My wife and I had just a wonderful time on Sunday participating in a parade in a neighboring town of about 1000. It is a huge parade and attracts people from all over. What a wonderful Mayberry experience. Their local police officer had to come over and take some pictures of the squad car as did a local reporter for an area paper. He is going to do an article on us. Then a beautiful young 16 year old queen from another neighboring town asked if she could have her picture taken with me and the squad car. She was so sweet and so interested in Mayberry. ( no tattoos or piercings ) During the parade my wife drove and I walked along side interacting with the crowd, and mainly the kids. I would tell the kids that some lady had stolen my squad car and I was trying to catch her, and then I would pretend to be out of breath from chasing her so much. So many people would shout out "Hey Barney, where's your bullet?" and then they would applaud when I held it out. I demonstrated my "fast draw" to the kids but always ended up shooting the gun ( cap gun ) off just as I got it out of the holster. One large burly man ran up to the car and put his arms up against the car and told me to frisk him for weapons. So I obliged him while his family took pictures. The best part was when a beautiful little girl of about 8 years old ran up to me and put her arms around me and looked up at me and said, "I love America". Now that put a lump in my throat. When I see the laughter and fun people have with the Mayberry car it makes everything so worth while. So many smiles and laughs all because of our beloved Mayberry and everything it represents about what is good in this land of ours. Tomorrow I am doing a 45 minute presentation at one of our large nursing homes in town. I agreed to go to two more parades this summer so that makes nine we will be attending as well as another twelve car shows.
Thank you to those who have sent me cards to give to 102 year old Martha. I have eight so far and if anyone still wants to send me one to give her, there is still time as II won't be seeing her until June 19th. I know they will mean a great deal to her. That will be my next parade in my home town of Dorchester. That will be such a special parade. Last parade I was in back home was in 1958 when I walked in a Halloween parade as a 12 year old. "Everything is AOK in Mayberry." Ken Anderson Eau Claire's Mayberry Deputy 2906 May Street Eau Claire, WI 54701 715-839-8470 www.mayberryreflections.com [email protected] _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
