Real Mayberrys

Dear Editor,

Despite Mike Hendricks' usual liberal put-downs of tradition and American ideals, most small towns of the 1940s and '50s really did resemble the fictional town of Mayberry. After all, Mayberry and its denizens were patterned after Mount Airy, North Carolina, by Andy Griffith, where he was born and grew up.

I grew up in a relatively small town in Ohio during that time, and crime was practically non-existent. We kids were safe at any time and any place.

We walked for miles on Halloween, late into the night, without supervision or anyone worrying about us. Nobody locked their doors at night. It was a time when politicians were mostly honest, when a man's handshake was his bond, when neighbors knew each other and kept watch over each other's kids, when kids respected teachers and other adults and when men loved and respected women, and women loved men.

We all watched Mayberry in the 1960s and it hit us that what Griffith created wasn't just a show, it was a real place -- a place we all wanted to visit and did, over the years. We all sat in Floyd's barber chair. We all shared stories on the porch with Andy, Barney, Aunt Bea, Gomer and Opie.

We were also uneasily aware that we were watching a disappearing America, and that Sheriff Andy Taylor and Mayberry represented the Indian Summer of ideals and greatness.

Sincerely,

Thomas Kope,

Baldwin Park, California