Andy Griffith’s TV show in the 1960s was set in a town named Mayberry, which was a wide spot on the highway with a filling station and a small downtown with Floyd’s Barber Shop, Emmett’s Fixit shop and Howard Sprague the city clerk were frequent locations (the entire show was filmed in California, of course)
Mayberry was loosely based on Mount Airy, a town I remember visiting on the Greyhound bus in the 1960s – at the time, they were just starting to become aware of the potential to build a tourism business. The show had occasional references to other towns in North Carolina – “Mount Pilot” was the closest bigger small town which was actually Pilot Mountain – a city of near the peculiar mountain in the middle of nowhere
Another town mentioned on the show was Siler City – it’s name was not changed. “Aunt Bee” (Frances Bavier) was not from North Carolina at all – she was a New Yorker – and in a curious twist decided to retire in Siler City, which is where she lived until her death in 1989.
Well, Siler City is no longer the quaint small town where Opie Taylor would fit it. Thanks to the explosion in chicken processing (filling in part the void in the North Carolina economy left by the destruction of tobacco farming), the town of Siler City now has a population that is close to 50% Hispanic.
http://whichwaync.com/2012/06/28/more-than-labor-the-economic-impact-of-latinos-in-siler-city/
In December 2008, Pilgrim’s Pride filed for bankruptcy which was caused by a sudden decrease in demand for its products and debt load it had added to acquire Gold Kist. Pilgrim’s pride was acquired in 2009 by a company from Brazil and much of the processing in the United States was closed, leaving Siler City was empty factories and Mexican workers leaving for elsewhere.
North Carolina over the past 20 or so years has had a significant number of radio stations converted to Spanish Language to appeal to the Mexican migrant worker community – but as is the case in most of the country, Mexicans send most of their income “home” to Mexico and spend little in the local economy, so after a year or two the radio stations appealing to that audience generally fail.
Mt Airy (Mayberry) ain’t Andy Taylor’s town anymore either. Betty Lynn (the actress that played Barney Fife’s girlfriend Thelma Lou) is a retired and living there now.
She was robbed there a few years ago…
http://www.examiner.com/article/betty-lynn-thelma-lou-robbery-victim-83-year-old-actress-robbed-andy-griffith-s-hometown
Isn’t America great?
The portion my life in North Carolina has an odd story. My parents were from Pennsylvania and spent their honeymoon in Florida. They spent the night in a hotel in North Carolina, halfway on the trip on the Greyhound bus (this would have been 1946 if my memory is right). It left such a positive memory (“there were singing birds in the bus station”) that when it came time to retire in 1969, that small town in North Carolina was on the “short list”, and where we ended up moving.
About five years ago, I was thinking of moving back to North Carolina and visited the town where we lived and I went to high school. Listening to the radio station as I was driving in, I heard some women on a “public service” program talking about this town and how the South Side was now dangerous even during the daylight due to drug gangs (the implication was they were Mexicans). That neighborhood was where we rented a house for a few months in 1970 – it was a lower class mostly white neighborhood “on the wrong side of the tracks”. It wasn’t dangerous, it just had a number of people there who had problems coping with life.
Having spent time driving in and out of Detroit, I wasn’t particularly intimidated by the description on the radio. A lot of the homes were abandoned, but I didn’t feel at all in danger in the daytime – but then again I wasn’t looking for drugs or trouble.
Probably most of the textile business and plastics that were the main employers in town were gone by then. Downtown had several Asian restaurants of various types that would not have been there in the 1970s. Parts of town were pretty much as I expected and remembered. Time marches on.
Back between the 70’s and the 80’s I was stationed at Ft Bragg (about 3 hrs away) and had a chance to visit Mt Airy. I saw a big change taking place between those years as more and more wetbacks move to the area. Having escaped Texas to avoid the Mexican invasion I was appalled at how rapidly conditions in the area deteriorated. Once an apartment complex evicted about 70 people out of 5 or 6 apartments! These people live tax free, drain the societal resources, contribute nothing but crime to our lives, and destroy the natural beauty of the environment with trash and junk cars. But… they contribute 24% to Mexico’s GDP and nothing will be done about them. It’s called “spreading the wealth”.
But they will do the work Americans just won’t do.
The pork business is also a major employer of lightly documented aliens. “Smithfield” ham products have started showing up herein Connecticut, but the only connection is someone must have bought up the name. The quality of the products had nothing in common with what I remember Smithfield hams being like.
Can I encourage you to avoid using terms that maybe make you feel good, but are a negative reflection on me and the people who also post here. I’m not inclined to censor people, but please stop with the slurs. Thanks.
Absolutely! Please realize I am from Texas where we still call an ace an ace. Although I am half Hispanic, that is the term we use. I realize things up north are not quite as black and white (no pun intended) as they are in the south, there is a gray area caused by pc, but this is your blog and I will abide by your request.
I was envisioning Mayberry/Mt Airy. when I was visiting my son and daughter in Slater Missouri when I was back there the last time,. I believe that’s pretty close in comparison.
Slater actually has ties to someone famous as well. It was the boyhood home of the “king of cool” Steve McQueen.
Slater has a police force of 5 (the chief and 4 paid ) and a all volunteer fire department. Also, Slater is small enough to have a full city garage sale every year..
The other thing in comparison is that Marshall is the next biggest city to Slater, but I guess there are other comparisons similar, but that’s one I can relate tool