A month ago, I wrote about receiving many, many, MANY telephone calls from potential presidential candidates. Creative-Type Dad chimed in and said that in the days leading up to the California primaries, he received a taped phone call from Scarlett Johansson.
That Hollywood shit would never fly in North Carolina.
If you need a celebrity spokesperson around here, you enlist a NASCAR driver. Or if you're really ambitious, you go for the gold standard: Andy Griffith. In North Carolina, you can turn on your television anytime between 5 AM and 7 PM (i.e. seniors' waking hours) and find a rerun of either Matlock or The Andy Griffith Show, two of Griffith's extremely popular shows.
Andy Griffith was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina. Mt. Airy is like a lot of sleepy small towns in North Carolina. It has a quaint downtown. It has a movie theater that shows Hollywood's latest and greatest:
Ok. Maybe not the latest.
But Mt. Airy can claim something most North Carolina small towns can't: ANDY GRIFFITH LIVED HERE! Need proof?
Yes, you can spend the night in the very same bedroom where Andy used to sleep!
But Mt. Airy has taken its love of All Thing Andy a little too far. Check out their arts center:
Behind the Andy Griffith Playhouse is the Andy Griffith Museum. Since they were asking $3 to partake in its Andyness (Andiness?), I can't tell you about it. But I can show you the bitchin' statue that stands right next to the Playhouse:
And it doesn't stop there. Not only does the town proudly wave its Andy flag, it has also adopted the Mayberry (the fictional town depicted in The Andy Griffith Show) name:
If you take a walk around Mt. Airy's downtown, you'll see the following establishments:
I think you'll find more businesses in Mayberry Mt. Airy with "Mayberry" in their names than those without. The "M" section must take up 75% of their phone book.
But don't think Andy's the only character from Mayberry that gets love in this town. Are you a Barney buff?
Maybe you're an Opie devotee:
Or maybe you're a Floyd fan:
But you're really in luck if you're a Goober groupie. Not only is there a replica of Wally's Service Station, the two wreckers are adorned with the phrase, "Goober says 'Hey!'" 
So this summer, instead of taking your kids to boring places like Disneyland, New York City, or Dollywood, plan a trip to Mayberry Mount Airy, North Carolina instead! Not only is it the home of lots of The Andy Griffith Show memorabilia/tourist attractions, the grave of Siamese twins Eng and Chang is only a few miles up the road!
This post was definitely not brought to you by Mt. Airy's Visitors Bureau.
Song of the day: Feel The Pain by Dinosaur Jr.
Local God: The Town With An Identity Crisis
