I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away

At the end, she comes back to Walnut Grove and reads a passage from Psalm at the church service.  Does anyone know what Psalm it was?  They showed this episode today and I caught the end but don't remember what she said.

Thanks!

It was Psalm 15. Here are the words:http://www.bartleby.com/108/19/15.html
Btw the title of this episode was "I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away".

I havent seen this one either! I really want to though and I plan on watching it soon!

This is a tough one to watch .....Pa and Ma's dispair and Marys loss of poise ....they tread a rough road for a while but again true spirit prevails and all ends well ....for a while lol

this was a sad episode! it was nice, though, to see that Mary still had spirit at the end of the episode

It was a sad episode

I have a couple of questions when I watch this episode. How long was Mary at the blind school in Burton? I'm guessing a couple of months, but I don't think it's ever stated. A bigger question: How did Charles and Caroline pay for it? At the time, Walnut Grove was a dying town, and Charles and Jonathan were struggling to find work. I'm just wondering how Charles and Caroline came up with the funds to send Mary to school, plus the train fares (for Charles and Mary on the way out, Charles on the way back, Charles and Caroline on the way out again, and all three on the way back), hotel fares, meals, etc. Times were tough just with day-to-day living. This must have been a big strain on their budget, yet I don't think it's mentioned at all.

Apparently Mary was at the blind school for many years, almost like going off to college to obtain a degree.......I am not sure how the series explains it, but in real life, Laura began teaching to help pay for Mary's tuition.....I would imagine in the series, the money for travel and hotel expenses came from donations from the towns people like when Mary got hurt in the barn from the spooked horse and needed surgery....the whole town chipped in.....

The way the TV show portrays Mary's progress al school always puzzled me. It takes a LOT of time to a blind person to learn all that Mary learned in some months. Maybe the show implies she studied there by years...but then, how did it happens that Grace was still the baby when Mary comes home and that Laura didn't grew up, either...? It's quite odd, I think.

Vanesa.

Ah, the miracle of television--condensing years worth of study down to a few months, which it must have been because Charles asked the Reverend Alden how he would tell his 15-year-old daughter she was going blind, and she celebrated her 16th birthday in Winoka.

I'm fairly certain we are left guessing how they came up with the money to send Mary to school.

Just chalk this one up to another writing inconsistency, I guess. There are other cases where many months or years pass, yet young characters don't age. For example, in "The Lord Is My Shepherd", Caroline finds out she's expecting and then Charles, Jr. is born, gets sick, and dies -- all before Laura runs away and climbs the mountain. The first part of this episode would have had to cover well over a year, while the second part covers apparently a couple of days, yet Laura doesn't age at all (and neither do Mary or Carrie for that matter). In another example, in "Bless All the Dear Children", Charles mentions a specifc year in which the episode takes place (1896, I think). That would have made Laura 29 years old, yet Nancy Oleson was still, what, 11 or 12 -- only a couple of years older than when she joined the series (season 8) and Laura was assumed to be about 18. Oh well. I still enjoy these episodes (and the entire series) despite these inconsistencies.

By the way, Rose must have been much older than she was in 1896...I'm almost sure that they meant 1886. It does much more sense that this ridicoulous 1896. Besides, Ma's and Pa's are dressed as it was usual in the late 1880's, not in the 1890's.

In 1896, Laura was not living in the Middle-West any more but in mansfield; Missouri...

But as you've said,I like the show all the same, even with those little inconsistencies.

Vanesa.

sad esp...t.v shows i guess can't always follow time lines.

I prefer that they don't usually do arc storylines but put the whole story into one episode. That makes it better for reruns, because it is not so important if an episode is out of order. Each episode is primarily self-contained, and I think that works well for this kind of show. Also, since it is a show also for children, perhaps it is easier for them to understand if it is all self-contained?

Back then long stroy arcs really didn't happen anyway. Even when Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman ran in the 90's they didn't do that much, though there were some references to past events from time to time.

I think it's hard, especially when you consider guest stars to create something of that nature for TV.

That's something I've noticed too -- the lack of story arcs in LHotP, when compared to more modern dramas, like 7th Heaven. I've recently discovered The Waltons (for some reason, I didn't watch it as a kid), watching the first season now, and it's similar to LHotP in that each episode is independent, with very little carrying over from one episode to the next. I wonder how much of that is the difference in the way TV shows were done in that era and how much of it is due to the type of show. LHotP and The Waltons are very similar, in that an adult (Laura in the case of LHotP and John Boy in the case of The Waltons) is looking back and remembering times from their younger days. Independent episodes make perfect sense for this type of show.

I wish at least they would of done few esp of of mary being in the bilnd school.

In some ways, I wish they had more story arcs, but for the purposes of re-runs, I kind of like that they don't arc too much, because that way you can just catch an episode here or there and it is like you have a complete thing all in that episode.

Least been nice maybe to do like 2 esp.but then she does go on to the blind school to teach so thats something.Not like she totally fades out.

I think they do sort of do story arcs, but maybe not so directly connected with other episodes. For example, the whole Laura loves Almanzo thing when Almanzo did not think of her romantically was a bit of a story arc for perhaps 1-2 seasons.

Yes, Laura's infatuation lasted a while, as did her pregnancy. Mary and John's relationship was a bit like that too.

But then of course Ma got pregnant, had a baby, and the baby died all in one episode! (although it was a 2-parter!)

Quote :

But then of course Ma got pregnant, had a baby, and the baby died all in one episode! (although it was a 2-parter!)

Yeah, and then the exact same thing happened to Laura in "A Child With No Name".

After Charles said goodbye to Mary at the school for the blind, Adam told her what time supper will be and told her she may as well unpack her bag and she said she can't and he said you are here to learn, you may as well start now and after she got her bag off her bed, she walked over to the dresser, there was a mirror. Made no sense having a mirror when it's a school for the blind. I think Melissa Sue did her best work when she went blind on the show.