Andy of Mayberry

A fairly long time back, our family used to drive from Michigan to Pinehurst, NC every spring to play golf for a week.  It was pretty much of a two day drive just because there was no direct way. The Interstate system as we know it now was just a twinkling.  The famous I-75, the Midwest express route to Florida, wasn't remotely complete and 200 miles east of that were long stretches of clogged two lane roads.

One day out in the drive was a town at the end of the West Virginia turnpike called Fancy Gap and  we stayed there year after year.  What followed was a horrible 50 mile drive through the mountains that was only safe in broad daylight.  We joked about the area, its primitive feel, the characters encountered and town names; Fancy Gap, Cana, the road branching off to Ararat and of course the big town of Mt. Airy.

Mt. Airy was recognizable as it was mentioned often on the Andy Griffith Show.  We joked that the non-existent Mayberry was really Mt. Airy or any number of towns passed through and it could have been. If you stopped for breakfast anywhere along the line it would have been at place with red and white checkerboard tablecloths with Aunt Bee sitting at a corner booth.

Andy of Mayberry died about a decade ago right about now..  By all accounts he was a pretty decent, stand up guy and no one has come out with any juicy tabloid stuff (yet).  That is pretty rare for Hollywood types but perhaps not so much from folks from that era.  I don't know. To be sure it is pretty near 70 years since I first heard of him. 

Dayton, Ohio. Late Summer. Front porches. Listening to our one radio. Too hot to be inside so we sat on a porch like we saw people do a decade later in Fancy Gap and Mt. Airy. Sheets on the clothesline. Rockers rocking.  Kids with fishing poles.