I know it's been said before on this board, but I really can't like Uncle Joe as I watch the show now; at least not how I liked him when I was a kid and the show was new. He's lazy, greedy, stupid, and...well, many more adjectives could be used. And even when Kate successfully schemes to make things right, he'll boast about how he came through. How did he ever avoid prison or the funny farm?... But maybe that explains why Kate wouldn't throw him out-- he would surely end up in one of those 2 places; except in the unlikely event he found another such place as the Shady Rest-- and there can't be more than one of those, even in the universe of this show :). Was he supposed to be on Social Security? Had he lied to get disability benefits at some time? Of course, we're not told about that. But even if he had any income of his own, he was still a parasite and put nothing into the hotel treasury (if it had one), while gorging himself.
But the show, remember, was an anachronism-- a wood-burning train in a place without automibles, where they still sing Tin Pan Alley songs. I wonder if there might have been such parasites as Uncle Joe in an earlier age in such a setting. In The Waltons, Grandma and Grandpa lived with the family, as they had nowhere else to go. And this was just prior to the Social Security Act, and I remember people who had lived in that time said that was, of necessity, quite common. People well up in years, who never had much education, couldn't be hired for the only blue collar jobs anywhere around, like coal mining, as it would kill or injure them. They stayed with the family of their own children, or other younger folks, and did what they could to help. And occasionally there might have been an Uncle Joe, who did as little as he thought he had to in order to keep the good food coming, and a roof and bed; and maybe still had delusions about himself and his potential for greatness and wealth.
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nitestar95
9 years ago
It wasn't as much out of place in time as you might think. Same as Beverly Hillbillies; there WERE plenty of very rural places that were way behind the cities in how people lived their lives. Stuff we take for granted, electricity, phone, gas and water piped into our houses, weren't universal back in the 60's. Still isn't in a lot of 3rd world countries! The train; no, steam wasn't still running on USA main railways, but foreign and tiny ones here in the USA still had them for several more decades! And you didn't just kick out your relatives; family was all important, and everyone took care of their own, even if they were good for nothings! (some of us still have those types in our families).
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JosephQCat (706)
3 years ago
Electricity was around but I was in many homes back then that only had a pot belly stove for heat and these were not small shacks. Dad's mother never drove therefore never owned a car. Some homes went without a telephone by choice. There was a place a few miles away that the patriarch supposedly only went to town once every few years. I remember diesel locomotives when we drove by factories back then. Diesel locomotives became common place after WWII born out of submarine technology so there was time for old engines to make their way out into the rural lines. Just about nothing was done by horses then which goes against what we saw on these shows typically.
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JosephQCat (706)
3 years ago
The Walton's was a different situation entirely. Grandpa and Grandma originally owned the property and more or less worked out an arrangement that if they were looked after then John and Olivia could take over. Grandpa loved his fishing and gossiping but when there was worked to be done he was there front and center. Uncle Joe was anything but industrious. I can only assume that relative to his claims as to being the manager of the Shady Rest that there was the smallest grain of truth in regards to having a solid financial interest in that hotel. I don't remember the origins as to how the Shady Rest came to be but if family owned the previous generation obviously recognized Kate as the responsible one. It was also most likely asked that Uncle Joe was to be looked out for. If not Uncle Joe most likely would have wound up in prison at some point as non family members would not have a sense of humor as to Joe's scheme's.
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