Today, I am pleased to welcome Gayle Trent to Great Thoughts’ Great Authors. Gayle is the author of several books including her newest, Killer Sweet Tooth: A Daphne Martin Cake Mystery.
Here’s Gayle:
Mount Airy, North Carolina, is a town that embraces its heritage as well as its claim to fame. Its heritage is that of English, Scottish, German and Irish farmers. As you drive into town, you see roadside markets offering produce, honey, walnuts, or homemade confections that remind you of that heritage. You might even hear some bluegrass music being played just inside one of the market places. You begin to relax as you leave behind the traffic and noise. Signs welcome you to Mayberry.
Mayberry? But aren’t we talking about Mount Airy?
Yes, we are. And now you know Mount Airy’s claim to fame.
As the hometown of actor Andy Griffith, Mount Airy is the model for the fictional town of Mayberry. If you’re like me, you grew up watching reruns of “The Andy Griffith Show;” and you enjoyed the antics of Andy, Opie, Floyd, Goober, Aunt Bee, and of course, Barney. Mount Airy enjoys lots of visits from the stars from its fictional counterpart: Don Knotts (Barney), George Lindsey (Goober), Howard Morris (Ernest T. Bass), and, of course, Andy. Most of these stars shine during Mayberry Days, a September festival of music, laughter and nostalgia.
Mount Airy is filled with Mayberry landmarks such as Aunt Bee’s restaurant and Wally’s Service Station, and show memorabilia abounds. Outside the jail is a replica of Andy’s squad car. Russell Hiatt, the real “Floyd” who cut Andy’s hair when Andy was in college, still owns and operates Floyd’s City Barber Shop where there are “two chairs, no waiting.”
Mr. Hiatt is a charming host, so if you go to Mount Airy be sure to drop by his shop and see his wall of fame—23,000 photographs of visitors to his shop. You can probably coax him into telling you how “Mrs. Crump” (a/k/a Aneta Corsaut) started it all when she once came for a visit and brought along about 500 people from a tour in Winston-Salem. Of these 23,000 photographs, there are everyday people (like me), a Cleveland, Ohio woman (who was the first to be photographed for the “Wall of Fame”), governors, major league ballplayers and officials, Oprah Winfrey (whose father Vernon is a barber in Nashville, Tennessee), and even “The Incredible Hulk” Lou Ferrigno.
“Now that one fills up a barber chair,” observes Mr. Hiatt, pointing out the photo of Lou Ferrigno.
In 2000, Mr. Hiatt was inducted into the Barbering Hall of Fame. “If I’d retired, I’d have missed that,” he told me. “And if I’d stayed home today, I’d have missed you…and I wouldn’t have missed that for the world.”
Neither would I.
That’s the kind of folks you meet in Mayberry…and that’s something better than even Hollywood could come up with.
What are you reading and where are you going?
What an utterly charming place! I want to visit.