After Gino mentions he was in the CCC stationed at Big Meadow, John-Boy says "Yeah, I know that camp, they're making a national park up there." He is referring to Shenandoah National Park, which the CCC helped build the infrastructure for from 1933-1942.
John Boy tells Gino that he'd give anything to see the play "Ah Wilderness" written by Eugene O'Neill, which John Boy heard was currently showing in New York City. The Nobel and Pulitzer prize winning playwright O'Neill wrote the play in 1932 and it premiered on Broadway in 1933.
Will Geer objected to the family's sentimentality towards Pete the raccoon, saying that in reality farmers view raccoons as costly pests that eat up crops and chickens. In a New York Times interview, Geer said, "When the Walton family held a funeral for their pet raccoon, I wanted the grandfather to say, 'If we had more raccoon funerals, we might get more sweet corn and eggs on the table.' That's the reality, but they wouldn't let me say it."