61 years of Mayberry
BE OUR G
UEST
KEN ANDERSON “THE MAYBERRY GURU”
In just a few weeks, I will be celebrating my 75th birthday. Sixty-one of those years I have spent watching The Andy Griffith Show. Some people still ask me what is so appealing about an old black and white television program. So I thought I would share what it is I see when I watch The Andy Griffith Show
and what makes it so special to me.
When I see Andy and Opie sitting on their front porch having one of the father and son talks, I see the father I never had. When I see Ellie Walker behind the soda fountain at Walker’s Drug Store, I see Mr. and Mrs. Weix behind the soda fountain at the drug store I visited many times during my childhood. When I see Floyd cutting hair and talking with the town cronies, I see myself sitting in Vircks’ Barber Shop listening to the men talking while I am reading comic books.
When I see Miss Crump telling Opie that he should go outside and play football rather than studying, I see my seventh and eighth-grade teacher, Mr. Elden. I recall riding home with him after we played a basketball game against Athens. He was laughing and encouraging us by saying we would do better next time. We had just lost 88-0. The referee stopped the game after the third quarter. For back then, basketball for kids was just a game. A game we played for fun and not for trophies.
When I see Mr. Foley working in his little grocery store, I remember Mr. Krueger, who rigged a contest in his grocery store in Dorchester, so a little boy would win a brand new baseball outfit. That little boy happened to be me. Mr. Krueger knew my family did not have the money to buy me such things.
When I see Opie and his friends fishing at Meyer’s Lake or playing in Crouch’s Woods, I see my friends and me fishing at the old Mill Pond in Dorchester or playing in Rau’s woods outside of town.
These are the things I see whenever I visit Mayberry, for, like little Opie Taylor, I was very fortunate to have grown up in a small town at a time when life was much simpler. My life back then was far from being idealistic, yet I would not have wanted to grow up in any other place or any other time.
I just finished a novel, The Shortest Journey, by Hazel Holt, and I will share a quote from her book. “Memories are the most important things we have when we grow old. We must treat them with care so that they will last out our lives.”
I understand that I have a selective memory. I choose to remember the good times and friends that are long gone, but I also choose to toss out the bad memories. Why hang on to those bad memories that only cause sadness when I can keep the good memories that bring me so much joy?
Ken Anderson, the “Mayberry Guru,” can be reached at themayberryguru@gmail.com and www.themayberryguru. com
