MT. AIRY, NORTH CAROLINA (Mark)

In the 1750’s if you were taking the stagecoach north from Winston-Salem, heading toward Virginia, you would stop in Mount Airy.  This stagecoach stop by the Ararat River later became famous for a very different reason.  It was the Andy Griffith show, and fictional town of Mayberry, that made Mount Airy famous.  If you walk downtown today you will see many reminders of this.

A soft drink may have cost a nickel when the show was running; they are a bit more expensive today!

The Andy Griffith Show ran for eight seasons, 249 shows.  159 of the shows were in black and white; 90 were in color.  If you have ever seen the show you are probably thinking about starting to whistle .  . .

As you walk along the main street you have a wide range of businesses, many catering to tourist, but luckily also a number for local needs.  (Cheri said that when she visited two summers ago she had worried that the town might die as people who remember the show age.)

I went into this very old hardware and locksmith business to have a specialty key made.  The proprietor was able to find the correct blank, and make the key, on equipment that was at least as old as I am.  I had been into a much newer fancier business here in Winston-Salem with much less success.

They did not ring my purchase up on this particular machine, but I like the intricate machinery evident on the side, visible with the cover removed.

I believe some paint had been applied to this sidewalk water meter cover plate, but I liked the look:

There is a sock factory in town.  At the sock outlet you can pick socks from huge bins.  If you wanted to get non-matching socks I think you could really have fun here.  If you wanted to be more traditional and have matching socks you could do that also.

You can still watch a movie in the theater.  The Earle Theatre was built in 1938 by the partnership of Earl Q. Benbow and Percy A. Boone. The EARLE theatre was chosen as a site for the premiere of “Gone With the Wind,” simultaneously with the showing in Atlanta, Georgia. The $1 ticket ruffled more local feathers than Clark Gable’s parting words. Tickets returned to a more reasonable range, 9-11¢ for children’s matinees, and 13-17¢ for others.

Looking north on main street, Virginia is only three miles away.  The town is on the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, about 1100 feet elevation.

We walked down an alley honoring the historic races that were based there:

On the way out of town we stopped at this local grocer.  Cheri said there was some unusual items inside that she would buy again the next time we pass through.

This old building on the south end of town looks to me like it needs a bit of restoration, or at least a haircut.