Mount Airy, NC is best known as the boyhood home of Andy Griffith, and the small town that fictional Mayberry, in the television series “The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968),” is based on.
Any time is a good time to vist Mount Airy, but thousands of fans of the classic TV series make the trip during the last weekend of September, for the Mayberry Days celebration. There are television stars, good food and music and all the makings of good time, reflecting a day when the world was simpler, and Mayberry was Small Town, America.
I haven’t been to Mayberry Days. That’s a future trip. But, I did stop while driving through Mount Airy with my wife and three dogs, on a cold December day. Time was limited, and we didn’t get to see everything. We stopped at a recreation of Wally’s Service Station, with a copy of the Mayberry jail, next door. I pulled a camera out of my bag and snapped a few pictures. The Darlin truck, and a another, with a sign on the door for Wally’s Service Station, with the slogan “Goober Says ‘Hey!,'” are among the attractions, next to a sign on a building noting H. Sprague, Clerk, and Mayberry Hotel.
Next time, I’ll drop by the Andy Griffith boyhood home, the Andy Griffith Museum, and maybe even have a pork chop sandwich at Snappy Lunch, which was a favorite of Andy Griffith. He even mentioned the diner in a first season episode, “Andy the Matchmaker (1960).”
Next visit will be longer, and there will be more pictures of the attractions we missed.
