- Narrator: [narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] In all our lives there are moments we are meant to remember forever, in every small detail and shading. To my family on Waltons Mountain such a moment came in the late summer of 1945. The war in Europe was over, the worst of the Japanese war still lay ahead. On that hot Sunday in August, an unexpected visitor came to Waltons Mountain, brought by the notion that something was wrong with my brother, Jason, who was waiting to be shipped home from France.
- Mary Ellen Walton: Who? What? From Where? Honolulu? What? Oh just a minute! Don't go away! Cindy! Cindy. Uh, telephone, it's a short wave radio operator in Charlottesville.
- Cindy Brunson Walton: I don't know anybody in Charlottesville.
- Mary Ellen Walton: Well they're talking to somebody in San Diego, who's on the phone with somebody in Honolulu, whose got somebody in Manila. Do you want to talk to your husband or don't you? Daddy it's Ben! He's alive! He's safe!
- Emily Baldwin: [as telephone rings] I do hope that's cousin Murabelle. She had Aphids when we last spoke, and we've been most concerned.