Archive: Opinions

Last week there was no Lansing Star because we closed shop and spent a week in North Carolina.  We did escape the snow, but not the cold.  But that was good enough.  You know those articles where the authors say they avoided smart phones and any online existence for a week and how great they felt  doing it?  We also escaped the news last week, and while we didn't abandon our phones, we more or less ignored the news.  It did feel great, especially in these startling times.

We spent a day in Mayberry, which was a great way to recover from the news.  Sure it is a real town where real people live and have the same joys and sorrows we all have.  But it is also a time that celebrates a bucolic past when the most serious problems in the world were things like how to get Ernest T. Bass to stop courting the attractive Charlene Darling, who is already has a husband named Dud.  Or all the failed attempts to keep Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife from shooting his gun into the floor (or his foot -- he is a good lesson on why not to allow firearms in schools).

Mayberry, as you probably know, is the fictional North Carolina town that was the setting for The Andy Griffith Show.  The town and many of the locations were based on Griffith's home town of Mount Airy, NC, about an hour northwest of Greensboro.  Mount Airy is a real town, but the lines between reality and the fantasy of Mayberry are blurred.  The town embraces the fame it receives, with many businesses named for characters in the show like Opie's Candy Store, or Barney's Cafe.  Floyd's Barber Shop still offers men's haircuts for a quarter (a sign on the window explains that the haircut only costs a quarter, but the tax is $9.75).  You can take a tour of Mount Airy in Andy's Sheriff's car.  And remember the Darlings?  The mountain family's truck and a recreation of their cabin is on the premises, too.


The real life Wally's gas station is a bit out of the downtown area, and is now a gift shop.  The Wally's in the show was based on this real one.  That's where Gomer Pyle worked until he left to join the Marines and his cousin Goober took over for him.  The owners have also recreated Andy's office, complete with the two cells and a hook between them for the keys so town drunk Otis Campbell could let himself in when he needed to recover from a bender.  It is perfect for posing for pictures (we did).  The vintage tow truck outside Wally's has 'Goober says "Hey"' on it.

There is also a museum with memorabilia from Griffith's life and from the show.  Out on the sidewalk is a statue, donated by TV Land, of Andy and Opie Taylor with their fishing poles, just as they looked in the signature opening credits before each episode.

Griffith didn't forget about his roots.  He was very supportive of the his home town, and contributed generously to the community, including items in the displays.  He (and CBS) don't seem to have had any problem with the various businesses appropriating character names and show locations.  The folks in the shops liked to talk about the show, and to inform us that Betty Lynn, who played Barney Fife's girl friend Thelma Lou from 1960 to 1965, liked Mount Airy so well that she moved there from North Hollywood, and she is a very nice 92 year old lady.
 

All the bad news didn't go away last week.  People still died from that storm -- in fact we passed police barriers on the drive down where huge trees had been knocked over by the wind.  I don't even know who President trump fired that week!

But it felt awfully good to act as if none of it was happening, if only for an afternoon.  Surrendering to the tourism of it was sublime, and I can report that a lot of the stress we all suffer in our overly politicized, fake news, tweety real lives simply drained away as I sat at the local soda fountain (yes, a real one with floats and sundaes) talking to the proprietor about how low his property taxes are, and how the snow up north is something he never wants to see.

It is an easier version of life, idealized, and certainly separate from real life.  But it's awfully attractive to turn off your cell phone, and to quote the lyrics of the Andy Griffith Show theme song -- yes, didn't you know there are lyrics? --

Well, now, take down your fishin' pole and meet me at the fishin' hole,
We may not get a bite all day, but don't you rush away.

What a great place to rest your bones and mighty fine for skippin' stones,
You'll feel fresh as a lemonade, a-settin' in the shade.

"Whether it's hot, whether it's cool, oh what a spot for whistlin' like a fool.

What a fine day to take a stroll and wander by the fishin' hole,
I can't think of a better way to pass the time o' day.

We'll have no need to call the roll when we get to the fishin' hole,
There'll be you, me, and Old Dog Trey, to doodle time away.

If we don't hook a perch or bass, we'll cool our toes in dewy grass,
Or else pull up a weed to chaw, and maybe set and jaw.

Hangin' around, takin' our ease, watchin' that hound a-scratchin' at his fleas.

Come on, take down your fishin' pole and meet me at the fishin' hole,
I can't think of a better way to pass the time o' day."

-- by Everett Sloane, Earle Hagen, Herbert Spencer

Or you can just whistle it.  What better place to do all that than Mayberry?


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