Posted on 01/10/2017 3:03:20 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
MOUNT AIRY, N.C. — From a perch on Main Street, the hometown of actor Andy Griffith looks this day like it was plucked right out of the television show that bears his name. And it was.
Residents and tourists from farflung states mill along the thoroughfare, past the quaint low-slung shops made of Mount Airy's famous white granite and named, like Floyd's City Barber Shop, for references in "The Andy Griffith Show," the folksy comedy set in the idyllic fictional small town of Mayberry that first aired in 1960.
And yet even as this city of about 10,000 nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains fills its coffers by selling nostalgia, many of its residents would agree with the now-popular saying "We're not in Mayberry anymore."
If only the real Mount Airy, which has experienced decades of economic and social decline, were like the Mayberry facade, muses Mayor David Rowe. If only his city and the rest of America could return to the 1950s again.
"Now it's about secular progressivism, not the values you get out of this book," like honesty and hard work, said Rowe, 72, jabbing his finger at the leather Bible on his office desk.
But as Donald Trump prepares to move into the White House, Rowe and many of his constituents are hoping for a return to the past.
"We're going to hold him to it," said Brad Thomas, 42, who used to work as an engineer building turbine blades for power plants before his job was moved to Mexico.
A yearning for an earlier time, especially prevalent in rural American towns and cities like Mount Airy, helped spur white evangelical Christians to vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump....
(Excerpt) Read more at mystatesman.com ...
And if left-wing Hollyweirder Griffith were still around, he would’ve campaigned for the Butcheress of Benghazi to the hilt.
Yeah. The original Yellow Dog Democrat.
It’s a shame that Andy Griffith never learned anything from Andy Taylor’s down to earth, small town persona.
Who could watch “A Face In The Crowd” and think he was a conservative?
Lonesome Rhodes was the REAL Andy Griffith.
Griffith and Ronny Howard’s lefty “real” life make it hard for me to watch a show I loved growing up.
To me, they Dixie Chicked themselves before the Dixie Chicks were a name.
I could ask the same about Salvage 1.
I couldn’t have said it any better...
Return to the 50s.....check
Jobs moved to Mexico....check
Bible.....check
That was just the first two paragraph
andy griffith was the greatest actor of all time, to so wonderfully play the part of a conservative small town sheriff masterfully, even though in real life he was a leftwing lunatic!
Personally, he was also as big an asshole as any! He actually stopped in at Mayberry Chrysler in Monroe once and demanded at threat of a lawsuit that they “CHANGE” the name of their business. Bob Mayberry responded that HE was a Mayberry long before andy stole the name and to hit the bricks!
Visited there for a bit this past Summer. Beautiful country at the Virginia NC line!
Good for Bob Mayberry.
Well, that explains the pervasive tourism of that town - they have no other employment, I guess. Sad. I did buy some Barney Christmas ornaments, though!
No, that was Arthur Godfrey.
The movie was Andy Griffith as Lonesome Roads.
Yes, written by Budd Schulberg and based on Arthur Godfrey.
I used to live right at the foot of “Mt Pilot” in Pinnacle, NC. Mt Airy was an agricultural, furniture and textile based economy best I could tell. The foreign competition killed them. It was kindof a depressing place. About all they had left was ag and milking the old Mayberry gig last I remember. I think there may have been 1 or 2 furniture mfg’s still running.
This article is as meaningful as one measuring San Francisco as the future home of Star Fleet Academy.
If I were from this town, I’d be embarrassed that its know as the hometown of Leftwing Obamacare shill Andy Griffith. Griffith destroyed any positive reputation that he had when he became an Obamacare spokesman. If he were still alive, I’d ask if he thinks all those middle class people in your home town can afford 100% premium increases that resulted from Obamacare? Did he even care?
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