Welcome! In the last two years since launching my Substack platform, Massé Musings: Notes from a Nomadic Son’s Life, I have published 183 weekly entries, including essays, nonfiction narratives and fiction (short stories and novel excerpts). In 2024 my mission remains: to inform, engage and enlighten my readers.
“A Simpler Time”
Reflections on a visit to Andy Griffith’s Hometown
My brother- and sister-in-law (Dave and Laura Perdue) were visiting us in Greensboro, N.C., recently, and we wanted to show these children of the Northwest some memorable regional sights. We settled on a day trip to Mount Airy, hometown of beloved TV star from yesteryear Andy Griffith, whose namesake series aired from 1960-68 during the heart of our Baby-Boomer youth. The 120-mile round trip journey was a needed reminder in these turbulent, tribal, hate-filled days of a bygone era when so many of us, regardless of residence or ancestry, shared a love for endearing characters in a bucolic setting where problems were solved at the end of each black and white episode.
Soon after arriving on Main Street, we began our pilgrimage to sites like Floyd’s Barber Shop, whose window was lined with photos and mementos from the show set in fictional rural Mayberry (N.C.) but was actually filmed and produced in Hollywood by Desilu Studios. We walked in bright sunshine, nodding and smiling at our fellow time-travelers as we passed the historic 1930s Earle Theatre, some six souvenir stores, the Snappy Lunch cafe (featuring pork chop sandwiches) and four ice-cream shops within a single block. As we checked our trusty visitors bureau map, mock Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife cars (a fleet of vintage black and white Ford Galaxie 500s) blared their police sirens, transporting wide-eyed tourists through town. A few minutes later, we reached our main destination—The Andy Griffith Museum on Rockford Street.
The museum, which opened in 2009, was established by Griffith’s childhood friend Emmett Forrest, who spent years collecting memorabilia on the life and times of the American actor, television producer and singer. Near the entrance is an iconic metal statue of Andy and Opie (Ron Howard), carrying their fishing poles as we all remembered from the show’s opening with its catchy whistling tune as the smiling father and his young son stroll a lovely country path. No matter what was happening in our homes and young lives back in the often chaotic sixties, we knew we could count on Andy Griffith to give us respite, escape and enjoyment for half an hour a day. Yes, it was a simpler time, if only in our aging minds via the rose-tinted lens of reminiscence. But what was undeniable were the enduring good feelings generated by “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Credit certainly goes to the writers, actors and all the creative talent involved for the popularity of the series. But it was Griffith who guided the show’s success and left such an impressive legacy extending far beyond his quaint North Carolina hometown, which shares the distinction of also being site of the world’s largest open-faced granite quarry. Touring Mount Airy, I wondered how this performer touched so many lives, and why does he continue to inspire people to remember and revere him?
Andy Griffith was born in 1926 and raised as an only child of blue-collar parents in Mount Airy. He was smart and gifted, blessed with a beautiful singing voice and a performer’s heart. He graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he originally pursued sociology and theology (studying to be a Moravian minister), later graduating with a bachelor’s degree in music and acting in multiple college theater productions. He began his career as a singer and recording artist before starring in several movies, including “A Face in the Crowd” (1957) and “No Time for Sergeants” (1958). Although he would act in more than 60 films in his lifetime, he is best known for his TV roles as widower Sheriff Andy Taylor and southern lawyer Benjamin Matlock. In these performances, the warmth, wisdom, humility and decency of his fictional characters extend off-screen to our grasp of his real-life persona. We continue to be drawn to Andy Griffith because he still comforts and reassures us a decade after his passing in 2012, and I believe he will for years to come.
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© 2024 Mark H. Massé
NOTE: To access more of my fiction and nonfiction, please visit my Authors Guild website: www.markmasse.com & https://www.amazon.com/author/mhmasse