We finished our Virginia Commonwealth Tour   and headed into North Carolina.   First stop:   “America’s hometown.”   Or, well, that’s how it’s billed in Mount Airy, North Carolina.   This is the small town where Andy Griffith grew up.   This is the small town that inspired the Andy Griffith Show’s Mayberry.   Now while for the most part, we’ve raised our children without television.   We have, in recent years, allowed them to watch some episodes of the Andy Griffith Show, to their delight I might add.   So the stop in ‘Mayberry’ was going to be a big   thing for them.   Funny, crossing into the town limits, I actually think the kids thought the town was going to be in black and white.   (By the way, it isn’t.   Which, ok I’ll admit it, was a little disappointing even for me.)   Our first stop was Opie’s Candy Shop   downtown.   We got a half pound of mix and match chocolates for three bucks.   As with the black and white thing, you also always want Opie to remain, well, Opie.   But time inevitably marches on and Opie aka Ron Howard was recently featured on the cover of an AARP Magazine.   If that doesn’t burst your nostalgic bubble…   Anyway, it was a nice afternoon and a lot of tourists slowly meandered about the downtown taking in ‘everything Mayberry.’   I said to the candy store owner that I couldn’t help but think a lot of these people would really like the country to go back to Mayberry.   She agreed.   “It’s just getting from here to there,” I mused.   Note:   I just read an article about how “medical marijuana” is catching on in a good number of states.   What’s more, it’s questionable how much is really being prescribed for, say, pain; and how much of it is really being prescribed for: pleasure.   Does anyone actually think medical marijuana would fly in Mayberry?   that was an era when right from wrong seemed a lot more distinguishable.   Can I get an amen!   Or rather, can I get a shazaaam!     (My spell check is telling me that’s a misspelling.   But I’m pretty sure that’s how Gomer spelled it.)