So Long Andy

Tonight I cried. Balled my eyes out, actually when I heard the news that Andy Griffith had passed away. Oh sure, he was 86 and lived a long and propitious life, but I just wasn’t ready to let him go. He was the last of my boyhood role models. Along with the likes of Superman, John Wayne, BJ Honeycutt and a few other TV hero’s, he helped shape my life and the kind of many I have become. All those simple lessons he taught with that weekly thirty minutes helped me understand the value of family, honesty, decency, and of course, how to have a sense of humor in even the worst of times.

I often find myself feeling sorry for the generations that missed the influence of these figures. Oh sure, they get them in reruns, but somehow it just isn’t the same. So many of the trials and tribulations of Andy & Opey helped me understand what the right thing was and why it was the right thing. And “No Time for Sergeants” helped me understand some of the absurdity I ran indo when I was in the Army. Amazing how much and how often these characters mimic real life and how many important lessons they can teach us, even when we are exploding with laughter.

He proved that a person could escape being type cast, even thought we loved the type cast character and loved to see some of that basic wisdom of a small town sheriff come out in other characters. Andy said several times that Sheriff Taylor was a much better than we was; but I think he would have been hard pressed to show us much proof of that.

The world is going to be a little smaller place without Andy and we don’t seem to have found many suitable replacements for these small town hero’s. I can only hope that someday my own children will be able to look back and find one of their own hero’s that can measure up to Andy. Those are some mighty big shoes to fill; even if they were on a simple small town sheriff.