Celebrating Andy Griffith

Due to the fact that I'm a native North Carolinian, can appreciate old television shows, and have a father and grandfather who were/are obsessed with The Andy Griffith Show, I'm convinced I've seen every episode ever filmed (though sometimes the channel got changed if an episode in color and without Deputy Barney Fife came on). My husband is amazed if we catch the beginning credits that I can name that episode within the first few seconds of the first scene (I can also do this with The Cosby Show). In my family there's no need to call the show by it's full name; it's just simply "Andy."

My favorite episode is the one where Aunt Bee makes the kerosene pickles, but I have several runners-up too. There have been many times (particularly in Atlanta traffic) that I've wanted to "citizens arrest" someone Gomer-style. Raleigh is my hometown, the place Barney went to party and stayed in "the corner room at the Y." When someone in my family is being an extreme rule-follower, someone will usually start by saying, "Here at the rock..." and the rest of us will chime in with the rest. And how many times has my dad told me to "nip it, nip it, nip it?"

So Tuesday when I saw that Andy Griffith had passed away, I just couldn't believe it. Isn't it kind of like we've all lost someone important, like a family member, like someone we knew really well? We should all be so lucky as to be treated as kindly, and loved and cared for as much as Sheriff Andy Taylor did his son and aunt, his deputy, his neighbors and fellows residents of Mayberry.

In the spirit of this blog, I found a clip that I particularly like, where Andy explains Romeo and Juliet to Opie.

We'll miss you, Sheriff Taylor.