Andy and Don

I just finished a book called Andy and Don. It was a dual biography of Andy Griffith and Don Knotts. What a great book. There are certain books that I see and I immediately know that I have to have it. I recently bought Dead Presidents - same thing. Anyway, there is a whole bunch of stuff I didn't know about either Andy or Don. And I had forgotten how much each had done besides the TV show.

I've seen most of the Andy Griffith Shows, but a couple of years ago I decided to buy the DVD's and watch them all - at least the first five seasons when Barney was a regular on it. I've made it through season 4 so far.

It made me reminisce about the Saturday I spent in Mt. Airy. Andy Griffith is from there, it sound a lot like "Mayberry", and it even looks a lot like the Mayberry set, even now. It is even by a landmark, Pilot Mountain (Mt. Pilot). Andy always denied that he patterned Mayberry after Mt. Air. Come on Andy. Sheriff Taylor would never lie.

Mt. Airy, NC is really worth seeing. It's not by anything else, so it probably isn't visited by many west coasters. It's got an Andy Griffith Museum - it includes the front doors to the Sherriff's office; Andy's, Barney's, and Otis' suits; Andy's desk. It's all quite awesome. You can eat at the Snappy Lunch. (Because of the enormous line, we went elsewhere and I had a Barney Burger.) You can get your hair cut at what looks exactly like Floyd's Barbershop. You can see a replica of the Sheriff's Office, which is pretty close, but not exactly the same.

Yes, its very commercial, but thats OK. It is loads of fun. I can't imagine spending more than one day there, but that one day would be great. I hate the phrase "bucket list", but if you have one, put that book and a visit to Mt. Airy on it.