John Boy Walton, Where is MY Room?

If the mere sight of this:

...makes you start to long for calls of "Goodnight John Boy"...I get it.

Yep. I grew up under the illusion that I was half Walton. To this day, I'm pretty sure that MaryEllen is a long-lost sister and that Grandpa's land deed will eventually prove that I'm to inherit a piece of the mountain.

If you need more proof, just look at my childhood lunchbox. It holds a place of honor on my living room shelf.

Last week I visited Virginia for the first time. Along with a trip to Monticello, I couldn't help but visit the next most famous historical site. What else? Walton's Mountain...in non-t.v. land, that would be Schuyler, VA.

So here's my conundrum. I got to see the original "Waltons" (Hamner) house. Based on the television series, I assume that all the kids (7 on t.v., but 8 in real life), parents, and grandparents slept there. Real life = twelve people. Yet here's the real house:

Too cheap and in a hurry to tour the place, I'll take the word of fellow tourists that the place only had 3 bedrooms. So where did all twelve people sleep? As a half sister, I'd love to know!

So that's my math problem for the week:

3 bedrooms
divided by
2 grandparents
2 parents
8 kids

Do the math.
I don't think there's room for any half sisters.
Sigh.

P.S. A reader sent me a message that might explain more:
"My mother grew up in Tennessee/Georgia in the 1940s. They slept 3 to 4 kids per bed; living rooms had beds in them. There wasn't much leisure time, so you didn't need a "living room" or a sofa. She said you were either working at chores or sleeping!"