great. Famous in more ways than one.
- Esther Walton: Yeah, well I'd like to hear his wife's side of that story.
- Narrator: [narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Life on Waltons Mountain never seemed more stable than when I was eighteen and in college. It was comforting to know that the family was always there, knowing exactly what they were doing, and accepting it as the right and necessary way to live. Each of us has a secret life, private dreams and aspirations and fantasies that we are hesitant to share with others. I had always associated my mother with our home, and thought the boundaries of her life were within the walls of that house. Then, one day, I happened to stumble across my mother's private dream.