Rubbing elbows with Mayberry Days stars, Part 2

Hello, kittens and dawgs! It’s been a week ago today that I met celebrities from the popular TV series, The Andy Griffith show. If you missed part 1, then I invite you to check it out here.

Watching life in the homespun setting of Mayberry, I grew up feeling much apart of each character, just as one of my next door neighbors. Their ability to reel the audience in with such belief stayed with me and I wondered what kind of people they were when not in front of the camera.

Who remembers sweet-as-apple-pie, Thelma Lou? That’s a stupid question. Of course, you remember her! The sweetheart who played Deputy Barney Fife’s girlfriend.

This is Betty Lynn and I’m here to tell you this, she IS ever bit as sweet as her Thelma Lou character.

Her face lit up with enthusiasm the second we greeted her. She was genuinely happy that we came to see her. She wasn’t pretentious in the least and SO sincere. Let me illustrate the sincerity of this woman. I extended my hand during the introduction, which she kindly accepted. “Oh  your hand is cold as ice,” she fretted. Not that I was freezing her, but because she was concerned I was too cold. She took DH’s almost at the same instant and commented on his hand being cold, too. What she did next surprised the socks off me! She touched both of our hands to her cheeks to warm them and just like that Thelma Lou became our mother for just a moment. This melted our hearts. How can she be so sweet? She took delight in speaking with us and we talked for several minutes with no hurry to move us on at all. This enduring experience alone makes us want to return to Mayberry Days, if nothing else to see Betty Lynn again.

We spoke with Margaret Kerry, the original model for Tinker Bell. DH commented, “Tinker Bell, you are a lot bigger than I thought you’d be.”  He’s so clever and quick to think of funny things to say. She laughed, “I think the rain may have shrunk me just a bit.“

Somewhere alone the way I recall learning that she modeled for the animated Walt Disney character. Do you see Tinker Bell in Margaret? I do, especially in the below photo.

On The Andy Griffith Show, she was Helen Scobey and appeared only on two episodes, but I remember her.

Margaret was a delight to chat with and we learned that she’s one busy lady! At 86 she puts me to shame with her energy and full schedule. I got dizzy just thinking about it all.

Next up, we stopped by to visit Ronnie Dapo a.k.a The Spoiled Kid on the show.

I teased Ronnie about being mean to that sweet Opie and he said he likes to think he was teaching him about the finer things.

While chatting with Ronnie we found out he currently lives in Colorado and is a Denver Broncos fan. We shared with him that we’ve followed Peyton Manning career even since he played at UT and that we’ve always liked the Broncos.

This feller definitely isn’t a spoiled kid and is actually a thoughtful person. He noticed we had a color print of one of the other stars and gave us a plastic sleeve to keep the autograph photo dry. He didn’t have to do that, but he did and that was a pretty nice thing to do.

Seeing Ronnie Schell, we dashed over to his table before another round of fans filed into the room. I know him best for his role on the Gomer Pyle show, as Duke Slater, but he appeared in a couple of episodes of The Andy Griffith show as the same character.

It was fun talking with Duke…I mean Ronnie. What can I say, his character personality shines through his real self! Here’s the dialogue between DH and Mr. Schell.

“How much for an autograph picture,” DH wanted to know.

With a sneaky grin, Schell said, “A hundred bucks.”

” Well…I’m gonna have to rethink that.” (We knew what it was, though)

“Nah, it’s only ten dollars,” he smiled.

DH handed him a Hamilton, “Here you go.”

Holding the new bill to the light, he said, “Are you sure this is a ten dollar bill?”

“Sure, it’s a ten dollar bill. I made it this morning!” DH said breaking into a laugh.

We talked a bit after Ronnie signed a photograph for us before we immortalized him digitally. It was swell getting to know him off-screen. Thanks, Duke for making time for us!

The last celeb we saw was Goober. Well…not exactly Goober, but the real son of Goober (George Lindsey). It could be, though.

Look how much he looks like his dad!

When we joined him at his table, he was talking to a woman with an autograph book who asked him to sign his name on the same page that held his dad’s signature. It sorta threw him emotionally for a bit. He turned to us and said, “Dad’s been gone for three years now and this (talking about seeing his dad’s handwriting) has me choked up. Please give me a moment.” Needless to say, that touched our hearts. Every child should feel exactly this way about their parents.

He said a few years back he found a box of his dad’s comedy, so he tried out in Los Angeles and bombed! People were like that’s not funny because his act had no profanity. He continued by saying, however when he uses the same material for Mayberry Days everyone loves it.

Hollywood, if you’re reading this then please note ~ cursing doesn’t make comedy funny. It’s the material that gets the laughs! What you call comedy is anything, but comedy. It’s routinely stupid, embarrassing stuff or a lot of swearing or both. Here’s a little advice to ya, go back to the old school of doing things and you’ll be winner!

George is a real likable feller. He seems like a down to earth kinda person and super easy to talk  to, too. It was a wonderful way to round off all-star photo and signing session with some childhood favorites.

This was our first year to attend this event and I’m telling you, we are pumped to do it again next year. Before you go I invite you to read blog buddy, Stephen’s poem (mid-way down the post) that was written about Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear) called Ode To A Barber.

Thanks for being apart of my day and be sure to swing by to dance with me on Monday’s Music Moves Me!

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