{"id":281,"date":"2012-07-31T01:09:26","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T01:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=281"},"modified":"2012-07-31T01:09:26","modified_gmt":"2012-07-31T01:09:26","slug":"i-miss-mayberry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=281","title":{"rendered":"I miss Mayberry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo found at Hollywood How To blog (based on USA today article by Ann Oldenburg)<\/p><\/div>\n

In my family, some of our best conversations and heart-to-hearts occur when we are travelling in our van.\u00a0 It is also the place where I glimpse what is going on in my children\u2019s world by listening very carefully to their backseat chatter.\u00a0 One such time occurred when I had a van full of boys and one sweet little girl.\u00a0 It was quite a few years back, but I remember the moment as if it happened yesterday.<\/p>\n

My sister-in-law\u2019s family along with my mother-in-law\u00a0came on a\u00a0surprise\u00a0visit to be at our house when my husband earned his MBA. Following the afternoon graduation, I took my kids and two of my nephews swimming at the YMCA.\u00a0 It was a December graduation; so, it was quite cold when I loaded all the kiddos in the van for the short trip home.<\/p>\n

While we were waiting for the van\u2019s engine to warm up a few minutes, a conversation started regarding funny television shows and movies.\u00a0 There was quite a repartee regarding which shows a group of elementary boys thought were funny.\u00a0 They swapped funny scenes and eventually everyone settled on their favorites (although not a single one of them agreed). Ah, boys! But what was note-worthy was a small declaration from a sweet little red-head in the back-seat.\u00a0 \u201cHey guys, do you know who the best comedic actor in the world is?\u201d No answer came from the peanut gallery, and even I was stunned that he knew the word, comedic.\u00a0 Finally, he gave us his answer, \u201cDon Knotts!\u201d\u00a0 I had to chuckle from the front seat, because I knew the origin of that comment.<\/p>\n

The previous summer we had visited my grandmothers, and Mama (pronounced maw-maw) Cloie gave my kids all of her videotapes and DVDs of \u201cThe Andy Griffith Show\u201d.\u00a0 Once back home, we watched every one of those episodes.\u00a0 Each show\u00a0caused my kids to erupt into peals of laughter \u2013 sometimes we laughed so hard we had tears running down.\u00a0 Reed, in particular, had his funny bone tickled in every watching \u2013 often watching particular episodes over and over again.\u00a0For Andy Griffith fans, think exploding goat!<\/p>\n

At the time, I don\u2019t think I ever really appreciated what that show and Andy Griffith meant to my family.\u00a0 I fondly remember watching Andy, Barney, Opie and Aunt B every night when we had supper growing up. \u00a0\u00a0I have always been a nostalgic romantic loving anything involving simpler days and times, and Mayberry was one of those places that my imagination could easily appeal that desire.\u00a0 Later when I lived with my Mama and Papa in graduate school, our afternoon routine involved the recapping of my day at the chemistry lab while watching \u201cMatlock\u201d. So Andy (and later Ben) has always been a part of my family’s culture.<\/p>\n

Many conversations centered around the various lessons that Andy\u2019s friends and family needed to learn.\u00a0 Of course, always present was Reed’s infectious giggle especially when the conversation steered to something that Barney (or the oafish Otis) did.\u00a0 My family alone could\u00a0 give testimony to\u00a0the show’s\u00a0timeless appeal. How many shows today could hold the attention of four generations\u00a0–\u00a0at the same time. Despite having aired originally in the 1960\u2019s, the characters drew in my little boys more than forty years later.\u00a0 With all the other noise on television today, I loved that my boys were just as enamored as I with the simple, but honest relationships that Andy shared with everyone in Mayberry.<\/p>\n

With the passing of Andy Griffith, I was deeply saddened. I wanted to curl up on a front porch with ice cold Coke in a glass bottle and one of Aunt B\u2019s famous cakes or pies.\u00a0 If I use just enough imagination, I can picture a sweet little redhead \u00a0hand-in-hand with the legendary sheriff as Andy got a VIP tour of the best fishing holes in heaven.\u00a0 Over the clank of\u00a0fishing rods hitting the pail, I can hear the soft tune of the two of them whistling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my family, some of our best conversations and heart-to-hearts occur when we are travelling in our van.\u00a0 It is also the place where I glimpse what is going on in my children\u2019s world by listening very carefully to their backseat chatter.\u00a0 One such time occurred when I had a van full of boys and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[35,113,201,241,617],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}