Flap in the back

Wearing dungarees and long johns have never really been fashionable, well not at least since the 1930's.

Then it was a necessity borne out of the need for a durable set of working clothes in the former and an item of clothing that you could live in all day and sleep in all night in the latter. In fact keeping to such attire meant that you did not have to waste any time at all changing clothes or washing over 24-7.

The lead singer of Dexy's Midnight Runners toyed with dungarees during their short prominence in pop but I do not recall any of my contemporaries rushing out to buy a pair and follow in that particular fashion unlike trying to imitate Bowie, Gary Numan or Wham. Long Johns do have some appeal and even today the trend for onesies may be seen as a modern version but without the button up bum flap or flies.

These two items of clothing were of course very American and a bit brash for the UK market and so the only exposure to the style would be through the TV screen and imported stateside programmes.

In the 1970's the new wave of US shows were still few and far between unlike current scheduling which give the impression of this country as a satellite 51st State.

One particular favourite in our house in my formative years was The Waltons.

This is not to be confused with the sextuplets from Liverpool some years later but the fictional family from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. The TV show, a bit of an early transatlantic soap opera, started out in its home country in 1972 and ran for 9 years. It was a regular broadcast I seem to remember on BBC2 on a monday or tuesday night and one that we all made sure we watched.

It was a gentle drama centred on a country-living family in a slap-board house with a saw mill business in an idyllic location but did cover many subjects of friction in family life and particularly so for the austere period of the Depression and leading up to the second world war.

The Head of the Waltons was John snr played by the actor Ralph Waite.

He was a great wearer of the aforementioned dungarees and long johns and with a lot of style and grace at least from monday to saturday with the only break for sunday best at church.

I was sad to hear that Ralph Waite passed away just this week at the age of 85.

It was a bit of a coincidence in that Cliffhanger, the movie had been shown on TV the same day in which he starred alongside Sylvester Stallone as a mild mannered and creatively talented mountain rescue helicopter pilot. This was a departure from his usual roles and certainly from the kind and steady patriarchal figure of John Walton who held together his large family in a moral and responsible way that struck a cord with my own privileged upbringing with loving parents and nearly as many siblings.

The closing scene in every weekly programme was a chorus of "Good Night" amongst all of the children, parents and the grandparents and we ourselves often adopted the same practice under our own roof. It could go on for some time and be a little bit tiresome but ultimately comforting and reassuring.

In his own life Ralph Waite admitted to struggling with alcoholism which impacted on his own family but overcame the addiction to develop political ambitions. This included an unsuccessful attempt to become a Democrat Governor for his home area and a further campaign to take over the Congressional seat of the late Sony Bono but again with no success.

Even though The Waltons TV show ended in 1981 the was enough popularity and demand to entice the cast into a series of Specials up until 1997. In the later years of his career he appeared as a supporting character in the NCIS crime series.

I will remember him with some fondness for the sentiment of his fatherly figure in The Waltons and for all that programme inspired in me and my family at the time and for many years afterwards. As for the dungarees and Long Johns, well they will be remembered also.