Mayberry Christmas

The holiday season would not be complete for us without a trip to our home turf, Mount Airy, NC.  Our little home town was the inspiration for the popular Andy Griffith show.  My late mother who moved to Mount Airy in 1926 called the town home for most of 75 years.

Lots of towns have watched their downtowns disappear as strip malls and Walmarts have sucked the business off of main street.  This hasn't happened to Mount Airy.  Main Street Mount Airy launched itself with help from Andy, Barney, Aunt Bea, Snappy Lunch, and Floyd's Barber Shop.

Yet today, you can find every thing from the shiny white Apple computers at CyberGear to Vera Bradley bags at Specialty Gifts.  Along the way there are some really interesting spots even for us guys.

One of my favorite spots is Holcomb's Hardware and Locksmith.  The window shot to the left was taken today.  There is some amazing stuff in the window.  Many of the things are a little hard to find today unless you know a place like Holcomb's.  But it you need a gasket for your pressure cooker or a special key done, Holdcomb's is the place.

You can enjoy many other shops from a bakery or bookstore to an Army surplus story and everything in between.  We even saw a Christmas tree decorated with toy John Deere tractors.

Then there is food and drink.  There are several sandwich shops including Snappy Lunch and a restaurant or two.  There's even a candy store, a winery, and a downtown Cinema which operates on limited hours.

One of the things I like the most about Mount Airy is that there are always people on the main street.  You will see a wide variety of people.  Mount Airy is no cookie cutter city.  Every time that I see a thriving downtown, I have renewed hope for our country.  While sometimes I like the ready availability of chain store merchandise as much as anyone, I'll always try to find my goods in a local store first.

While part of that resolve might be a distaste for Walmart parking lots, the rest is a belief that local service and support will alway trump the impersonal nature of the big box stores.

For better views of the pictures, especially the John Deere Christmas tree, try clicking on them.

Comments

[Elizabeth May]

It is a ridiculous fallacy to say that Andy Griffith created Mayberry as the TV version of Mount Airy. He has repeatedly denied that there is a connection. Why would he, if it weren't true?
In fact, it's widely known that the town of Mount Airy was not friendly to Andy Griffith when he was a boy growing up there on the "wrong side of the tracks." That the town that treated him badly is now raking in money by hawking itself as Griffith's Mayberry is a sick joke.

[ocracokewaves]

I guess everyone has their definition of a sick joke, but Mount Airy isn't it. People, especially Hollywood people, deny things for lots of reasons, and I'm not here to analyze it one way or the other.

The idea that living in Mount Airy had nothing to do with the creation of the TV Mayberry is probably about as far off base as anything I've heard lately.

I don't care who you are, you carry a lot of those childhood memories with you subconsciously. They stay with you and influence what you do.

Our house was one same side of the tracks as Andy's , as is most of Mount Airy. We didn't live that far from Andy Griffin's home place. My mother cut his mother's hair so I don't think the family was shunned.

Have you ever even visited Mount Airy? I wouldn't say Mount Airy is raking in money. If you knew anything about the town, you would know that Mount Airy lost its industrial base and it wasn't because they were bad to Andy Griffin. There are plenty of hard working, fine people in Mount Airy.

The tourism thing just happened and that people are making a living selling memories of the Andy Griffin show is no sick joke. Many of those people weren't even alive when Andy lived in Mount Airy.

The fact that they've been able to rehabilitate their Main street and keep it alive by making a connection with Mount Airy is to be commended not condemned.

That the town is surviving instead of coming to the public trough is a good thing.

It doesn't look like Andy's growing up in Mount Airy scarred him too deeply.

[Juno888]

nice place to visit,..The Holcombs looks great...

[c johnson]

hey lizzy you need to get a life why do people have to be so bad about someone having fun