I’m thinking about moving to Mayberry. I’ve been vacationing
there for years, retreating through random episodes of The Andy Griffith Show on the DVR whenever I’ve needed a different
time or place or sense or pace. But lately, in the turbulent world of 2017
America, with no where to turn for news and fewer and fewer places to go for entertainment,
I find myself going to Mayberry more and more – whenever I’m walking on the
treadmill, for example, or sorting socks, or doing any number of mundane
household tasks. There is something about Mayberry that is comforting and
reassuring and stands in stark contrast with the modern world.
But, you may say, Mayberry doesn’t exist – and it never did exist. It’s a figment of someone’s
imagination. I know, I know, but now it is also a permanent fixture of mine.
I suppose the main thing I love about Mayberry is its people.
They’re all characters in every sense of the word. I credit The Andy Griffith Show, along with Mark
Twain, Harper Lee, and a few others, with my lifelong delight in quirky characters.
And every character in Mayberry is mostly good.
Who could be more honorable and empathetic than Sheriff Taylor?
More domestically talented than Aunt Bee? More innocent than Opie? More
dedicated and well-meaning than Barney Fife? More long-suffering than Thelma Lou?
More devoted than Helen Crump?
Even the show’s troublemakers are endearing, like Otis
Campbell, the town drunk who lets himself into jail whenever he’s had too much
moonshine. Or Ernest T. Bass, the
hillbilly who throws rocks through windows to announce his arrival in town.
I’d like to sit on the Taylor’s porch on a summer evening
and listen to Andy play his guitar. I’d like to go to Wally’s Filling Station
to buy a bottle of soda and say hey to Goober. And I would be delighted to get a ticket for
jaywalking from Deputy Barney Fife.
I never saw The Andy
Griffith Show on primetime television, but watched it years later in after-school
reruns sandwiched between Gilligan’s
Island and Leave It to Beaver. Maybe
that’s why Mayberry so imprinted on my brain. I must associate it with
after-school snacks and perfect peace.
People often complain about the effects of television on
young people’s minds, and I would agree that most kids watch too much TV and
the vast majority of programs on television are not worth watching, but I am grateful
that I paid attention to The Andy Griffith
Show. Even as a child, I sensed that it was idealistic, but what is wrong with
focusing on the ideal? The ideal may serve as a model for the real.
When the world of 2017 feels inhospitable, even acidic at
times, join me in cueing up an episode of The Andy
Griffith Show and feel the stress of modern living melt away.
