Mom left when I was 5, my brother was 2. Dad never remarried & we always had an Aunt Bea that loved us. Dad was a hard worker & provided well. Looking back, we lived the Andy Griffith show. My brother & I reconnected with mom when I was 18 & she found out I'd joined the Navy. We became best friends so that all worked out. I had an awesome family. My dad's parents lived 2 doors away on a very small farm. Ms. Champion couldn't have been more like Aunt Bea. Dad took us fishing at Captain Anderson's in Panama City & Six Flags over Georgia yearly. We camped & lake fished often. All the neighbor kids were jealous of us & always hung out at our house.
Dad did people's taxes every spring. An old NCR adding machine. Our dining room became a tax office for 2 months a year. $3 short form, $7 long. He was Mr. George to the neighbors. Shannon First Baptist every Sunday. I still have rewards for not missing.
I've seen every Andy show 100+ times. It's no wonder I connect with them all so well. I lived it.
I always wished I could live in Mayberry, now more than ever. I love Andy Griffith too. And you, Sean Dietrich. I pray that you know you matter to LOTS of someones.
My childhood friends and I were just discussing this…no locked doors…we even went inside to leave a package or plate of food on the table if friend or family were not there.
The scenes that inspire me on Andy Griffith are the evening talks on the front porch, especially when Andy picked up his guitar.
When I was a kid (late ‘60s/early ‘70s), I overheard my mother and a neighbor say people stopped gathering on the front porch in the evenings after everybody got air conditioning.
The weather is cooling off by southern Georgia standards and my front porch is calling me.
Amen, amen. I miss those front porches. I miss that sense of community, even if everybody didn't like everybody else. (The kids got along. We thought the grownups were dumb to get so bent outa shape over nothing.) I miss fireflies; don't see them much anymore. I was outside all the time, day and night. I grew up without TV or AC. I can't recall it ever being too hot (although there were times when it was too cold - it snowed at least once every year) to go out and pop tar bubbles on the street. LOL!!! To be cooler, we played in the concrete culvert system that ran under the street as part of the neighborhood water drainage system. Good times.
That’s interesting about the air conditioner. I have a friend who opines that families began drifting apart with central heating. He remembers how in the winter his whole family sat around the wood stove with their respective projects or books. I thought it had some logic to it.
No Susie, unfortunately, you have been so mislead in your life, that you choose to believe the fictions that the PTB have been dishing out to the masses for over a Century.
You are apparently among the "Useful Idiots" (a Term coined by Lenin) who, when "they" achieve their goal of making slaves/dependents of those left alive on this planet, will be discarded as no longer useful to them. The Culling has especially been advanced in the last few years. I presume, you also took the Shot?
Out of Habit, you fall for the majority of their deceptions, including Bankrupting all of whom are NOT one of the chosen Elite. You fail to see the Truth, even though it's placed before you on a daily basis.
Regardless, I'm still Praying for you and yours, and that you will see the Light before it's too late! the time is coming Soon! Jesus is Coming!!!
I was fortunate to be in the small audience when Andy came to Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill to donate his personal collection and guitar. He sang a couple of songs while accompanying himself on his guitar and spoke briefly. His stipulation for donating his guitar was that it be played regularly. He was just as I knew him as Sheriff Andy Taylor and Matlock.
I’ve watched untold episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. I finally reaped the rewards from all that TV last Saturday when I skunked three other players in three rounds of the Mayberry trivia game!!! 😂
Sometimes we just need to go "back" and all you need are your memories and a great tv...plus lots of really good snacks. Glad you got to visit your hero and his town.
If I'm not mistaken they are having Mayberry Days this weekend in Mt. Arey NC. They have it every year. I've only been once and it was a lot of fun. Campers, old cars, and bluegrass music.
I read it going on this weekend or next. I only live about 75 miles from there so I'm not sure on my dates. It's a great down with the memories of Mayberry and Snappy Lunch etc. Those porch chop sandwich are good .
My husband and I will ultimately find ourselves watching Andy Griffith reruns most evenings after scrolling through 100+ channels of nonsense. We are always left with a smile on our face. Just like when we read.your stories.
I can relate in a few ways my dear friend me and my mom would watch old tv reruns together and when she was gone it took me awhile to be able to watch them again but in time I finally did and watching our old tv reruns my smile once again appeared on my face I was happy and I didn’t feel so alone anymore and reading your heartfelt stories always puts a smile on my face along as in my heart and for that I thank you my dear friend what a treasure you are 🙏
Those were some great shows. I agree with you about American TV. It’s terrible. I’ve been streaming British television for over ten years and I’ve developed some of the same fondness for characters that I did as a child watching reruns. Sometimes we need a break from reality. Escaping to another time or place can be nice.
Yes to Midsomer Murders. Hubby likes murder mysteries, I watch with him because of the cute English villages and cottage homes. The villages have that “small community vibe” where everyone knows everyone (like Mayberry), except with murder thrown in. 🤦♀️
Gigi, I think many of the Midsomer episodes are filmed in the Cotswolds. The villages are exactly as you describe and the people are extremely kind and welcoming. They’ll even put the kettle on for you 😉
Yes, I like that show, too. I would have to say that All Creatures Great and Small is my favorite. I love Father Brown, too. I also really enjoy Vera, in terms of murder mysteries. I vacationed in England last year at this time. Stayed in Grassington, where they film All Creatures. Hiked throughout the Yorkshire Dales, as well. The locals were the nicest folks I’ve ever met while on vacation.
We love ACGAS !!! The “old” version was fantastic!! I couldn’t imagine them making a new series from it, but oh my !!!! The new series is AMAZING!!!!!! I have to say, the new series is my favorite, but I still dearly love the old series too. I’ll agree with you in that ACGAS is my favorite.
Sounds like you had a wonderful trip to England !!! I’d love to go back. When we were there, we were with a tour group and were based in London, with day trips to Windsor, Oxford, and Strattford upon Avon. It was a wonderful trip, but I’ve always wanted to go back to see the Cotswolds & Yorkshire Dales. Hopefully someday.
The old version was great! I periodically go back and watch an episode or two, but I completely agree with you about the new series. It is absolute magic. They have done a wonderful job with it and to stand in those same spots where the actors have been, to see the storefronts that are changed during filming, etc., is so enjoyable. Some have were a bit difficult to figure out, but I finally realized the front “porch” of the house/veterinary clinic, had been completely revamped for filming. I could live there!!!
You brought something to mind today that’s been locked away for years. I remember walking to Riverside Park after a bad day at school to the River lookout. From that peaceful, quiet view in early Fall, I could see the James River, the railroad trestle across the river into Amherst County, and in the distance, Tobacco Row Mountain. There, I could think and try to understand the overwhelming uncertainty and loss of my parent’s pending divorce. In those days 70 years ago, divorce was a big deal, a scandal, something that people whispered about behind your back. They avoided you because somehow you were now different…almost branded. Devastating loneliness, which over time, I think, hardened me and strengthened me to stand on my own. I don’t pull that out and look at it very often. Today I did, and I put some words to it. At age 78, you are teaching me that it’s okay to put words to my life, my experiences and my feelings. Thanks!
Wonderful piece today. I am nearly 30 years older than Sean, but we watched the same tv shows! And today we don't watch the same ones too. When I was an assistant principal at a public school, a 4th grader brought a plastic spoon from the cafeteria to recess. The play yard was perched uphill from a faculty parking lot and this little mischief maker fired a stone from his spoon-catapult into the lot, and randomly hit my car, shattering my back window. That night he confessed his "crime" to his dad who marched him to the principal's office the next morning. I was called in so that the culprit could confess in person. He tried to get his dad to speak the words, but dad said, "Oh no. You did it, you apologize." The lad did and said he would pay for the shattered window with his birthday money. As we were dispersing, I complimented the father on his handling of the situation. He said, "I try to parent like Andy Griffith did. It is as simple as that."
Andy Taylor was a model dad. Too bad more children don't have one like him. He taught ethics, honesty, standing up for oneself and sharing. More kids today should be so lucky. And the TV show always had a great moral to it at the end..... like Leave it to Beaver! 😊
Between Ginger, Thelma Lou and Jennie (Barben Eden) my heart was taken early in my childhood. My nightmare was all of them meeting and turning to the screen and telling me I had to pick one. Thank goodness I never had to pick.
Marshall Dillon kept the streets safe just like I did with my cap gun. I didn't ride a horse, but I patrolled on my bicycle down the gravel road and did my best to keep things safe.
We also got the three channels that came on at six am and I was told they went off at midnight, but I never made it to that time. Having three women to juggle plus keeping the area safe meant I went to bed with the chickens.
Howdy Sean and happy #!@^ Monday to all yall. Good lick Sean. I think that one of the reasons that the A.G. show was and is so popular is that it reminds us of a time in America when life was good, when people were good. The image created by that show is a fading beacon of what our country was. I miss it.
Actually, there are a lot of good people - and I"m sure you don't mean to imply there aren't. You just got me thinking. Sean writes about them all the time. The human race is oriented towards positivity, and that makes for people with attitudes like Mayberry's world, and we won't go into how all of that gets corrupted. And they do still exist as the basic bedrock of this nation. The "WE, the PEOPLE" are them, and they are us. Pogo was right. Then there are those aberrant unfortunates who don't know that world. Some find it and learn. Just as in Mayberry, it depends on strong ("toxic"? LOL) males and strong, nurturing and upright women to set limits and make sure they're adhered to. There is a magic word that works better than most understand: No.
A lot of people feel the same about you too. Feel like we have known you forever and even walked in you shoes a few times. Memories are great to fall back on sometimes, and you revive them!
I'm coming up on 5 yrs my hero(husband)has been gone. He watched Andy everyday that last month or two, and I was blessed to see him smile. He would love this story. ❤️
Oh the memories on this one! The Darlings and their musical get togethers, Otis Campbell returning to his comfy jail cell and Barney’s “nip it in the bud” are just a few funny highlights I remember. Mayberry and Andy Griffith brought daily enjoyment into the homes and still do! How nice to have people and a place like this to escape to ……many times a need and often therapeutic! Wish more TV today were like that! Thank goodness for reruns and writers who remember!
Mom left when I was 5, my brother was 2. Dad never remarried & we always had an Aunt Bea that loved us. Dad was a hard worker & provided well. Looking back, we lived the Andy Griffith show. My brother & I reconnected with mom when I was 18 & she found out I'd joined the Navy. We became best friends so that all worked out. I had an awesome family. My dad's parents lived 2 doors away on a very small farm. Ms. Champion couldn't have been more like Aunt Bea. Dad took us fishing at Captain Anderson's in Panama City & Six Flags over Georgia yearly. We camped & lake fished often. All the neighbor kids were jealous of us & always hung out at our house.
Dad did people's taxes every spring. An old NCR adding machine. Our dining room became a tax office for 2 months a year. $3 short form, $7 long. He was Mr. George to the neighbors. Shannon First Baptist every Sunday. I still have rewards for not missing.
I've seen every Andy show 100+ times. It's no wonder I connect with them all so well. I lived it.
You were a fortunate child to have such love all around you. Plus the icing on the cake is you forgave your mom. You are a good person.
I always wished I could live in Mayberry, now more than ever. I love Andy Griffith too. And you, Sean Dietrich. I pray that you know you matter to LOTS of someones.
Did you ever notice that no one locked their doors when they left home?
My childhood friends and I were just discussing this…no locked doors…we even went inside to leave a package or plate of food on the table if friend or family were not there.
Paul, that's the way it was when I was a child, too. sigh, how times have changed...
Yep, can't do that anymore. 😡🙄
Retreating to a simpler time…
The scenes that inspire me on Andy Griffith are the evening talks on the front porch, especially when Andy picked up his guitar.
When I was a kid (late ‘60s/early ‘70s), I overheard my mother and a neighbor say people stopped gathering on the front porch in the evenings after everybody got air conditioning.
The weather is cooling off by southern Georgia standards and my front porch is calling me.
Amen, amen. I miss those front porches. I miss that sense of community, even if everybody didn't like everybody else. (The kids got along. We thought the grownups were dumb to get so bent outa shape over nothing.) I miss fireflies; don't see them much anymore. I was outside all the time, day and night. I grew up without TV or AC. I can't recall it ever being too hot (although there were times when it was too cold - it snowed at least once every year) to go out and pop tar bubbles on the street. LOL!!! To be cooler, we played in the concrete culvert system that ran under the street as part of the neighborhood water drainage system. Good times.
Come to Suwanee. We have fireflies galore. But we also have hot rod races up and down every available road
That’s interesting about the air conditioner. I have a friend who opines that families began drifting apart with central heating. He remembers how in the winter his whole family sat around the wood stove with their respective projects or books. I thought it had some logic to it.
Well, it's only going to get hotter, people, so unless you enclose your front porch with air conditioning, those days are gone.
Only if you've Fallen for the WEF-NWO Global Warming Hoax!
Read more "Truth" a ClimateDepot.com!
Oh, poor Bruce, you are so far behind what's actually happening You are one of the few.
No Susie, unfortunately, you have been so mislead in your life, that you choose to believe the fictions that the PTB have been dishing out to the masses for over a Century.
You are apparently among the "Useful Idiots" (a Term coined by Lenin) who, when "they" achieve their goal of making slaves/dependents of those left alive on this planet, will be discarded as no longer useful to them. The Culling has especially been advanced in the last few years. I presume, you also took the Shot?
Out of Habit, you fall for the majority of their deceptions, including Bankrupting all of whom are NOT one of the chosen Elite. You fail to see the Truth, even though it's placed before you on a daily basis.
Regardless, I'm still Praying for you and yours, and that you will see the Light before it's too late! the time is coming Soon! Jesus is Coming!!!
I was fortunate to be in the small audience when Andy came to Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill to donate his personal collection and guitar. He sang a couple of songs while accompanying himself on his guitar and spoke briefly. His stipulation for donating his guitar was that it be played regularly. He was just as I knew him as Sheriff Andy Taylor and Matlock.
I’ve watched untold episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. I finally reaped the rewards from all that TV last Saturday when I skunked three other players in three rounds of the Mayberry trivia game!!! 😂
Sometimes we just need to go "back" and all you need are your memories and a great tv...plus lots of really good snacks. Glad you got to visit your hero and his town.
Peace and Love to All from Birmingham 🙏💜📺
If I'm not mistaken they are having Mayberry Days this weekend in Mt. Arey NC. They have it every year. I've only been once and it was a lot of fun. Campers, old cars, and bluegrass music.
I read it going on this weekend or next. I only live about 75 miles from there so I'm not sure on my dates. It's a great down with the memories of Mayberry and Snappy Lunch etc. Those porch chop sandwich are good .
My husband and I will ultimately find ourselves watching Andy Griffith reruns most evenings after scrolling through 100+ channels of nonsense. We are always left with a smile on our face. Just like when we read.your stories.
I can relate in a few ways my dear friend me and my mom would watch old tv reruns together and when she was gone it took me awhile to be able to watch them again but in time I finally did and watching our old tv reruns my smile once again appeared on my face I was happy and I didn’t feel so alone anymore and reading your heartfelt stories always puts a smile on my face along as in my heart and for that I thank you my dear friend what a treasure you are 🙏
Those were some great shows. I agree with you about American TV. It’s terrible. I’ve been streaming British television for over ten years and I’ve developed some of the same fondness for characters that I did as a child watching reruns. Sometimes we need a break from reality. Escaping to another time or place can be nice.
Midsomer Murders is my fav. Of course that "manners" series about some titled family- can't recall the name. Gadfael, about a 9th century (?) monk.
Yes to Midsomer Murders. Hubby likes murder mysteries, I watch with him because of the cute English villages and cottage homes. The villages have that “small community vibe” where everyone knows everyone (like Mayberry), except with murder thrown in. 🤦♀️
Gigi, I think many of the Midsomer episodes are filmed in the Cotswolds. The villages are exactly as you describe and the people are extremely kind and welcoming. They’ll even put the kettle on for you 😉
Yes, I like that show, too. I would have to say that All Creatures Great and Small is my favorite. I love Father Brown, too. I also really enjoy Vera, in terms of murder mysteries. I vacationed in England last year at this time. Stayed in Grassington, where they film All Creatures. Hiked throughout the Yorkshire Dales, as well. The locals were the nicest folks I’ve ever met while on vacation.
We love ACGAS !!! The “old” version was fantastic!! I couldn’t imagine them making a new series from it, but oh my !!!! The new series is AMAZING!!!!!! I have to say, the new series is my favorite, but I still dearly love the old series too. I’ll agree with you in that ACGAS is my favorite.
Sounds like you had a wonderful trip to England !!! I’d love to go back. When we were there, we were with a tour group and were based in London, with day trips to Windsor, Oxford, and Strattford upon Avon. It was a wonderful trip, but I’ve always wanted to go back to see the Cotswolds & Yorkshire Dales. Hopefully someday.
The old version was great! I periodically go back and watch an episode or two, but I completely agree with you about the new series. It is absolute magic. They have done a wonderful job with it and to stand in those same spots where the actors have been, to see the storefronts that are changed during filming, etc., is so enjoyable. Some have were a bit difficult to figure out, but I finally realized the front “porch” of the house/veterinary clinic, had been completely revamped for filming. I could live there!!!
Yes, they have done a marvelous job with it !! ❤️
You brought something to mind today that’s been locked away for years. I remember walking to Riverside Park after a bad day at school to the River lookout. From that peaceful, quiet view in early Fall, I could see the James River, the railroad trestle across the river into Amherst County, and in the distance, Tobacco Row Mountain. There, I could think and try to understand the overwhelming uncertainty and loss of my parent’s pending divorce. In those days 70 years ago, divorce was a big deal, a scandal, something that people whispered about behind your back. They avoided you because somehow you were now different…almost branded. Devastating loneliness, which over time, I think, hardened me and strengthened me to stand on my own. I don’t pull that out and look at it very often. Today I did, and I put some words to it. At age 78, you are teaching me that it’s okay to put words to my life, my experiences and my feelings. Thanks!
Wonderful piece today. I am nearly 30 years older than Sean, but we watched the same tv shows! And today we don't watch the same ones too. When I was an assistant principal at a public school, a 4th grader brought a plastic spoon from the cafeteria to recess. The play yard was perched uphill from a faculty parking lot and this little mischief maker fired a stone from his spoon-catapult into the lot, and randomly hit my car, shattering my back window. That night he confessed his "crime" to his dad who marched him to the principal's office the next morning. I was called in so that the culprit could confess in person. He tried to get his dad to speak the words, but dad said, "Oh no. You did it, you apologize." The lad did and said he would pay for the shattered window with his birthday money. As we were dispersing, I complimented the father on his handling of the situation. He said, "I try to parent like Andy Griffith did. It is as simple as that."
Andy Taylor was a model dad. Too bad more children don't have one like him. He taught ethics, honesty, standing up for oneself and sharing. More kids today should be so lucky. And the TV show always had a great moral to it at the end..... like Leave it to Beaver! 😊
Between Ginger, Thelma Lou and Jennie (Barben Eden) my heart was taken early in my childhood. My nightmare was all of them meeting and turning to the screen and telling me I had to pick one. Thank goodness I never had to pick.
Marshall Dillon kept the streets safe just like I did with my cap gun. I didn't ride a horse, but I patrolled on my bicycle down the gravel road and did my best to keep things safe.
We also got the three channels that came on at six am and I was told they went off at midnight, but I never made it to that time. Having three women to juggle plus keeping the area safe meant I went to bed with the chickens.
Howdy Sean and happy #!@^ Monday to all yall. Good lick Sean. I think that one of the reasons that the A.G. show was and is so popular is that it reminds us of a time in America when life was good, when people were good. The image created by that show is a fading beacon of what our country was. I miss it.
Peace
Actually, there are a lot of good people - and I"m sure you don't mean to imply there aren't. You just got me thinking. Sean writes about them all the time. The human race is oriented towards positivity, and that makes for people with attitudes like Mayberry's world, and we won't go into how all of that gets corrupted. And they do still exist as the basic bedrock of this nation. The "WE, the PEOPLE" are them, and they are us. Pogo was right. Then there are those aberrant unfortunates who don't know that world. Some find it and learn. Just as in Mayberry, it depends on strong ("toxic"? LOL) males and strong, nurturing and upright women to set limits and make sure they're adhered to. There is a magic word that works better than most understand: No.
A lot of people feel the same about you too. Feel like we have known you forever and even walked in you shoes a few times. Memories are great to fall back on sometimes, and you revive them!
The emotional depth of chicken salad 😂😂😂😂 Yes Sean, Yes! Beautiful article. I couldn’t agree with it or love it more!
I'm coming up on 5 yrs my hero(husband)has been gone. He watched Andy everyday that last month or two, and I was blessed to see him smile. He would love this story. ❤️
Oh the memories on this one! The Darlings and their musical get togethers, Otis Campbell returning to his comfy jail cell and Barney’s “nip it in the bud” are just a few funny highlights I remember. Mayberry and Andy Griffith brought daily enjoyment into the homes and still do! How nice to have people and a place like this to escape to ……many times a need and often therapeutic! Wish more TV today were like that! Thank goodness for reruns and writers who remember!