Goodbye, Andy..............

This photograph is from a tribute by Kevin Siers in The Charlotte Observer. I found it in a Facebook post. The following is a summary of some of my own thoughts evoked by the occasion of the passing of Mr. Griffith:If I'm still and close my eyes for just a bit, I can hear the screen door slam, the hum of a table fan cooling off the house and maybe even smell the aroma of Mamaw's peach cobbler in the oven. Those summertime sensory experiences certainly are still pretty vivid...........the smell of freshly mown grass and the vinegar that ultimately got smeared all over my sunburned limbs when I stayed outside too long. After all, why on earth would anybody want to go inside when they could play in the yard with friends until dark and even after dark? Certainly, not me. I would ride my bike as long as my parents would let me. Not sure if it was the thrill of the wind in my hair or listening to the clickety click clack of those baseball cards (held in place by simple wooden clothes pins) flipping on the spokes that lured me out on that old cruiser bike. I wish I still had that bike with it's big old seat, fenders and foot brakes. And even though I didn't live in Mayberry, I think the community where I lived during the early to mid '60's could have been a close second. Life seemed much simpler then until the JFK years came along with the Bay of Pigs, duck and cover drills and having to wear dog tags to school one year just in case those bad guys attacked our nation. And it wasn't too long after that when we were shocked by the images on the nightly news showing what was happening on the other side of the world in Vietnam. But all the while we still had Andy and Barney, Aunt Bea with her gracious manners, Opie, Gomer and Goober. A person can learn a lot from Mayberry. I suppose I was an adult before I really truly understood the timelessness of those shows. We still watch and enjoy them. And I am glad to know that I can scroll through the channels on the cable listings and find it almost any time of day or night if I need a Mayberry fix. Wouldn't it be great if we could live in a place where it wasn't necessary to lock the doors, our children could safely play with their neighborhood friends as everybody's Mama was watching out for them. I suppose I should take off my rose colored glasses and get a reality check. Technology has taken us forward by leaps and bounds but there are some things that would be nice to revisit. And many of those things can be found right there in those Mayberry reruns. I'm thankful for the entertainment those folks provided and know that everybody's friend, Andy, will be missed.