The Saturday Evening Post magazine seen on the coffee table at the Thomas family house is the March 19, 1938 issue, with cover illustration titled Tax Deadline, painted by John Newton Howitt. (The episode is supposed to take place in 1934.)
The literary works that John-Boy reads to Ruth are "The Eagle," an 1851 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and an excerpt from Act I of "The Importance of Being Earnest," an 1895 play by Oscar Wilde.