Nestled in the green hills and sweet pines of North Carolina, in mythic America where kindness is a virtue and decency the norm, lies a place called Mayberry. There is a barber shop where you can catch up on the latest gossip, a diner where the blue plate special is inexpensive and delicious, a gas station where they will pump your gas and clean your windows as a matter of courtesy, a five and dime for the fashion unconscious, and most importantly, the office of Sheriff Andy Taylor where justice prevails and common sense rules.

When conflict rears its horrid head, it is Andy Taylor who sallies forth with a good word and quiet courage to return Mayberry to its bucolic charm. Dynamite-eating goats, bank robbers on the run, fast-talking con men, and rain-making gypsies are no match for him. He is aided by Barney Fife who will take the bullet from his pocket in a New York minute if it becomes necessary to combat evil.

When adolescent angst and general perfidy invade Mayberry, Deputy Fife knows what to do.

Nip it.

Nip it in the bud.

It is a good town. Otis, the town drunk, has access to the jail keys. He is considerate enough to lock himself up when he gets his snoot full. When Otis' highbrow brother came to town, Sheriff Taylor made Otis a deputy to impress his brother and save him embarrassment. He did look proud in that clean, pressed uniform. wearing that shiny badge. Once, Otis saw fit to fill the water cooler in the Sheriff's office with corn liquor for convenience, causing some fuss, but that's another story.

Sheriff Taylor is enamored of Helen Crump, his son's teacher. He is a widower raising his son with the help of his Aunt Bea who keeps his house, cooks his meals, and keeps things on a steady keel. Miss Crump is a lady. On Sundays after church, she sits on the porch listening to Andy and Barney harmonize hymns to a flat-picked guitar while the smell of Aunt Bea's Sunday dinner wafts gently from the kitchen on the soft Carolina breeze.

There are no villains in Mayberry, only a few that lose their way now and again. People have their foibles. Floyd, the barber, is a little tight with a dollar. Gomer, the auto mechanic and filling station attendant, tends to misadventure from his innocence. Two party girls from Mt. Pilot, the big city up the highway, are too lonely for their own good. Somehow, it all works out for the best.

I can see Sheriff Taylor flash his sunny smile with that slightly mischievous glint in his eye, speaking in that soft, southern drawl, "Mayberry is a fine place, just a fine place."

And it is.