Wonder whether Mount Airy is a great place to live, work and play? Read this fine article from Tallahassee.com. Learn more about Mount Airy and White Sulphur Springs on our web site, www.whitesulphurspringsnc.com.
The article written by Nancy Peavy follows:
As we drove back from vacation in Virginia, we decided to make a little detour to Mount Airy, North Carolina. Traveling on Interstate 77, we took exit 100 onto highway 98 and drove to Mount Airy. Camp and I along with our son Lewis, from California, and our Granddaughter Erin, from Tallahassee leisurely strolled along the quaint streets of this town.
The downtown of Mount Airy is composed of charming shops with antiques and souvenirs of the Andy Griffin Show. We stopped at the Main Oak Emporium for ice cream. One of the exciting sections of this building was a collection of Andy Griffin Memorabilia. This is the private collection of Emmett Forest. Mr. Forrest was a childhood friend and classmate of Andy Griffin. This collection includes records of Andy’s songs, humor records, and autographed pictures of Andy Griffin. One of the most interesting items is a suit worn by Otis, the town drunk in the Andy Griffin Show. There was also a suit worn by Griffin when he played Matlock.
Our son, Lewis, was impressed with the display of the words and music to the Andy Griffin theme song. The name of the song is “The Fishin Hole.” The lyrics were written by Everett Sloan while Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer wrote the music. Everett Sloan whistled the tune for the show.
Our next stop was Wally’s station. This station was actually built back in 1937 and is reminiscent of the old Wally’s Station. The price on the gas tank is 25.9 cents (sorry they did not have any gas for sale). If you have time, go in the station and have a cold drink and a moon pie. There is a vintage 1962 Ford Galaxy squad car ready to take you for an exciting ride around the town.
Just across the street is the re-created “Mayberry Courthouse.” This old building was Mount Airy’s jail for many years. Several years ago a new facility was built and this old building was moved to this location as a tribute to the Andy Griffin Show. The two jail ceils have the keys adjacent so you can let yourself out of the ceil when your sentence is over.
Andy’s desk has a plaque with “Sheriff” on one side and “Justice of the Peace” on the other. Andy served in both positions. There is a brick in the Court House dedicated to Ernest T. Bass. When Bass came to Mayberry his form of entertainment was to throw bricks through windows.
After spending several hours exploring this interesting little town, we bid a fond farewell and continued our drive back to Tallahassee.
