- Narrator: [narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] Next to Christmas, I suppose you'd have to say that Thanksgiving was our favorite time of the year. We may have been poor in worldly possessions but, at Thanksgiving, more than any other time, I think we knew, we really knew, how great was our abundance. It wasn't until the cold November of my eighteenth year, however, that I fully understood what abundance meant. It was a time of terrible questioning for all of us and when it was over we all knew a bit more about Thanksgiving.
- Mamie 'Miss Mamie' Baldwin, Emily 'Miss Emily' Baldwin: [in unison] We'd like to adopt Jason!
- The Grandfather: Methuselah!
- Esther Walton: Good lord!
- Olivia Walton: Did you say you wanted to adopt him?
- Mamie 'Miss Mamie' Baldwin: Yes dear! Adopt him legally and then he would be our dependent.
- Emily 'Miss Emily' Baldwin: We thought we would give him the blue room, the one Ashley used to stay in when he came to visit.
- John Walton, Sr.: That's very nice ladies but we're not giving up any of our children this year.
- Mamie 'Miss Mamie' Baldwin: Jason, you know about the Depression, I judge. And you know who has taken the burden of leadin' us out of it.
- Emily 'Miss Emily' Baldwin: And is doin' a splendid job!
- Mamie 'Miss Mamie' Baldwin: Well, to show our appreciation for all that he has done for us, we are sendin' President and Mrs. Roosevelt a jar of the recipe for Thanksgivin'!
- Emily 'Miss Emily' Baldwin: You will help us, won't you?
- Jason Walton: Well, I guess it's be downright unpatriotic not to!
- John Walton, Sr.: Liv, sometimes you can be as sweet and cool and welcomin' as a brook in springtime. But you can, without decent warnin' to me, change into the most stiff-necked, hard-edged, prideful woman I ever saw!
- The Grandfather: Now, what's on your mind?
- Ben Walton: Thanksgiving turkey.
- The Grandfather: You for it or against it?
- John-Boy Walton: Look, I came here to get a haircut, okay?
- Esther Walton: Looks all right to me.
- John-Boy Walton: Well just a little off the sides you know, a trim.
- Esther Walton: Now?
- John-Boy Walton: If it's all right with you, sure.
- Esther Walton: Oh fine! We have nothin' to do, do we Livie?
- Olivia Walton: No.
- Esther Walton: We just have three kinds of sausage to make today, a hunk of lard to be rendered, some clothes on the line that need ironin', and in exactly two hours John and Grandpa are gonna come stompin' in here hungry for their dinner! Haircut!
- John-Boy Walton: Okay, you can do it tomorrow if you want Grandma.
- Esther Walton: On the sabbath? You sit down!