On Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, I tuned into “The Waltons,” a popular television program now in reruns.

John-Boy Walton, one of the stars, was about20 and a publisher of a small local newspaper. The time was May 1937. He had arranged to go to Lakehurst, N.J., to report on the arrival of the Hindenburg, which was starting air service from Germany, quite a newsworthy event.