They co-wrote the standard, “Thank you, Lord, For Your Blessings On Me”. The Easter Brothers, I didn’t know, are from Mount Airy. I discovered a music store owned by gospel great James Easter. Who wouldn’t want to live in the town that inspired Mayberry?Īfter I checked into the hotel (Tink, to his regret, had to miss the adventure because of a business trip to Los Angeles) I went downtown and wandered about, feeling fully that I was back in the 1960s, living in black and white. It has become a cottage industry that supports many people and, to all its citizens, is an association of which they are rightfully very proud. The town proudly refers to itself as both Mount Airy and Mayberry. In the windows of downtown shops are photographs, particularly of beloved Barney Fife and merchandise galore. The lobby of the Hampton Inn, the town’s best hotel, features a shaky Andy Griffith signature framed from his elderly years as well as other Mayberry framings and a rack of sketches of the various show actors - and Elvis - for sale at $20 each. Near the hotel, an oversized billboard featuring Sheriff Taylor, Barney, and Opie loomed advertising the show’s daily appearance on the MEtv Network proclaiming: ANDY’S HOME. I had passed Pilot Mountain a few miles back, obviously the inspiration for the town of Mount Pilot. When I visited, I turned my car from Andy Griffith Parkway onto Rockford, heading toward my hotel. There’s also the astoundingly well done Andy Griffith Museum (but we’ll talk about that in next week’s column). The tour, which sells out regularly, includes a drive-by of Andy Griffith’s childhood home, a simple white-clapboard house on a quiet street just a stone’s throw from downtown. The town of Mount Airy, though, has never wavered in its devotion to Andy with such evidence as: It hosts an annual fall festival called Mayberry Days where folks connected to the show attend while tens of thousands of visitors crowd the town the road leading in is called the Andy Griffith Parkway (he was there when it opened in 2002) Main Street is scattered with stores such as Floyd’s Barber Shop, the Blue Bird Dinner, Snappy Lunch, Walker’s Soda Fountain and Wally’s Service Station which supplies squad car tours of the historic spots pertaining to the show - in a Ford Galaxie 500 just like Sheriff Taylor’s car. However, near the end of his years, he relented in his denial. For much of his life, he denied that Mayberry was based on the place where he grew up. Andy Griffith was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, a town near the Virginia line.
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