[NJARC] The Waltons' radio

[Alex Magoun]

Thanks all,
Regarding installment credit, Answers.com has a useful summary from an
encyclopedia article with reputable references: "By the end of the 1920s,
retailers other than automobile dealers offered two primary types of credit
plan: the thirty-day charge account and the installment account that a
specific purchase generated and secured. Buyers seldom paid the thirty-day
account in thirty days. In 1938, to provide customers more extended terms
on a formal basis, Wanamaker's of Philadelphia introduced the first
revolving credit plan for soft goods. Although the permitted payment period
was four months, no charge accrued for the use of the credit service."
www.answers.com/topic/installment-buying-selling-and-financing

Presumably as Appalachian farmers of good standing the Waltons had a deal
with the local electric store.  But wait a minute: this wasn't a battery
set, right?  The Waltons live in the boondocks in the 1930s.  When did they
get on the grid, or any grid?

It turns out that you can visit Walton's Mountain museum across the street
from the home where the show's creator, Earl Hammer, grew up in Schuyler,
Virginia in the Blue Ridge Piedmont: www.waltonmuseum.org/.  Electricity in
the 1930s?  You won't see any signs of it in the construction of the Blue
Ridge Parkway (
www.blueridgeparkwayblog.com/galleries/blue-ridge-parkway-history/), but
Schuyler was living large, thanks to local hydroelectric power.  It even
had an electric trolley that some children took to and from school.  As for
the Waltons, the museum shows electric lamps in the parlor or living room,
but gas or oil lamps in the kitchen--it's a hybrid arrangement, and a long
way from an all electric kitchen.

Alex

Alex
~~~
Alexander B. Magoun, Ph.D., Outreach Historian
IEEE History Center
39 Union Street, Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8538 USA

+1 732-981-3414
a.b.magoun at ieee.org
www.ieeeghn.org
@IEEEHistory <https://twitter.com/IEEEhistory>
www.ieee.org/history_center

IEEE - Advancing Technology for Humanity