I decided to surprise some old friends and make several new ones by taking a road trip over the weeked to the "Mayberry in the Midwest" festival in Danville, IN. This is the first Mayberry event I have attended this century! My wife and I attended a dozen or so events back in the mid-1990s (and I came to one or two by myself), but as our twin boys reached school age, it just wasn't feasible for us to do much traveling. Now that both boys have graduated, I promise I won't be such a "stranger in town" from now on. Anyway, except for a bit of rain on Saturday (nobody did anything about the weather, and for that matter nobody even complained about it), the entire event was an absolute delight. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Mayberry fans are truly the finest people you will ever meet, anywhere. Everyone was very kind to my autistic son, Carson (now almost 22), who came with me. Those of you who have family members with disabilites know that the general public are sometimes not very patient with (and sometimes downright rude to) disabled people. Carson really had a blast meeting the tribute artists; it was like Disneyland for him. In his mind he was really in Mayberry, meeting the characters he has watched on TV all his life.
I'm sure at least a few of you are wondering if I won the trivia contest. They did have a trivia contest, but I chose not to enter. I just stood in the back and sort of played along in my head. It wasn't like the incredibly challenging Mayberry Days trivia contest, which I probably couldn't win nowadays. The questions were all pretty easy, such as "Who does Opie live with?" (Come on now, who could possibly miss that one?) and I don't know who wrote the questions, but some of the "correct" answers weren't correct. Still, everybody had a good time. Karen Knotts, who I met for the first time, did a wonderful program (not her usual "Tied Up in Knotts" show, but a different program), and she even brought her mother Kay (who of course was married to Don Knotts) with her. Rodney Dillard and the current version of the Dillard band (with special guest Maggie "Charlene" Peterson) were outstanding. But for me, what's even better than meeting the celebrities is meeting just regular folks who watch TAGS. To paraphase Mr. Harmon the movie producer, they're very nice people; genuine, natural, the salt of the Earth. Paul Mulik Paul Mulik _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
