Ellen Corby wrote this episode, a story about the character she played, Grandma Walton.
When the Waltons' power comes back on the radio is broadcasting Don McNeil's Breakfast Club, a long-running radio variety show that ran on the Blue Network from 1933 to 1968.
The Walton's electricity is turned off because they can't pay their power bill. In reality, the family likely wouldn't have had power at all. While commonplace in cities, electricity was largely unavailable in rural areas (such as Waltons Mountain) in the early 1930s. It wasn't until the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 that funds were provided for the installation of electric systems in the rural United States.
Grandpa gripes that he's being treated like "...some little shirttail kid." "Shirttail kid" is an antiquated term for a young, immature child.