BACK TO MAYBERRY

I really don’t know if Andy Griffith was like that or not.

I tend to believe that Sheldon Leonard was as he was the creator of the show.

Andy may have just been that good of an actor.

I know some of his other work other than the Andy Griffith show were incredible performances, so it could be that he wasn’t necessarily the man portrayed on the show.

None the less, I find myself attracted to the show’s values and would sure like to live the simple home town life like that.

As my parents were way too busy to try to provide for our family, I believe I learned many values of my life from the Andy Griffith show, as do many others I now see on so many Facebook groups having anything to do with the show.

And that I can relate to almost everyone on the list because of our common thread to this simple philosophy.

Come to find out about a year ago, Ron Howard and I have the same birthday, only his is a year earlier.

And whenever my wife and I watch the show together, she probably gets tired of me saying: “Opie should have been me!”

So it fits very well now to understand why I related to these values as I placed myself in practically every episode.

I’ve always wanted to write about the show and what it did for me, so now is a good a time as any as it is getting late in my life.

My older brother taught me how to use a rifle about the time that Opie the bird man went on the air, and yes, I accidentally shot a bird just to see if I could do it. I didn’t have the same results as Opie did though. My Dad didn’t even know about it.

I still feel bad about that over 50 years ago.

The most powerful episode to me is Opie’s Hobo Friend, with Buddy Epson.

The hobo knew what he knew, and lived his life accordingly, Andy took responsibility, expressed the difference between right and wrong, the hobo turned and sacrificed himself for the sake of someone else. Namely me and Opie.

The difference between right and wrong was definitely expressed in this episode and gave me a huge learning lesson in life.

A medal for Opie was another one that hit me hard.

As my wife says, “no one makes shows like that anymore”.

The magic scene with the camera angle of Andy looking down at Opie and Opie looking up at him, when Andy said, I just want you to know, I’m disappointed in you.”

I had a Dad just like that, in fact, if you asked any of my 6 siblings, they all agree, it would have been easier to be hit than to have Dad say that to us.

That was so powerful.

Andy discovers America helped me with school, as I was the kid that most didn’t want to be there.

This helped me recognize my motives because Andy did, like so many times, did whatever it took to turn a wrong into a right, and instead of forcing the school work on his son, he pointed to their interests until it became their idea, as I found out later in life that I am going to do the things I do for my reasons and not because I am supposed to.

Opie and the spoiled kid, gave me ideas to try as I was that age, but the lesson in this show helped me with values of not having what I want, but wanting what I have.

Then there was Baily’s bad boy with Bill Bixby.

I saw enough enabling in my life to already know that there was something wrong with it, but this episode gave a spiritual steering to a young man growing up in spite of the adults that were guiding him.

Andy on trial

Wanting to brag on everything as a little kid, I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have said, and tried to keep up with what I did say.

Through hard and tough learning experiences, I like to live “say what you mean and mean what you say.” so that I don’t need to keep up with something I had said earlier that was not accurate.

Back to Dan's writings

DAN'S WORLD WEB SITE, ADDICTION AND BLINDNESS IS NOT THE END