Dancing on Stone

I am an unabashed Andy Griffith fan. Somehow saying so makes me feel a little like it's my first night at the local meeting of some kind of twelve step program. Hello, my name is Gary and I watch The Andy Griffith Show…

Anyway, it was my fondness for the show that initiated the trip we took this past week. We drove nine hours from Indy to Mt. Airy, NC to attend the 50th annual Mayberry Days Festival in Andy Griffith's home town. I'm unashamed and I'm here to tell you I had a hell of a good time. We rolled into Mt. Airy on Wednesday evening just ahead of a thunderstorm and after we'd settled in, we took a late night walk around the town. I think I'll remember that walk for the rest of my life. Not because I saw the birthplace of one of my favorite television personalities (though I did) and not because I got to see the town that inspired much of the show (which I did) - it was something different, something internal that I'm not sure I can put down in words. All I can say is standing there under an umbrella on the deserted Main Street of Mt. Airy, NC felt special somewhere deep inside. Since this isn't a fandom blog, I'll leave it at that.

Thursday, September 23rd we went to a dance at Surry Arts Council's Blackmon Amphitheatre. The Band of Oz provided the music for the evening - disco inspired shag tunes that were passably executed and inspired a lot of enthusiasm from the crowd. The surface, though, was granite blocks - the same kind of blocks you see outside sporting areas emblazoned with purchased dedications (in memory of mama or something like that). Let me tell you, granite makes a great bathroom counter but it's nothing to dance on! Besides being really hard it's not particularly slick and no two blocks seem to be set on the same plane. The result is you can't shuffle your feet for fear of tripping. Add to that a crowd that's been buying bottles (yes bottles) of wine for about an hour and you get a real mosh pit. We didn't stay too long for fear of getting hammered and falling on unforgiving stone.

The up side was, as we were getting ready to depart on Friday we got to see ourselves on the local news channel's morning program. There we were, swinging it. Talk about something that'll make you self conscious! If Kelly or I manage to get a clip from the news station we'll air it here. That should show anyone they can dance!