If you were asked which of all the THOUSANDS of communities, towns, cities, or locations in all of TV history you'd most like to live in, I think quite a GREAT number of us would say Mayberry.
It is a quiet place, of kind neighbors and tree-lined streets and ice cream socials and Big Date night at the Diner, with the 7:30 Picture Show, and maybe a double-straw milkshake before a chaste kiss on the front porch.
Children play in the street until after dark, until they're called in to eat with their families around the supper table, and problems are of the gentle sort, solved within a half hour. Calls to the Law get you a real person, with reassurance and calm reasoning and maybe a quick visit from the Sheriff---a calm, reasonable man himself, ready to smooth the waters and soothe feelings and make things right.
R.I.P. Sheriff Andy Taylor
Ben Matlock
You showed us Truth and Honor and Humor and how Doing the Right Thing was good for us and helped us, too. You embody a gentler time, an innocent haven where folks know things will turn out all right in the end.
You will live on forever, spinning your tales and captivating audiences and filling a sweet spot in our hearts. There's a new, melodious baritone beside that familiar tenor in Heaven's Choir tonight.
Thank you for this beautiful tribute to Andy, Rachel ... spoken from the heart, as only you can do. I loved him and all the dear hearts and gentle people of his beloved Mayberry.
ReplyDeleteSo sad, I guess all of the people of Mayberry except for Opie are gone now. There will never be such a perfect cast of characters again-all beleivable-or maybe so just to us Southerners.
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel, I skipped right over this comment and inadvertently went down to your previous post.
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful tribute to Andy. See my comment below.
Hugs, Jeanne
Loved Andy..RIP
ReplyDeleteTwo great losses so close together. Andy Griffith and Nora Ephron. I will miss both.♥
ReplyDeleteI read that the Sheriffs in his hometown had black ribbons on their cars to honour him. He was well loved.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great talent and gentle man. While Griffith would tell folks that he was not at Andy Taylor, that the Sheriff was much wiser and friendlier and cared more for humanity than Griffith himself, I suspect that Andy Taylor was drawn deeply from Griffith's own soul. There are just some things one cannot fake or create from whole cloth.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful legacy of homespun wisdom, life lessons, and spirit-deep enjoyment he left for us!
Sweet remembrance of a favorite.
ReplyDeleteI think we all long for a Mayberry and Andy gave it to us for a while.
I loved them all.
Carolyn
Great post my sweet friend. I feel exactly the same way you do. What a loss!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Kat
I loved his gentleness, his humor, his fiesty-ness and his politics! A REAL southern gentleman.
ReplyDelete