North of Salisbury, NC is the town of Mt. Airy, NC, which has become a tourist Mecca of sorts. But before I get any farther, I want to announce that we have a new member in our traveling team. Flat Stanley has joined us and will be traveling with us on our adventure. He comes to us from Mrs. Baxter’s third grade class in Fort Walton Beach, FL. Mrs. Baxter is our daughter-Heather. If you are unfamiliar with him, the below link will explain all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Stanley
MT. Airy is the hometown of Andy Griffith, a well known TV and movie actor, whose most famous role is that of Andy Taylor, Sherriff of Mayberry, NC- in the Andy Griffith Show. Despite the fact this show aired nearly 50 years ago; most TV viewers today are familiar with the show via many reruns. It is on satellite nearly every day and I confess to watching it often. The town of Mayberry was modeled after his home town and Mt. Airy has enjoyed a steady stream of tourists visiting Griffith’s home town. I am told that they get around 300 visitors every day. In two festivals based on the show, they get nearly 500, 000 visitors in two weekends. No town could plan on such good fortune.
We had lunch is Andy’s favorite diner-Snappy Lunch and had the famous pork chop sandwich, which was ok.
http://www.thesnappylunch.com/
Mt. Airy has gone out of its way to mimic the TV show in its downtown area. It includes the diner, barbershop, courthouse and other features that appeared in the TV show. The barber shop named after the one in the TV show has been operated by the same person for 60 years. Everyone is welcome inside and often he takes the tourist’s picture for his wall, which is covered with photos.
Needless to say there are also lots TV show related gifts for sale around town.
It is a pleasant place to visit and even more fun if you enjoyed the TV show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Griffith
We also made a short trip north of town to see the world’s largest open pit granite mine. Looks like lots of counter tops are still left in the ground there.
2 comments:
How much was gas, a gallon, back then? Why was Flat Stanley in Jail?
- Mrs. Baxter's Class
In 1960 gas was about $0.31 a gallon, and Flat Stanley likes to go everywhere so he posed for a picture in jail.
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