As Jamie Sullivan, a lanky teenager, lopes alongside the tree-shaded sidewalk, occasional rays of daylight setting his orange hair ablaze, it’s simple to grasp why of us right here have been calling him Opie since he was a younger whippersnapper.
Wearing an outsized plaid shirt, rolled-up denims and canvas sneakers, he appears to be like as if he’s about to amble down the primary drag, passing Snappy Lunch and Floyd’s Barber Store, to ask his pa if he can stop sheriffin’ lengthy sufficient to go fishin’.
Alas, Sheriff Taylor, a.ok.a. Andy Griffith, is nowhere to be discovered, which confuses some guests. In any case, the actor grew up in a bungalow over on Haymore Avenue, only a few blocks from the place Opie’s drawing a crowd beside a bronze statue of Andy and his son headed for the fishin’ gap. Seemingly on cue, the previous Mayberry squad automobile — a 1963 Ford Galaxie — cruises previous, delighting onlookers with a brief growl from the siren.
Planning your journey
Mount Ethereal Guests Middle is one of the best start line; 200 N. Predominant St., (800) 948-0949, www.visitmayberry.com.
Mike Cockerham’s Squad Automobile Excursions can be found year-round: www.tourmayberry.com.
The annual Mayberry Days pageant will likely be Sept. 23-26. The Surry Arts Council organizes a wealth of actions. www.mayberrydays.org.
It’s no surprise some guests are drawn to the northwest nook of North Carolina, not for the beautiful surroundings of the Blue Ridge Parkway however for the time warp Mount Ethereal gives and the chance to step onto a residing set of the ‘60s sitcom, “The Andy Griffith Present.” So it’s actually no shock when the not too long ago retired police chief, Roger McCreary, finds himself utilizing Mount Ethereal and Mayberry as in the event that they’re interchangeable.
“Mount Ethereal. Mayberry. I assume you develop up on this environment, it’s simple to sort of confuse the place the fictional present stops and the actual city begins,” he says. “I assume Mayberry epitomizes small-town U.S.A. and good healthful boys.”
That wholesomeness is seemingly in all places. Vacationers and locals alike get a repair whereas setting a spell contained in the Metropolis Barber Store.
The title “Floyd’s,” a reference to the sitcom’s fictional barber, is a comparatively current addition to the entrance window. Proprietor Russell Hiatt says some of us from the native Chamber of Commerce talked him into it a number of years in the past.
“ ‘C’mon, Russ, let’s go to lunch,’ ” Hiatt recollects some civic leaders telling him. “They only about dragged me out the door. After I come again, it [Floyd’s] was on the window.”
Hiatt, who has been chopping hair right here for greater than 60 years, finds all of the chairs crammed the final weekend every September, when tens of 1000's of followers descend on Mount Ethereal for the Mayberry Days pageant and its heaping serving to of nostalgia.
Annually, the pageant attracts a handful of actors from the TV present, together with tribute artists together with highschool senior Jamie Sullivan, who’s been portraying Opie at festivals and gala's since he was within the second grade.
“Jamie has grown up in Mayberry,” his father, Ken Sullivan, says from their house in Cowan, Tenn. Once they’re not on the highway, Ken says the household repeatedly gathers to observe reruns of “The Andy Griffith Present.”
“His dream in life since first grade was to satisfy Ron Howard,” Ken Sullivan says of the actor-turned-director who, as a toddler, performed Opie. “He retains hoping that, sooner or later, that may occur.”
The pageant is what first introduced actress Betty Lynn to city. Lynn performed Barney Fife’s girlfriend, Thelma Lou, on the sitcom, and followers love chatting together with her and getting her autograph.
Upon returning to Los Angeles from the 2006 festivities, she found her house of greater than 50 years had been damaged into — for the second time. For Lynn, it was time to say goodbye to Westwood and hi there to her new hometown, Mount Ethereal.
“I by no means dreamed I’d [live] right here. It by no means occurred to me,” she says.
“It’s a stunning little city,” Lynn provides, looking a window on the close by Blue Ridge Mountains. “God was the artist right here and did a stupendous job.”
The actress-in-residence provides nonetheless extra credibility to Mount Ethereal’s declare to the nickname Mayberry. Andy Griffith’s Dwelling Place, the home during which he grew up, is now a bed-and-breakfast. Weaver’s Division Retailer gives a bevy of memorabilia in its free museum. For a chunk to eat, there are a number of themed eating places, together with the Bluebird Diner and Aunt Bee’s Barbeque.
Many of the sights might be navigated on foot however with out the tales and trivia that Mike Cockerham gives as he drives guests round city in an previous police cruiser. The excursions depart from outdoors Wally’s Filling Station, one other throwback to the Nineteen Sixties TV present, full with an old style cooler that also dispenses soda pop in bottles.
“Lots of people who grew up watching the present are those [now] doing the touring,” Cockerham says.
“We get loads of feedback from vacationers about how pleasant individuals are,” he provides. “It’s not a put-on for vacationers. It’s a lifestyle right here.”
In fact, the actual Mount Ethereal isn’t crime-free. The city of about 9,000 folks was shocked final fall by the gunning down of 4 males within the car parking zone of a neighborhood equipment retailer. A convicted felon was charged with the slayings, which authorities stated weren't random.
In Mayberry, Sheriff Taylor and Deputy Fife dealt extra with jaywalkers than with actual criminals.
“I don’t assume anyplace may very well be that good,” says Russell Hiatt, the barber, including that a lot of the residents actually do appear to follow what the TV present preached.
“Some folks domestically are offended by us being referred to as Mayberry. However I feel it’s the final word praise,” says Roger McCreary, the previous police chief.
“I bought seven grandkids, and I ain’t afraid for my grandkids to get out and stroll on the streets at evening,” he provides. “That’s a small city sense of safety, and that we nonetheless have.”
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