When I travel I love to meet and understand the country, the people and maybe the historical context of a place. I have truly been blessed with many such experiences around the world.
I remember watching the TV serial Mayberry RFD (That's rural free delivery) as a child. Mayberry was a mythical place where everything turned out well.
As it happens, the main actor, Andy Griffith, was born in the little town of Mt. Airy, North Carolina and modeled the TV show after the town. I'd known about the town and it's connection to the 1960's TV show so when I had a chance to visit I knew I wouldn't pass it up.
Lots of kitsch... A Barney burger... Really?
Now here's the Snappy Lunch... the young Andy G did in fact eat here, it has been serving up lunch since the 1920's and yes in deed it was on the show.
The theme seems to be to name stores after characters...
Uh-oh, Aunt B's place seems to have tanked.
A block or two off of Main Street, is the museum of all things Mayberry.
The real doors from the TV set...
Tourism driven Mayberry trivia abounds!
Some very good replica art in the Floyd's Barbershop window
Mr Clippers himself along with Aunt Bea...
Can't miss it...
What a great statue of Andie and Opie!
Call it a blooper or call it a tip of the hat... Andy reading the Mt Airy Newspaper on the show...
Road-side oddity!
I have been collecting some of the odd things I run across and thought maybe I'd share the latest one...
Hope you all liked the pics, Mayberry is more of a state of mind than a place, but it was fun to walk around ( and yes... I was humming the theme song the whole time ) I think almost everybody would like to live in Mayberry if it were a real place. What a splendid idea Mr Griffith had.
I've never really like the formulaic nature of country music... the cowboy hat, the nasaly twang... good grief. But if you go back to the origins... the stuff that made it popular before the age of the A&R rep, before the big record companies searched for a different sound that could wear a Stetson... there was this!
I wonder how many children were inspired by listening to the radio and taking those viola lessons? I love the French Folk Song... and the Trisagion Hymn... Sweet notes that bouey the soul.
Just across the park... What a beautiful memorial to those who have served their country
So much history....
OK here's one I know something about. How about you? Have you ever noticed the curved versus square canopy designs? Do you see the cable cutters? Semper Fi
Every country has such memories. Let us not forget those who served and never came home.
You wouldn't believe how noisy these guys are! A most beautiful bird native to certain parts of North America
Hard at work trying to chip away wood with it's beak in search of a bug to eat... they actually chip out a rectangular hole in their search for insects.
This was just a lucky pic without a tripod and in the evening light. I missed a great pic of a deer driving a buckboard wagon earlier today,
YAY! After the coldest and snowiest April on record for this area, spring has finally arrived!
Now if we take the rise from -20F to a beautiful high of 70F yesterday... I expect to see the leaf trees actually having leaf cover by the end of May. Things are looking good!
Brrrrr a balmy -10 this morning
What? It's April and another 18in (.45 m) of snow!
Looks like the opening day of fishing is going to be with ice covered lakes...
After a few days of 40's(4.4C) and 50 (10C) degree weather...
This looks encouraging...
WOW, it hit got up to 70 (21C) today!
Another 70 F day.... The Ice has melted on the 5th of May...
Well, not totally. But today ought to melt the remaining cover off of this beautiful lake. This is typical of the spring here this year. Ice depth was 4 ft (1.2 M) this winter. How wonderful to see the geese on open water again!
Time to get after that Studebaker engine rebuild...
