First World Problems: Mayberry, 1963
Aunt Bea is doing a lead role for the town’s big show about the founding of Mayberry. She’s getting ready to leave for rehearsal when Andy begins chatting with her. Eventually, the phone rings and as Aunt Bea hurries out the door, she calls to Andy, “if that’s the director, tell him I’m on my way. I can’t believe I’m running late.”
Why in the hell would anybody run late in Mayberry?  Compared to our lives in 2016, Mayberry runs in slow motion.
Ahhh…. perhaps I love Andy Griffith, and the entire cast of Mayberry, because they remind me of a time I once knew well.

Growing up in Elwood Indiana was, in so many ways, much like Mayberry North Carolina. We had very similar townsfolk like those in the fictitious Mayberry.

Elwood was blessed with phenomenal teachers, public servants in the police and fire departments, thoughtful merchants, delightful barbers such as Zip Davis and John Rogers, and we even had colorful folks like Barney, Goober, Gomer, Helen, and Otis, Mayberry’s principal slosh. 

Even as a young child, I loved the reruns which were not even that old. Perhaps it was the fact the show often centered around the sheriff’s office, and I was all too familiar with policeman’s life due to  my grandfather being an officer.

While all the characters were typically comedic-centered, they truly represented individuals of that era.  While the black-and-white film reflects a much slower paced world, what I knew in the 1969s was somewhat slow paced, but, oh, filled with so much Technicolor!

Like Sheriff Taylor’s family, I was blessed with the most beautiful neighbors in the world. Even today, in a life that whizzes by like a flash, I still have some wonderful neighbors.

It would be nice to be able to return to Mayberry/Elwood life of the 1960s, but at least I can vouch for the wonderment of those carefree, less speedier days.

I’ve always been blessed with a Mayberry kind of life.

Two of Elwood’s own cast members, our very own Floyd The Barbers…

Zip Davis

John Rogers