Mayberry

We live in Mayberry.  You know, the place of the black and white show Andy Griffith?  (If you are reading this and you DON'T know, find an episode and watch it.  I'm not sure that either of my boys is quite Opie Taylor, but if we live here long enough, they might turn out to be.  This is not just my impression, several people in town think so too.  In fact, when we opened up our bank account, the woman helping me said "by the way, we ARE Mayberry around here.  We have coffee everyday and cookies on Fridays.  Feel free to stop in for either even if you don't have bank business."  I'm not kidding.  It's Mayberry.  We have seen this reflected in many ways in our first six weeks here. (Wow, yes it has been six weeks!)  Here are a few of my favorites.

Within days of the moving van unloading our boxes, we had neighbors rolling out the welcome mat.  One sweet couple (whom I've met once, but they know Papa and Lah-oo) sent a casserole within 24 hrs.  Our neighbors brought their whole family and banana bread muffins.  Our kids are now best buddies.  A lady across the street and bestie/neighbor are bringing dinner tomorrow, and insisting on throwing a party for us this fall so "everyone can meet" us.  My dad's neighbor brought us amazing cookies, and one of the women cooking for us tomorrow also had a yummy loaf of bread delivered to our mailbox. I'm pretty sure I've consumed more "welcome" calories than I've burned unloading boxes.

We live close enough to school, the post office, the vet, the bank, and recycling/garbage facilities that we walk to or by them often.  NB loves all things mail related, so he calls out every time he sees a mail truck or person.  Of course LO's world revolves around garbage and food.  Our garbage men look for the boys every Monday and Thursday and wait to "gobble" in our neighborhood so he can see it.  Last week the driver of the garbage truck was there when we stopped to drop off our recycling. There was also a four foot snake there that was dead but still writhing.  We watched the snake a bit and then the driver offered to let LO sit in his truck.  If you are a long time blog reader you know that LO has been lucky enough to have several civil servants and construction guys let him have pictures with their trucks.  We've never had a garbage man offer before though.  I should not have to tell you that it made his day!

The driver even gave LO this football flashlight that was in his truck!

Later that same day, LO and I had to go to the county courthouse to register one of our cars.  The courthouse, by the way, is not in Mayberry.  We walked through security and I explained to LO that he was safe if he didn't make the sensors beep.  Of course we didn't make them go off, but two men dressed in suits walked in right behind us, and one of them did.  He seemed to know this would happen, but no one stopped or rescanned him.  I made a lightheartedly passed on the comment I had made to LO to which the man replied "that's what my wife says too."  He then turned to LO and said "when you get home, tell your dad you met..." and I couldn't understand the rest.  LO then replied, "may-uhr, what's that?" The man smiled at him and said "I like to call him the boss, the big cheese." Then he walked away.  I assumed then that the man was some sort of security and the other man who was half way down the hall had been the mayor.  Google, however, later showed that the man who stopped to joke with LO was himself the mayor and former state senator.  It was such a sweet exchange that he might have won me over except that we aren't his constituents. For LO it was enough that a man had stopped in the middle of his day to notice and talk with him.

I mentioned that the bank here has coffee and cookies and welcomes us to stop by any time.  It is so convenient that we have been there probably more than any other single spot on the mountain since we've moved.  The bankers know our whole family by name and are so pleasant.  Yesterday I stopped by in the morning without the boys to drop something into our safe deposit box.  I joked that it might be the last of our daily visits as I thought we finally had everything in there that needed to be.  Yesterday afternoon, DH let me know he needed something out of the box.  I loaded the boys up in the jog stroller and walked them up there.  I arrived 15 minutes before closing and a banker opened the door for me, encouraged me to bring the boys and the stroller inside, then proceeded to ask my children about their day while I got what I needed.  I was in and out in no time, and she walked me to the door and opened it for us.  I cannot imagine another town where that might happen, only an earlier place in time. 

Lastly, I don't remember if Mayberry had a swimming hole.  I'm guessing it was the same one in which Opie used to fish.  Around here we have a land trust that is open to the public two weekends a month.  Our family made its first visit there this past weekend, and accidentally had our first family hike.  LO rode his bike about 3/4 of a mile to a small lake and waterfall while I toted a picnic and DH carried NB on his back.  After lunch, DH carried the picnic bag on his back, LO's bike in his hand, and the boys walked up a steep hill then through a grove before our trail crossed a creek.  The boys enjoyed playing in the creek water (their first creek play ever, but certainly not their last) then trudged the last 1/4 mile back to the car.  NB was one tired boy and was asleep in the car before we even made it out of the parking lot. We all made it home tired, dirty, sweaty, and ready to do it again soon.