Dashboards and Saddlebags the Destination Magazine™ Issue 025 April 2013 | Page 24

Film Junkies Guide to North Carolina
Mayberricana:
The Mayberry
Experience
Mount Airy is on U.S. 52 about 30
miles northwest of Winston-Salem.
For information, contact the Mount
Airy Visitor Center by calling 800-5760231 or 336-789-4636 or by visiting
www.visitmayberry.com.

Film junkies seeking a Mayberry
experience will find it in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains
in a town called Mount Airy. Actor
Andy Griffith was born and spent
most of his childhood here. In
a 2002 ceremony dedicating a
stretch of U.S. 52 Bypass as the
Andy Griffith Parkway, Griffith
publicly confirmed what had long
been rumor: Mount Airy was
indeed the inspiration for the idyllic
TV town of Mayberry. Thus, Mount
Airy finally staked its rightful
claim in the annals of small-town
Americana. Film junkies might call
it “Mayberricana.”

in My Pocket and Onionhead The
collection, owned by AG’s life long
friend Emmett Forrest, includes
clippings, costumes, scripts, stills,
and childhood furniture.

Just one block south is the
business district, where you can
get a sandwich at the Snappy
Lunch - an icecream sundae at
the Blue Bird Diner, located at 206
North Main Street, and a haircut
at Floyd’s City Barber Shop. You
can even take pictures of a jail
s
Your Mayberry experience should cell and a 1950 squad car at the
begin at the Mount Airy Visitor local jail, located at 215 City Hall
Center, at 615 North Main Street, Street. At every turn are souvenir
where the Andy Griffith Museum shops like Specialty Gifts, located
houses the world’s largest collec- at 140 North Main. Just a few
tion of memorabilia related to the blocks away at Mayberry Square
actor. Props and mementos trace are gems like Wally’s Service, a
Griffith’s television career from restored 1937 service station
Mayberry to “Matlock.” Predating where you can drink an RC Cola
his television days are school and munch on a Moon Pie. Film
annuals, photographs, and posters junkies can see a show at the Andy
from Broadway shows like No Time Griffith Playhouse and spend the
Continued 0n Page 34
for Sergeants and films like Angel

24 Dashboards and Saddlebags The Destination Magazine™