Small town changes

We are now well into summer, so my wife and I are again busy with my role as The Mayberry Guru. We don't participate in as many car shows and parades as we once did, but we still manage to visit with hundreds of people each week. And I continue to marvel at how many people still say, 'I wish I could live in Mayberry.'

As I continue to do my Mayberry activities and watch the reruns of The Andy Griffith Show, I have been paying closer attention to how the lives and places in my life have changed since that magical town of Mayberry was first introduced to television viewers on October 1, 1960.

Over the past sixty years, we have lost many vital parts of America. Technology, consumerism, and political division have robbed American life of its former simplicity. Each time I watch The Andy Griffith Show, I see aspects of life in America's small towns that are no longer with us. Mayberry was like thousands of small towns scattered throughout our great country. I have lived in five small towns, each with a population of less than a thousand, and I have seen major changes in each.

Gone is the once familiar Main Street, home to 'mom-and-pop' grocery stores, barbershops, drug stores with soda fountains, and numerous other businesses vital to small-town life. Many small towns have also lost their schools, which, for many years, served as the center of community activities. And now, rather than seeing open yards, homes are frequently encased by high fences.

Being the nostalgic, sentimental person I am, it is sometimes difficult to accept all these changes. It probably shouldn't bother me, except that the changes come about so quickly. Nowadays, nothing stays the same for very long. So when I begin to get in a sentimental mood, I once again watch The Andy Griffith Show. No matter how often I revisit Mayberry, I can be assured that very few things have changed. I will see the same people and places that became so iconic more than sixty years ago.

I know the feeling of peace and calm will most likely only last for the duration of The Andy Griffith Show, and then I will have to return to life in the real world again. But at least for a little while, I can have my much-needed escape from reality and the hectic pace of 2024.

Please take a moment and visit me at my website at www.themayberryguru. com

BE OUR

G UEST

BY

KEN ANDERSON “THE MAYBERRY GURU”